Deceased April 24, 2022
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In Memory
Fred was a mensch by the time he arrived at Amherst. A football standout at Wellesley High, he was charismatic (Gronk, before we knew about Gronk), tall, commanding the room with grace and understatement. Perhaps more remarkable was his penchant for inclusion. Friendships and roommates included linebacker Russ “No Fun” Jones ’67 and oboist (and Cervantes scholar) Bill Clamurro ’67. It was as if Fred had gotten the DEI memo a generation early. He was a tight end on historically notable Ostendarp teams, including the undefeated/untied squad of 1965. A terrific player but an even better teammate, he did his job consistently well but also supported the rest of us who were less gifted. In his senior year, he added his rich bass to Bruce McInnes’s Glee Club. One of us had the pleasure of going on tour with Fred and the club, and we shared the magic of a darkened Notre-Dame de Paris, rehearsing a Josquin mass for Sunday services.
This gifted, complex man could also be chill. He nursed a surfer dude sensibility and brought to college a classic beach-going “Woodie.” Lacking the means to restore the old wreck, he watched as entropy overtook it in the parking lot behind Theta Delta Chi. Sic transit…
If Fred embodied the best of Amherst, his postgraduate life demonstrated his ability to translate this into love and work (Sigmund Freud’s yardsticks for a life of consequence). He married a soulmate in Robin and had two lovely daughters, Inger and Kimberly, of whom he was enormously proud. After earning an MBA, he enjoyed gratifying success in the corporate world. His self-effacing charm was a fixture at Amherst reunions. We cherish his presence in our lives, which will be poorer without him.
Dick Spies ’67, Irv Gordon ’67, Robin Lofgren and George McNeil ’67