Sonora Smart Dodd came up with the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. She wanted a way to honor her father William Smart, who had raised her and her five siblings by himself after his wife died during childbirth. Dodd approached her minister about holding a church service in William's honor on his birthday in June, which later became an annual celebration on the third Sunday of June. Father's Day was officially recognized as a national holiday in the US in 1972 when President Nixon signed it into law.