Fred M. Mokry

He was born to parents Frank Joseph Mokry and Marcelina Agnes Rozypal in Sinton, Texas. He grew up on his parent’s farm, developing a love of the outdoors, and learning to repair anything and everything. Besides driving the tractor, Fred worked at a cotton gin, starting as a yard boy and moving up to operating the cotton press. His natural talent for fixing things led him to a job with the Dr. Pepper company, where he repaired vending machines.

He married Rose Marie Huser in 1958 and they welcomed their daughter Phyllis Marie in 1959. Rose sadly passed away the next year, and he and Phyllis moved to Fred’s parents’ farm.

Fred had planned for a future in electronics repair, until a friend dared him to take a college entry exam with him. To his surprise, he passed, and enrolled in Southwest Texas State College (now Texas State U.) in 1961 where he earned bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Physics. This started him on his lifelong love of teaching. He taught 5 years at Miller High School in Corpus Christi, while pursuing a Master’s degree in Mathematics at Texas A&I (now Texas A&M - Kingsville).

In 1971, Fred moved to Austin and served for 32 years as a mathematics teacher at Westlake High School. He was interested in computers, and so took classes during the summer at UT to receive a certificate in Computer Science. In 1982, Fred started the computer science program at Westlake with a Monroe programmable calculator, then punch cards, then 3 dummy terminals connected to UT with a modem, and finally IBM machines. He taught students to program in languages beginning with Fortran, then Basic, Pascal, C++, and finally ending with Java. He took students to regional and state contests, winning state titles. He received the Golden Apple award given by students for outstanding teaching, and in 2003, Fred was honored as High School Teacher of the Year.

Fred was introduced to his wife of 54 years, Patricia Mae Raesener, by his sister, Cecile. They married June 5, 1971, and in 1976, they were blessed with their daughter Carole Michelle, and two years later with their son Michael Anthony. Fred was never happier than when his family welcomed new babies, which grew to include 6 grandkids, and then 7 great-grandchildren.

Outside the classroom, Fred had many interests and hobbies. He found joy in gardening, a poker game with friends, bird hunting and the simple peace of being outdoors. He exercised his building interests by building gardens, rock walls, decks and patios, and a two-story guest house. Travel brought Fred great happiness. He and Pat spent many of their years of marriage hiking in New Mexico, Colorado and California, traveling to Europe, visiting the places where ancestors had been born, and filling their home and lives with love and support.