Fred Nelson

Major Nelson served with the Corps of Engineers in the Pacific during World War II. He commanded one of the first racially integrated units in the U.S. Army, and he was decorated for his innovative design of sanitary facilities for prisoner of war camps in Korea.

Fred Nelson always kept the 'Jr.' in his name to honor his father's memory.

F.L. 'Fritz' Nelson, Sr., was a corporal in the Army during the First World War.

Cpl. Fritz Nelson was fighting in France when Fred Jr. was born, on June 21, 1918, in Baltimore, MD.

After the Armistice, Fritz Sr. returned to Baltimore and started an electrical contracting business, where the future Major Nelson learned his trade.

As a youth, Fred Jr. attended vaudeville matinees and the first talking movies in Baltimore, often accompanied by his sister, Helene.

He joined the Maryland National Guard in the late 1930's. After the outbreak of hostilities in 1941, he joined the U.S. Army as an enlisted man.

He completed high school and college while in the military, and rose through the ranks to be commissioned as an officer during World War II.

After the war, Fred married Margaret Davis.

Their son Thyrl Frederick Nelson was born in 1949.

The Korean War broke out soon after, and the marriage was a casualty.

In peacetime, Major Nelson had several postings in Europe, where he met his wife Ruth E. Sell, a civilian service club coordinator.

The Nelsons returned to the States in the late 1950's. After retirement from the Army in 1961, they settled in Delaware, and Fred joined Bechtel Corporation.

However, he soon returned to Uncle Sam's employ as a safety engineer for the U.S. Army Health Services Command.

The Nelsons transferred to San Antonio in the late 1970's. Fred retired from civil service in the mid 1980's.

He became a volunteer docent at the Institute of Texan Cultures. In that capacity he visited schools throughout San Antonio to demonstrate traditional customs and crafts to school children.

Fred himself took up spinning, encouraged by his wife Ruth, who was an accomplished master weaver.

The Nelsons traveled extensively and kept in touch with a worldwide circle of friends.

After Ruth's death in 1993, Fred joined St. John Neumann parish and was enrolled in the Knights of Columbus.

He moved to Incarnate Word Retirement Community in the summer of 2004, where he was active on several committees and in the Bible Study.

Besides his son Thyrl, of Essex, MD, and his sister Helene Nelson Sawicki, of Baltimore, Fred is survived by a grandson, Gregory Nelson, his wife Melissa Poletynski Nelson, a granddaughter, Christie Nelson Eikenberg, her husband Timothy Eikenberg, and a great-grandson, Joey Carter, all of Baltimore. He is lovingly remembered by his niece and goddaughter, Marianne Sawicki, her husband Bob Miller, nephews Bill and Tom Sawicki, niece Trisha Sawicki, and great nephews Luke, Gus, and Sam Gobeli.