Who is Anne's Father from Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith and what is their importance?

Anne's father dies when he is in his mid-fifties though it will be twenty years before Anne fully acknowledges his death. He is rather erratic when Anne is a child and berates her for a B-minus. As he puts it, how much more difficult would it be to make an A? Anne admits she spends most of her adult life trying to make men fit into her father's mold and that it has not ever worked.