Anecdotal description

An easy way of getting beyond "police blotter descriptions" of people (height, weight, color of eyes, color of hair) is to think of an incident or episode in their life that shows the reader what your character is really like.
Years ago, I traveled by bus to Illinois to visit my aging father, a widower, whose days were numbered because of ill health. In order to make my travel connections to go home, I would have to leave my father's home at 4 a.m. on departure day. So I told my Dad, "Let's say our good-byes the night before. That way, you won't have to get up that early in the morning." And that's what we did. The next morning, as I arose and moved silently from a bedroom to the living room to the front door, being careful not to wake him, I noticed a light on in the kitchen. When I went to investigate, there was my father, with an English muffin on a plate which he handed to me. "I couldn't let you go on an empty stomach," he said. That was my father! (That's also the last conversation I had with him.)
Each of you may picture him in a different way, but you know him a little better by what you just read.
Anecdotes don't need to be sentimental. Sometimes they can be blunt and unnerving, just like the people they describe. President Lyndon Johnson was so overpowering with people he dealt with that he sometimes enjoyed making them feel uncomfortable. One time when he was Senate Majority Leader, he stood in the Senate parking lot, discussing a bill with other senators. As they talked, he unzipped his pants and urinated, never missing a beat in the conversation. He wanted to be the center of attention, and he was.