Father of My Soul

About the Book

In this true story, Nicholas Skeby, at age four, witnessed the murder of his two siblings in Poland in 1901. The family fled across the border into Russia. Working in a Russian factory, Nicholas was injured. The government paid compensation and Nic took the money and made his way to America. He grew up in poverty in the Lower east Side of New York. Uneducated in Russia, Nic sped his way through school and graduated early with honors. He had a secure job with a fine future and excellent salary. Nic had realized the classical American’s dream.

However, everyone overlooked that fact that Nic was tragically overshadowed by the image of his sibling’s murder. Little by little, the memory of a helpless child who endured such violence was to leave him with irreparable scars.

Nic married Ray Toby and had a baby boy named Ira. Nic had trouble with the immigration authorities and to avoid legal difficulties, Ray divorced him. She remarried Sidney John Cochin who agreed to be Ira’s stepfather, but Ira was never told about his real father.

Ira grew up in poverty and served in the army during WWII. When the war was over, Ira was 21 and learned that Sidney John was not his real father. By then his mother had totally lost contact with Ira’s real father. Ira then conducted a comprehensive search that took 16 years, and he finally found his real father. Ira wondered why his real father never came looking for him.

Ira did find out. His father was a heavy drinker. His drinking problem developed slowly but surely as Nic tried to drown his psychological terror in alcohol. In spite of this Ira found his father to be a conscientious, and caring individual. Ira’s father had remarried. His wife, Molly was a caring and capable individual who loved Nic. And when she met Ira, she took him to her heart. Ira had found a home with two loving parents.

The father and son were alike in many ways and worked together on many projects. They got to know each other very well, each being delightfully amazed with the other’s accomplishments. It seemed as if the Skeby-Cochin team could accomplish anything. The fact that Ira grew up without knowing or contacting his father had vanished into the wind. A strong father-son bond developed in the meantime.

Unfortunately, the wonderful relation that developed between a father and son was severely tested. Nic’s drinking problem became very serious and stood as a roadblock, dragging them apart. Nic sensed that the presence of his son on the scene presented a threat to his need to drink. Nic was ready to abandon his son, for he’d rather be alone and unchallenged in his habit. On the one hand, Ira felt that his father’s drinking problem had severely limited the man’s potential. On the other hand, a man who was a problem drinker was bound to eventually lose his wife and child. Was there any way they could learn to help one another? Could the natural love of a father and son be strong enough to overcome the obstacles in their lives?

About the Author

Ira Cochin worked as an engineer for 15 years in industry for such companies as Kearfott, and Bendix. Then he was a professor for 36 years at New Jersey Institute of Technology. During his professorship, Ira became blind and then deaf. He went for training at the Helen Keller Center for the Deaf-Blind. He became the world’s first deaf-blind professor to teach engineering. His accomplishments appeared in the New Jersey Supplement of the Sunday New York Times in December 18, 1977. Ira Cochin has written eleven novels, two technical books, and dozens of articles in various trade journals.