Frederick Herb

Frederick Herb passed away on the 16th of April surrounded by his loving family. He is survived by Margaret, his wife of 61 years, his children Michael, Colleen and Joseph, and grandchildren.

Fred met Margaret when they both worked at Boeing. When she left his department, he asked her out on a date. Fred and Margaret married in 1965 and lived inseparably for the next 61 years, raising a family, building careers, travelling the world, and welcoming grandchildren. Fred never felt the need to be the person who said the most words in a conversation, and he rarely said anything very loudly. He spoke through his actions ‐ he might not have said it much, but his children never doubted for a minute that he loved them and that his family came first. He treated others with respect and dignity always and unfailingly. He was even-tempered and endlessly patient. He rarely told his children what to do: he set a high standard and made it clear that he expected the same of his children. His children did not always meet his standards, but they had no doubt what the standards were.

Margaret later said marrying Fred was the best decision she ever made. She and Fred had a strong and loving marriage. They got along so well that their children realized, a good bit later, that a married couple can actually disagree. They solved it between themselves with mutual respect and never forgetting that they were committed to each other. And there was so little drama that they made marriage look easy.

Fred was born on the 8th of August 1936 in Denver, the son of Fred Herb and Frances Herb (nee Murphy). His twin brother Joseph died at birth and is buried in Denver. Fred moved to Seattle with his family (including his grandparents and two aunts) during the war. His parents purchased a house near Green Lake where Fred swam in the summers. His mother was a devout Catholic who believed in education: Fred attended St. Benedicts, Seattle Preparatory School and Seattle University where he received a degree in physics. He worked many jobs when he was young, including a summer watching for forest fires in a lookout in the Cascades, delivering mail, and working as a machinists assistant. After graduating from Seattle University he worked in England for the AC Spark Plug company training members of the Royal Air Force maintaining Thor missiles. He also developed a dislike for postwar English food. He returned home and, to his parents’ delight, landed a job at Boeing where he worked for 35 years. He made a career in computer networking at what became Boeing Computer Services (BCS). He started at Boeing in the Analog Computer Lab, where he worked on state-of-the-art early computers used to design airplanes, missiles, and vehicles that were part of the space program. He later moved into network computing as Boeing developed a business sharing time on its mainframes. He rarely talked much about his work with his children, who only realized much later that he had seen first hand the developments in computer networking that culminated in today’s Internet. He won the BCS Employee of the Year award in Network Services in 1980 and was named Senior Principal Scientist in 1993.

Fred’s high school yearbook tells us that he wanted to be an engineer – which was no surprise 70 some years later – and also that he wanted to be a master brewer and that he spent his time playing pool, which was a bit more surprising. He had some adventures when he lived in Europe, but by the time he married he had become the quiet, steady, good man, at peace with himself, whom his family knew and loved. He was always curious and knew how things worked, and was happy to explain them to his children. He built things, including a heated doghouse for Pepper, the family dog. He tuned the cars back when that was a thing you did in your driveway. He was smart and he had good judgment. He went to work every day without complaint.

A Seattleite for virtually all his life, Fred loved the outdoors. He and Margaret took the family camping in a canvas tent when the children were young, and took an epic camping trip to Yellowstone in the family’s red Ford LTD station wagon. Fred was a Boy Scout leader for years, going on countless weekend and sometimes week-long camping trips in the Cascades and Olympic mountains.

After retirement Fred and Margaret travelled the world together, visiting Patagonia, Germany, Dubai, China, Russia, Ecuador, Ireland and many other far flung places, sometimes several trips per year. Later they moved to the Mirabella retirement community, where Fred wrote a book on retiring in continuing care retirement communities. Margaret and Fred made many friends. Toward the end, as his Alzheimer’s set in, he grew quieter, but even as the disease progressed his equanimity endured . As Fred’s condition progressed, he moved to memory care where Margaret visited him every day, and where he was taken care of by a wonderful community of caregivers.

Fred lived a good life. He leaves behind a family who loves him, and he leaves his wife and children with a lifetime of happy memories. He made the world a better place, and we miss him.

Funeral services will be held at 2pm on the 11th of May at Christ Our Hope Catholic Church at 1902 Second Avenue in downtown Seattle.