Samuel Fricke Jr.

Samuel Fricke Jr. passed away peacefully on Sunday, February 22, 2026 in Ontario, California. He was surrounded by his family, and died of natural causes at the age of 89, which was in his ninetieth year of life. Sam was born in Greenburg, Kansas, on August 11, 1936, in the geographic and temporal middle of the Dust Bowl on the Great Plains. He was born to Minister Samuel Litwiller Fricke and Katherine Bechtel (Mininger) Fricke. He was the ninth child born to his parents, yet he was the first son. He was very proud to tell everyone he met that he had eight older sisters, and two younger brothers. He was born at home on the family farm, located about one mile to the southwest of town. The house miraculously survived the great tornado of 2007, which destroyed Greensburg. His first memories of childhood were of playing with his 10 siblings around the house, his mother’s cooking, and his dad taking him to visit the Big Well.

Sam and his family moved to Cimarron, Kansas in 1944. He attended public schools in Cimarron, and lived on a farm southeast of town. Tragedy struck his family when his father died of illness in 1947 and his brother Bobby was killed in a traffic accident in 1951. Sam attended Cimarron High School, and was a star football and basketball player for the Blue Jays. He graduated in the Class of 1956, and was recruited to play football at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he studied history and played football for two years. During a school holiday, he went back to Western Kansas to visit his family. While being set up on a double date in Dodge City, he met the love of his life, and his wife of 67 years, Sandra (Sandy) Carmichael. Sam and Sandy were married in Emporia, Kansas, on May 25, 1959, two weeks after Sandy’s graduation from Emporia State University with a degree in Elementary Education.

After getting married, Sam decided he had enough of playing football, and decided to enlist in the United States Army 82nd Airborne Division. He was stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, while Sandy remained with her parents in Kansas to give birth to their daughter, Linda. Sandy and Linda soon followed to Ft. Bragg, where the three lived as a family until Sam’s Honorable Discharge from the Army. He decided to return to Kansas, where he enrolled at Wichita State University to complete his Bachelor’s Degree in Education in 1964. At the time of receiving his Master's Degree in Education from Wichita State in 1965, he and Sandy signed contracts to be teachers with the Ontario-Montclair School District, and drove Route 66 to their new home in California.

Sam’s first teaching assignment was at De Anza Junior High School, where he taught until 1980. He taught various subjects, with a focus on social studies, but also English and the student government class, and he also served as the faculty advisor for many student clubs. He would take his student government class on annual field trips to Magic Mountain, and his children Linda and Marty have many fond memories of going along. He made many lifelong friends as a teacher at De Anza.

Sam’s life changed again when his son Marty was born. The same year, he decided to build a vacation home, and selected the beautiful mountain community of Prospect, Oregon. He cleared three acres of land by hand, and built a two story ranch house, along with clearing another pasture outside of town for his cattle herd. The family celebrated many sunny summers and snowy winters in Prospect, and there made many friends and memories for life.

Sam ventured briefly into the cattle and dairy business for a short while in the early 1980’s, but decided that he preferred teaching to ranching. He transferred from De Anza to Vernon Junior High in Montclair, where he taught for five years, and his son Marty was one of his students. When an opportunity came up to teach at a school close to Sandy’s elementary school, he decided to move to Imperial Junior High (now named Ray Wiltsey Junior High), where he was a teacher from 1985 until his retirement in 2005. He served a distinguished career of 40 years as a junior high school teacher with the Ontario-Montclair School District.

Sam’s retirement was filled with family, travel, and maintaining a second home in Santa Maria, CA. He thoroughly enjoyed showing visitors around the Central Coast. He loved driving around and identifying the various crops growing in the fields, visiting the various sights and attractions, and relaxing in the mild climate of the Central Coast. He was a member of St. Louis Montfort Catholic Church in Orcutt. He was also a proud member of the Santa Maria Elks Lodge, and always enjoyed attending the world-famous Friday evening cook your own steak dinners at the lodge. He cherished his time and memories in Santa Maria, but his declining eyesight did not allow him to drive there for the last two years of his life.

In Sam’s last few years, he suffered from declining mobility and the loss of his vision, yet his mind remained sharp. He enjoyed going daily to the Ontario senior center, where Sandy would exercise and he would walk around and talk with everyone, and he also attended Mass weekly at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Chino. He cherished phone calls with family and friends all across the country, and was relatively healthy up until the last week of his life. Sam passed away peacefully at Kaiser Hospital Ontario, surrounded by his family. He is preceded in death by his parents, and eight of his siblings. He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and two of his sisters.

Services for Sam will be as follows: Monday, March 9: Rosary at 4:30 PM, followed by a Vigil and viewing from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Draper Mortuary, 811 N. Mountain Ave., Ontario, CA. Tuesday, March 10: Funeral Mass at 10:00 AM at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, 12686 Central Ave., Chino, CA. After the Mass, there will be a procession to Bellevue Memorial Park, 1240 W. “G” St. in Ontario, for burial at 11:30 AM. A reception with lunch will be provided starting at 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM at Draper Mortuary in Ontario.