Dennis Fredrickson's Memorial Fund

Dennis Michael Fredrickson

Born: March 14, 1949

Died: April 18, 2022

Dennis was a gentle soul. He always gave his time to help others. My earliest memories of him were that he was always fixing, repairing, rebuilding, or renovating something. Be it an old bike, wagon, mini-bike, or skateboard. He had a gift for making other people's discarded items better than new ones. His ability to dismantle and his patience to clean each part and repair and polish or repaint until it was restored to new condition was uncanny. His generosity in doing this for our neighbors and friends was awesome. He grew to be a kind man. He was an extremely accomplished machinist and a self-taught mechanic, always at the ready to help family and friends. At the dawn of Computer numerical control, he learned from manuals without training how to run these complex machines and became one of the top machinists for Hughes Aircraft company. He also had tremendous insight as to the future of home computers and began to integrate their limited usefulness to make them do way more than their intended initial uses. His quote to me was, “ someday you will be able to push a few keys, and these babies will do a thousand things, forget the current restraints, just learn to type.” Again his willingness to teach and share is remarkable. So many lessons and my time spent with him shaped me in so many ways.

Mike entered the army and became an artillery specialist. He was stationed in Germany; he wrote me many letters and spoke of his time as an adventure. He was proud to serve, but he told me how much he missed his family and was always thinking of us. Our mother died while he was overseas, and that was probably his greatest sorrow. He received an honorable discharge to come home and care for his siblings. But I knew of his sadness that he wasn’t home to see his mother before she died. Our goal is to bury him in the same grave with her so that they may be together at last.

He also grew to find a profound love for Our Lord Jesus Christ, and he cast a wide net to be a “fisher of men,” Preaching and teaching try to save as many souls as he could. The lives he touched were many. He will be greatly missed as a brother-in-law, Uncle, brother and friend. This only scratches the surface of his impact on us all. We are reaching out for help to give him a dignified burial. Now it’s time to give back to Mike.

I appreciate any help you can provide.

Mike’s Family