Fred Joseph Runde, III, of Cartersville, Georgia, passed away on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 after a long struggle with COPD. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Sharon Dianne Wilson Runde, and two sisters, Charlotte Runde of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Eleanor Runde LeViner of Woodstock, Georgia. He was 63 years old.
A native of Augusta, Fred grew up in Marietta, Georgia, and attended Marietta High School. He worked for years in construction and continued to ply his trade as a member of the maintenance staff at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. For 21 years Fred was a master carpenter at the schools, doing everything from building cabinets to repairing pencil sharpeners. He was the school’s locksmith. He retired in 2015. He will be remembered for his quick wit and friendly attention to matters large and small.
He was an avid amateur archeologist, having spent his childhood unearthing arrow heads and mini balls around the periphery of Kennesaw Mountain, and joined the Northwest Georgia Archeology Society at the invitation of noted lecturer Jim Langford.
Fred will also be remembered for the ten years he spent at WREK, the radio station at Georgia Tech, as the voice of The DeSoto Hour, playing big band music, following in the footsteps of his father, who had filled that role for 25 years doing more, in the words of the show’s opening “to set back FM radio than any other being broadcast.”
A celebration of Fred’s life will be held on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at Winkenhofer Pine Ridge Funeral Home in Kennesaw, Georgia, at noon.
The family requests the your choice of flowers or donations be made in Fred's memory to the Etowah Valley Humane Society. Payments can be made by phone at 770-383-3338 or by PayPal ([email protected]). With PayPal, please leave a note "In Memory of Fred Runde" so that the family can receive a letter for the donations.
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