What a huge loss. My condolences to all of our friends in the
ETC family.
I was far from a personal friend of Fred's but he knew who I was, which in itself was a
bit of an honor to me.
I have two great memories of Fred that I think say a lot about who he was:
1) Every year
ETC sponsors a half dozen amazing young lighting designers to come to
LDI. There would be an awesome private party on a roof top somewhere and
ETC would bring in the biggest names in the industry to honor these young designers. I was invited to attend a few times. At the beginning of the night Fred would stand up on a table or chair and get everyone's attention. He would
point out that tonight is not just about being with your old friends. Tonight is about these young people. If you find yourself alone in a group talking with all pros, you are doing this party the wrong way. He would go on to say that you should start every conversation by grabbing a few friends, finding one of these young people, and bringing them into the core of the conversation. It was so cool to witness a room full of legends and leaders, follow Fred's direction and spend their evening focused on supporting these up and coming LD's. They all left with a pocket full of business cards and
ETC made sure they all got a real mentor for life. I'm not sure how much of a
hand Fred had in creating this program, but he certainly set the tone for the night and made sure it happened. Today there are many designers out there who had their career not just jump started, but shot out of a
cannon, because of this program.
2)
USITT about 5 years ago maybe in Milwaukee...
ETC had just brought out the SourceFour Mini.
ETC had the usual giant booth full of stuff and Fred was there off to the side with a counter and the SourceFour mini. He was so happy and having so much fun showing people his toy. He told
@dvsDave and I about how he had wanted to make these for years but others in the company kept fighting him because they were going to cost as much as a real S4 and they feared no one would buy them. Fred didn't care. It was a fun, cute, awesome, a toy and he knew everyone would love it and want it. Even if they didn't buy it, they would love
ETC more because of it. He seemed so happy to just stand there and see the laughter and joy everyone had over getting to see, touch, and
play with a mini-for the first time. There were rumors on CB that this was a fake or April fools day joke product at the time. Here's the video we shot of him talking about it... be sure to stick around for the CB punchline. Now I really need to buy one!
Godspeed Fred!