My Dad was one of those guys that could not express his feelings for his children too (except with my Sister to a degree). I never heard I love you from him or never had a hug from him. But he did show it in different ways and I never doubted he loved us.
I had been living in Texas for three years when he died, so I hadn't seen him in that time. When my Brother and I went to clean out his apartment we walked into what was almost like a shrine to us kids. A huge wall of pictures of us (very uncharacteristic for him). While we were cleaning and packing his neighbor came over. He started talking about how fun my Dad was (also very uncharacteristic). He never made friends easily outside of the family, but this guy was telling us that he was the one who organised all the parties in the building. Very strange. He also told us how proud he was of all of his kids, and that he would tell stories about us for hours. It made me happy and sad at the same time.