From 50,000 feet you can embrace a wondrous sense of awe as you peer down upon the world. Lt. Col. Dan Rooney can attest, as he has had countless opportunities inside his F-16 as an Air Force fighter pilot.
But perhaps more impactfully, Lt. Col. Rooney with both feet on the ground is even more encompassing of the world around him. It is perhaps less awe-inspiring up close and personal when you can see the pain in people’s eyes after a loved one is killed, or you hear the hopelessness in their voices when they try to figure out how they’ll move on, yet that is the glory of Lt. Col. Rooney.
He not only believes it is a beautiful thing to try and help people, but 15 years ago he made it his mission in life.
The journey has been nothing short of masterful.
“I’ve met so many interesting people on this walk,” he said. “We’re bringing light into some very dark places.”
String them end-to-end, all the military honors achieved with three combat tours of Iraq, all the Top Gun plaudits, all the distinguished service commendations by various groups, all the medals and citations, and you’d have the fabric of a veritable American hero.
Only there is more, much more, because Folds of Honor, a military foundation that was the brainchild of Lt. Col. Rooney in 2007, continues to be an incomparable tribute to the human spirit. With nearly 9,000 educational scholarship awarded for 2022-23, the numbers are staggering: Since ’07, Folds of Honor has presented nearly 44,000 scholarships valued at nearly $200 million.
Digest those numbers. Then appreciate where the fighter pilot’s humble motivation was rooted – as he watched the remains of a brother-in-arms, Corporal Brock Bucklin, carried from a return flight from Iraq in 2007 he thought how throughout the Bible “there was talk of helping widows and orphans . . . and I knew there had to be a way to honor families who had paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
From an office above his garage in Broken Arrow, Okla., Lt. Col. Rooney imagined Folds of Honor with a relentlessness that defines him.
“I’ve heard Dan described as being a ‘force of nature’ and it’s really the perfect way to capture him. A force for good,” said former Golfweek Editor and Publisher Jeff Babineau. “He has boundless energy and enthusiasm and passion for what he is doing, for this calling he has answered in his life.”
And make no mistake, Lt. Col. Rooney said, this is a calling.
“I was the broken guy,” he said. “God tapped my shoulder and said, ‘Let’s go.’ ”
But to take Folds of Honor in a meteoric direction, Lt. Col. Rooney needed a conduit to help raise funds and he picked a natural vehicle. Golf. The game, after all, was a serious passion, one that had been ignited years earlier when he spent a few summers in Scotland with his parents.
So smitten with the game was he at age 12, that young Dan Rooney told his father that he wanted to be a jet pilot and a golf pro.
He played at the University of Kansas and became a PGA Professional after earning a Master’s degree in 1996. Not that he gave his other passion a back seat, because Lt. Col. Rooney is 22 years into a military career “with no end in sight” and he’s been promoted to be an ambassador of recruitment for the Air Force.
We are a self-serving group, sometimes. We consider multi-tasking to be when we talk on a cell phone, order on-line with our laptop, and pop dinner into the microwave. So, feel free to be in awe of a man who commands a piece of machinery that flies 1,000 mph; who has put his life on the line for country; who is proud of his Christian faith, his wife, and his five daughters; and who didn’t say no when he got that tap on the shoulder.
Instead, he formed a coalition of friends, colleagues, corporate help, and those within the golf industry to get Fold of Honors off the ground.
The first Patriot Golf Day, a collaboration with the PGA of America and the USGA, was in 2007 and now it’s an annual staple across the country. The home club for Folds of Honor, Patriot Golf Club, is in Owasso, Okla. Last year, a second course, American Dunes in Grand Haven, Mich., opened. Designed by Jack Nicklaus, who waived his $3m fee, the course donates your greens fee to Folds of Honor.
To say that Folds of Honor is built upon faith in God and belief in golf is an understatement.
“This game (of golf) is like a church,” said Lt. Col. Rooney. “It’s just a different congregation. There’s a spirt connected to the game, a spirit connected to the people. (With golf) there’s a little bit of the spirituality that God gave us. It gives us the power to do good.”
The good continues to overwhelm, with approximately $40m donated to scholarship recipients in 2022-23 alone. Babineau remembers meeting Lt. Col. Rooney in 2007, when “he could tape pictures of all the recipients on his refrigerator.”
Now? Lt. Col. Rooney would need an entire warehouse of refrigerators.
But as there always seems to be with Lt. Col. Rooney, there is more.
“He continues to change lives, one by one. A true American patriot. He’s a beacon of positivity. (To him) each day is an unopened gift,” said Babineau, reacting to news that Folds of Honor had used the anniversary of 9-11 to announce that its mission will be expanded to include America’s first responders, including police, fire, EMTs, and paramedics.
Noting how Americans stood in solidarity in the aftermath of that fateful day, Lt. Col. Rooney said, “it is our hope that the expanded Folds of Honor mission will inspire unity once again.”
Golf, he is convinced, will continue to galvanize the mission. “I grew up around the game and its power to do good is inspiring,” said Lt. Col. Rooney. “The game is full of amazing people. The greatest game on earth.”
Amen to that. Oh, and perhaps a salute to this hero among us.
