Gardner finds 'happyness' in being a father

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — Although he emerged from poverty to find financial success, and boasts a life story that inspired a best-selling autobiography and blockbuster movie, guest lecturer Christopher Gardner said his greatest pride is breaking the cycle his own absentee father began when he was a child.

Christopher Gardner

"Becoming a parent, for me, was the most important, precious and loving thing I've ever been a part of in my life," Mr. Gardner, real-life inspiration behind The Pursuit of Happyness, told Hawaiian Eye 2008 attendees here. "I made a decision at 5 years old. ... I promised myself: 'When I grow up and I become a man and I have children, my children are going to know who their father is.'"

After his wife left him with an infant son, Mr. Gardner continued to struggle as an ambitious stockbroker trainee, even though he was left homeless and penniless. All the while, he kept his son beside him, fiercely determined that his son would always know who his father was.

"I didn't know where the next day was taking us. I didn't know where the next meal was coming from. But I knew this: we were going to be together," he said.

After a year of living hand-to-mouth, sleeping in train station bathrooms, airports and even under his desk, Mr. Gardner and his son finally were able to move into a home, thanks to a kind-hearted landlord. Their circumstances seemed to be improving until a tardy utility payment caused their electricity to be shut off.

"This was the first time I began to doubt myself. I'm washing my baby by candlelight," Mr. Gardner said. "My son, 2 years old, picks up on [my self-doubt], stands up in the bathtub and says the most important thing he's ever said in his life. He says, 'Papa, you know what? You a good papa.' That was all I needed."

The second most important thing his now 26-year-old son said came just recently, in the wake of the fame that accompanied the novel and movie, starring Will Smith.

"It was on [the Oprah Winfrey Show], when ... she asked him, 'What do you remember about this time in your life?' What he said made my soul smile," Mr. Gardner said. "What he said was, 'All I remember is every time I looked up, my father was there. That's all I remember.'"