My father also happened to be an intellectual, as learned, literate, informed, and curious as anyone I have known. Unobtrusively and casually, he was my wise and gentle teacher.

In this remembrance, Tobin distinguishes formal intellectualism from performative display. Calling his father “an intellectual” but emphasizing that it was “unobtrusively and casually” expressed, he suggests a model of learning rooted in everyday life: curiosity, literacy, and informed attention to the world practiced without self-importance. The father’s influence is framed less as direct instruction than as a steady, humane mentorship—“wise and gentle”—that shapes the speaker’s values and habits of mind. The passage also implies that the deepest education often comes through intimate example: a parent’s quiet standards, conversation, and way of noticing, rather than through institutions or overt lessons.