Who is credited with founding the modern Father’s Day movement in the United States?

Sonora Smart Dodd is credited with founding the modern Father’s Day movement in the United States.

Dodd proposed a day honoring fathers after hearing a 1909 sermon about Mother’s Day. She wanted fathers to receive comparable recognition, especially her own father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran who raised six children after his wife died.

Her campaign began in Spokane, Washington, where local religious and civic leaders supported a special observance. The idea gradually spread beyond the city, although it took decades to gain official national recognition. Father’s Day was initially promoted through local celebrations rather than through a single nationwide law.

Dodd is sometimes confused with Grace Golden Clayton, who organized an earlier 1908 memorial service for fathers killed in a West Virginia mining disaster. Clayton’s event was important, but Dodd’s sustained campaign is usually credited with creating the modern holiday movement.