Born: May 20, 1924 in Pittsfield, MA
University of Kansas – Wichita – 1954 – BA
After completing high school in 1942, Fred joined the United States Navy. He was assigned to the Torpedo Boat Squadrons serving in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Specifically he served eighteen months on PT 176, then on the USS Meredith until the end of 1946 when he was separated from service. After his marriage, Fred worked for General Electric in Wichita and attended the University of Kansas. He was recalled to the Navy with the outbreak of the Korean War and stationed in San Francisco. Having been released from service, he was selected by the US Air Force as a civilian employee assigned to the Missile/Space Depot in San Bernardino, California. He eventually became Division Head at the Naval Ship Weapons Systems Engineering Station at Port Hueneme.
Fred’s sons ran for Buena HS and Ventura College and a teammate dared him to run with them. Thus on a dare in the early seventies at the age of fifty, Fred began his extraordinary running career. He joined “The Sunday Brunch” — a group of twenty or so runners who met each Sunday at Arroyo Verde Park to run up into the hills. His hobby blossomed. Fred set a new age group record for fifty miles, records for the Marathon, the Ultra Marathon and even ultra-distance races. He set records at twenty five, thirty and fifty kilometers. At twenty, one hundred and three hundred and twenty-five miles.
In 1985 he was “Team Inside Runner of the Year”. Along the way he coached the Tigres Youth Running team and he and his wife Mona, became Charter members of Inside Track Running Club working countless hours at their Meets. Fred has become a dominant force in Ventura County for thirty years. He and Mona recently celebrated their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. They have four children — Laura, Chris, Nina and Richard — five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.