In what ways does Meridian's father's influence, both before and after his death, affect her dream to become an ornithologist??

From a young age, Meridian has a dream, a driving desire to become an ornithologist. Her dream—involving the study of hard science—is unusual for a girl of her time. In what ways does her father's influence, both before and after his death, affect her dream?

Meridian's father was a man who drilled facts, not fiction or feelings, into her mind which may have led to her study "hard science" which is fact based. He also supported her by giving her a fact based book (The Burgess Bird Book for Children) on the subject she loved the most.
Later in life after her father's death, Meridian was faced with the fact that she would have to "make do" because of lack of bird banding equipment to track individual birds. I'm sure she must have reflected on the way her father was realistic in his views of life's ups and downs and how to deal with them.

She made do with her education, living in Los Alamos, and her marriage.Her father reflected many opinions in the late 30s after the depression, you made do.

Her father instilled truth and hard facts into Meridian and as a result she embraced science.

We don't know much about her father, but the fact that he gave her a serious bird book shows that he recognized that she was smart and capable. His wife was a "housewife" of the time and in his way he wad encouraging hid daughter to go further.

I admired Meridian's father for the way he encouraged her mind to grow, to question, to learn. Their mealtime discussions reminded me of my own father. Every evening at supper he would ask what I had learned that day at school. Then he proceed to ask me questions about this or that *fact* that I had repeated by rote. In his way he was encouraging me to fully grasp -- or challenge -- the meaningless memorizations we must learn in elementary school. I learned critical thinking at those dinner tables. Both a blessing and a curse I grew into a student in high school and college that openly challenged teachers that expected a classroom of sponges. In many cases I was not their favorite. I guess I was pretty brash in expecting that I deserved a Socratic education.

Her father was a fact, black and white, man of his era. His support of her interest in birds as young girl certainly influenced her decision to become a scientist. However, I think it was also his plain and simple, black and white view of the world that lead her to be a 'hobbiest' rather than a scientist as an adult; deciding it was 'ok' to settle with her husband and discontinue her studies. She kept her passion, but gave up her dream.