Frederick James Kemmerling

Our beloved patriarch, Frederick James Kemmerling, passed away on March 25, 2019, at age 93, in Boulder, Colorado. Fred was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 7, 1925, son of Frederick Tobias Kemmerling and Alice Benson Kemmerling. He was raised in Kansas City with his older brother Richard, and attended Manual High & Vocational School, where he studied electronics.

Fred enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, against the fervent advice of his brother Richard, who had previously joined the USMC, and who died at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, in July 1943 (accidental death, two months after the Allied victory at Guadalcanal that turned the tide in the Pacific War). Fred worked on early radar technology during his service, and was stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Salerno Bay.

Fred’s mother, father and grandmother Ella Benson migrated to Southern California during the war, and he helped them build a duplex home on Foothill Blvd (US Route 66) in Arcadia at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in the late 1940s. Fred attended John Muir College in Pasadena on the GI Bill, where he first met two lifelong friends on a 4-man engineering surveying team: Bud Wallace and Bob Woolery. Bud introduced Fred and Bob to his two sisters, Mary Ellen and Ruth, who later on became their respective lifetime loves and marriage partners.

Fred studied engineering at UC Berkeley, and in the early 1950s began his career with Aerojet-General at their headquarters in Azusa, California. Aerojet-General was the largest producer of rocket engines for US aerospace and defense programs, developing rockets for the NASA space program as well as for military weapons. Fred was a member of the team that worked on a key project for Aerojet: the development of infrared detectors for defense satellites, used to detect ICBM launches from space (at geosynchronous orbit 22,236 miles above the Earth’s surface).

In 1953 Fred and Mary moved from Pasadena to West Covina, a new Los Angeles suburb in the San Gabriel Valley that was formerly vast acres of orange groves. There they established a home and grew a family, living a 1960s California version of the American Dream, complete with palm trees, swimming pool, pets and automobiles, during a post-War period of prosperity. Fred and Mary were a strikingly good-looking couple, with a lively brood and a home that was a welcoming refuge to their friends.

In late 1972 Fred and Mary bought a house in Boulder, Colorado, when Fred transferred to work in Denver at the USAF Space Command HQ at Buckley Air Force Base as a supervising satellite engineer for the Early Warning System. Family members, including two horses, subsequently migrated to the Boulder area, and established the family home in a rural scenic paradise. Fred often remarked on his good fortune to find such a beautiful place.

In 1981 Aerojet offered Fred another opportunity to transfer – to the satellite tracking station at the Joint Defense Facility in Woomera, Australia (named “Nurrungar”, an aboriginal term for “listen”) located in the middle of the South Australian desert. Fred and Mary moved to Woomera for eight years, with the benefit of yearly home visits that included world travel itineraries. Fred retired in November 1989, as the Berlin Wall fell, signaling the end of the Cold War, which had sustained our family and much of the state economy for over three decades.

After a dedicated, rewarding and successful marriage of over 40 years, Fred’s beloved and adored wife Mary passed away in March 1993. Fred maintained an active and productive life at the family home for another 25 years, until relatively recently. His 90th birthday celebration in October 2015 was the ultimate party of a lifetime, with friends and relations traveling from near and far to show him how much he was honored, loved and appreciated.

Fred Kemmerling will be long-remembered for his warm, beautiful smile and his sparkling blue eyes, his disarming friendliness to friends and strangers alike, his years of hard work and dedication to his family, his kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity. Fred was a superlative male role model, and among the very last of his generation, “the Greatest Generation”.

Fred was preceded in death by his wife Mary in 1993, and by son Mark Kemmerling in 2014. He is survived by daughter Kathleen Kemmerling, sons Jim Kemmerling (Sue Stapleton) and Ken Kemmerling (Ann Marie Ziomek), and daughter Merrily Whalen; granddaughters Raquel Speers Floyd (Jimmy Floyd), Amanda Propst, Sarah Kemmerling (Michael Covey) and Zoe Kemmerling; grandsons Nathan Propst, Matthew Propst and Kai Kemmerling; and great-grandchildren Sophie Shohet, Ethan Shohet, Ryder Covey and Paxton Covey. Fred is also survived by his loving companion of over 20 years, Marilyn Hoye.

The family would like to express gratitude to Dad’s devoted, loving caregivers of recent years: Jim Kemmerling & Sue Stapleton, Julie Lavington, Matthew Propst and Jade Lindeberg. Also to the staff and fellow residents at MorningStar Assisted Living & Memory Care in Boulder, where he made many new friends over the past eight months, providing an outlet for his social nature and lighting up their lives with his smile (when he wasn’t getting into trouble). Many thanks also to the staff of Encompass Hospice for guiding us all through this transition.

A memorial Celebration of Life will be scheduled for later in the Summer.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Wild Animal Sanctuary www.WildAnimalSanctuary.org or to the charity of your choice.