Dad does juggling act

Lindsay Sandham

What does it take to be a great father?

Corona del Mar’s Greg Dillion isn’t exactly sure. It just seems to

come naturally for him.

Dillion, a father of five, was one of four Orange County men

recently honored as Father of the Year by the American Diabetes Assn.

Father of the Year Council.

“I think Greg was really touched,” said Cindy Dillion, Greg

Dillion’s wife. “Greg is a great dad and deserves it.”

Although fatherhood is natural for him, Greg Dillion said that

with five children and a successful law firm he helped build from the

ground up, life is a constant juggling act.

“I give up a lot of sleep to be able to do all this,” he said. “We

try to do a lot of stuff as a family, but you also want to spend

individual time with each child when you can. That’s probably the

hardest thing, getting the one-on-one time.”

Greg Dillion said that because having dinners together and

spending time with the family on weekends is getting harder and

harder as the kids get older, one thing that’s become very important

to them is family vacation.

He said they take two vacations a year, and the kids have traveled

to such places as Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Europe and Costa

Rica.

“I want my children to expand their horizons beyond the United

States,” Greg Dillion said. “I believe in the smorgasbord approach to

life ... That’s what I try to do for my kids. I try to expose them to

as much as I can.”

An active surfer and snowboarder himself, he said that while his

wife is the nurturing one, he is the fun guy.

“He always makes things fun,” Cindy Dillion said. “He makes

everyone feel very special.”

Although he never planned on having such a large family, Greg

Dillion said he loves being a father. After having three boys --

Blake, 20; Ross, 18; and Colton, 15 -- Cindy and Greg Dillion decided

to go for a fourth.

As luck would have it, the fourth turned out to be twins -- a boy

and a girl, 12-year- olds Jason and Jordan.

“Having twins was a good way to punctuate the end of our

child-bearing years,” he said. “What Cindy and I both decided was:

‘Thank God we had the twins last and not first.’ Having already gone

through it three times, it didn’t seem as daunting as I think it

would have been had they come first ... It’s [also] allowed me really

to see the difference between boys and girls.”

All five of the Dillion children have turned out well, Greg

Dillion said, and he has high expectations for all of them.

“What’s important to me is they all find something they have a

passion about, whatever that may be, and that they follow that

passion,” he said. “One of the nice things about having five children

is you don’t have to heap all of your wants, desires and expectations

on any one, because they all fulfill your hopes and desires in

different ways.”

Karen Holphe, market manager for the Orange County Father of the

Year Council, said they made a video for each of the four honorees.

Each video -- home videos and photos and a collection of

interviews with the family -- was shown at the awards presentation.

“I sat in on all their video- tapings and he is an incredible

father,” Holphe said. “Hearing all his kids talk about him ... I

don’t know how he does it. He is definitely an inspiration to anybody

who meets him.”