Fredie "Fred" Elmer Gardner

Fredie “Fred” Elmer Gardner’s passing on May 19, 2020, was much like his life - on his own terms, following complications from pneumonia at age 70. Although the doctors never got to enjoy his witty humor, Fred waited for his wife of 51 years, Cecilia “Chris” Christine (Main), to be by his bedside before joining his loved ones on the other side.

We will be celebrating the life of Fred on Wednesday, June 10, 2020, at the Green Acres Mortuary and Cemetery, at 401 N. Hayden Rd, Scottsdale, Arizona. There will be a viewing at 9am, and a memorial service at 10am, followed by a short graveside dedication. The funeral home is providing a safe social distancing space indoors that can accommodate up to 60 people, with disposable masks provided if needed. We will also be live streaming the service.

As Fred penned in his own life story, “My wife and children is the sole reason I live my life. They are everything to me.” He is survived by his wife Cecilia “Chris”, and children Ivana “Ivy” Bonhorst with husband Chris; Stacey Thomas with husband Douglas; Shawn Gardner and Shannon Gardner. His greatest joys were his 9 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. He is survived by grandkids: Ivy and Chris Bonhorst’s children Sierra Davis (married to Zachary), Brooke, Logan and Colter; Emily and Greg Keith’s child Emma; Stacey and Doug Thomas’ two sons Arthur Joseph “AJ” and Scott; and Shannon Gardner’s two daughters Eleanor and Amelia Saltmarsh. He had 2 great grandchildren, thanks to Sierra and Zachary Davis: Brydlynne Whitmire and the newest addition Carter Lane Davis, who was just one month old at Fred’s passing but never got to meet ”Gampa” in person due to COVID restrictions.

Fred was also very close to his brother, Robert “Bob” Gardner and his wife Deanna; and his sister Artha Gardner. Many of Bob’s children remember their “Aunt Fred” with fondness, due to the endearing names he made up for them and the great memories of many camping trips: Lora Johnson and husband Steve; Kandy Padilla and husband Chris; Cheri Padilla and husband Edward; Karen Petersen and husband Justin; Wendy Boger and husband Mike; and Robert “Rob” Gardner and wife Tracy.

He was preceded in death by his own son and daughter: Arthur “Artie” Gardner at the young age of 2, and Emily Keith who recently passed at age 41 from cancer. He was also preceded by his parents, Arthur E. Gardner in 2008, and Laura “Marie” Quarnberg in 1985. Two other special predecessors were his hunting buddies, “Uncle Willie” Watkins and “Uncle Dave” David Swafford, who we’re sure are having a wonderful, raucous reunion together on the other side.

Fred’s life was built on the three F’s, family, food and fun. Born in Kingman, Arizona, he moved with his family to the Gardner homestead in Phoenix when he was in first grade. He went to Andalucia Elementary, just one street over, from first through eighth grades. He and his siblings grew up in that house, and in first grade this “mama’s boy,” decided he’d had enough of school and ran home. In his life story, Fred spoke of his siblings and the trouble they’d cause saying, “Bob and Artha could do a lot more damage to everything without me because as they say, ‘Little Fredie would run to Mom’ and tell on them.” Payback involved from using Fred as a human catapult which broke his arm, to dropping him off in a homemade raft in the middle of an abandoned swimming pool that they claimed was full of alligators and crocodiles.

His value of family continued to run deep as he moved into the Gardner homestead in 1971 and then raised his own family in that same house. Fred was tickled that he got to share his first grade teacher Mrs. Williams with his daughter, Ivy, who had her many years later for second grade. After the painful loss of his first son in 1973 at the young age of twenty two months, he went on to raise 4 daughters and another son there, and became the First Male Girl Scout Leader in Arizona Cactus Pine Girl Scout Council. He was a Girl Scout leader for his girls for over 15 years. He’d do anything for his girls and family, and did just that when he came home after one hunting trip to find that his wife had taken in a biological nephew and niece as babies, who’d been badly abused. Shawn and Shannon Gardner quickly became adopted and forever part of the family.

Before starting his own family, Fred tried his hand at the Air Force life. He had a little bit too much fun there, and came home from boot camp in Amarillo, TX, on leave to marry his “infernal companion” (a little play on the phrase “eternal companion”) in August 1968. He went on to be stationed at Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana and the top security base in Bossier for 2 years. Then he was stationed in Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where their first son was born, followed by Williams AFB in Chandler, Arizona for 1 year. The military had had too much of Fred at this point, and Fred went off to take care of his family in Phoenix starting in 1971. He then worked for the City of Phoenix as a street construction inspector for 29 years, retiring in 2003.

When he wasn’t beating the heat from the streets of Phoenix, Fred’s favorite pastimes were napping and going to the mountains. From age 10 or so, he helped his Dad and brother build their family’s cabin in Colcord, near Payson, Arizona. He fell in love with it up there, and met his hunting buddy, Uncle Willie. The story goes that Willie’s hunting horse, Crow, developed a strong limp anytime that Fred would come around and not have to go riding with him. Fred’s love of hunting carried him throughout life, and kept him centered. He even roped his sons-in-law into this, making Ivy’s husband Chris wait to get married til they’d finished their first hunt together and roping Emily’s soon-to-be husband Greg in, unknowingly securing him into the family.

One of his hunting stories, which undoubtedly would grow longer each time he told them, ended with them getting lost and Uncle Willie saying, “If you’d have let go of the reins, the horses would have taken you home.” Fred certainly lived by this saying, letting go of the reins in many ways. He didn’t care what anybody else thought about him, which was evident from his “rainbow suspenders” to his “potato pimple” that he showed off to anyone that dared to come and eat at the house. Fred and one of his hunting buddies Dave Swafford even cooked up a slapstick comedy skit called “Rio Dumb,” involving a duo with a cowboy with rocks for brains (played by Fred) who shoots off blanks from a rifle and ends up baring his “nether-regions” with heart-covered underwear. Fred ended this “shotgun” era in 2008, when he welcomed his newest son-in-law Douglas Thomas into the family while wearing a T-shirt tuxedo, shotgun in tow, walking his daughter Stacey down the aisle in, of all places, the apple orchard up north in Colcord.

He let the “horses take him home” by faithfully serving as a Boy Scout leader for over 30 years and inspiring many, many boys to earn their Eagle, which also happened to be his favorite animal. Although he wasn’t one for preaching, he could certainly spin many a campfire tale for those Scouts, loosely based off of his own stupidities as a teenager, that would have a good moral entwined. Many of those scouts got together to share and memorialize these stories in a memory book for Fred and Chris’ 50th anniversary. He was the “camp cook” and more for the scouts, and many family camping trips, forever etching the “tang pancakes,” and other dishes such as “rum tum diddy” or the best dutch oven cherry cobbler into their minds. He never let go of what was truly important, and was always able to “rein in” his family, reminding them of what was truly important, family.

His love of guns, a good western, being the “phone Nazi” and threatening to put any male suitors of his daughters in the spot right next to the bear rug on the wall, and a good joke (Buffalo!), will forever be missed as he goes on to a better place, to spin even greater camping stories and tall tales. He will be interred at Green Acres Cemetery, in between his sweet daughter Emily and parents’ plots.