Veteran Raymond Fredette leaves a legacy of inspiring a love of history in students

GARDNER — It was one of retired Lt. Col. Raymond H. Fredette’s goals to inspire a love of learning and a passion for history in others.

Fredette, who died at the age of 98 in Alexandria, Virginia, in August, is being remembered for his legacy of establishing the Gardner Museum’s Hervey Bowden Speech/Essay Award, which encourages local high school students to research and write about local history.

One of Fredette’s last wishes for the essay contest, which was originally available only to Gardner High School students, was to open the competition to include students from across the Greater Gardner area.

More: Gardner's 8 living mayors invited to museum's speech and essay contest

“I just talked with him in May,” said Marion Knoll, coordinator of the Gardner Museum, “and we wanted to extend the (contest) to other schools because it should not be just limited to the Gardner High School, it should be the Gardner area.”

Knoll said she enjoyed her phone conversations with Fredette, adding that at times they had become quite lengthy because once they had begun discussing history, they both found it difficult to stop.

“You would trigger one memory and he could just go on and on and on, and it was fascinating,” Knoll said.

Honoring his beloved teacher

Fredette, a decorated Army Air Force veteran of 27 years, graduated from Gardner High School in 1942. One of his teachers was Hervey Bowden, who obviously made quite an impression on his student. Fredette credited his teacher with awakening within him a deep appreciation and curiosity for history.

“(Bowden) really made an impression on me, but he made an impression on everybody,” Fredette told Gardner News columnist Mike Richard in 2012. “I was always interested in history and lot of what I did with my life, I can attribute to him.”

Fredette was visiting the Chair City In 1988 when he learned that his favorite teacher, whose career spanned over four decades at the school, had passed away. Looking for a way to honor Bowden, he contacted the Gardner Museum and proposed setting up an award and offered to provide the necessary funding. He suggested an essay contest, with the winning student being awarded a $250 prize. Fredette also offered $100 to pay for the award presentation ceremony.

More: Bowden made history come alive at Gardner High School

Fredette saw the essay contest as a way to inspire a love of history in others, just as his former teacher had done for him at Gardner High School, Knoll said. Although Fredette sent a check to cover the costs of the next contest, scheduling issues caused museum officials to postpone the competition until next year.

“We still have to come up with the topic, but we already have the award money for next year, so I plan on kind of making it a big deal that he still wanted the essay contest to happen,” Knoll explained.

There was little doubt that Fredette had succeeded with his goal of establishing the essay contest as a way to continue his love of learning through generations of high school students in the area. She said that Fredette enjoyed receiving copies of the essays that were entered into the competition.

“I know that one year he even wrote a personal note to the winning student, and that student came in here and was totally blown away that Ray, from far away, not only supplied the award money but also sent a handwritten note congratulating the student on such a well-written essay,” Knoll recalled. “That’s a connection that is way beyond just sending money. He saw the world, but he was still interested in Gardner and that we succeed with the museum.”

More: And the winner is ... history

Fredette's military career spanned the globe

That Fredette, who grew up on Waterford Street, saw the world might be something of an understatement. After enlisting in the Air Force shortly after graduation, Fredette went on active duty early in 1943. Trained as a B-17 togglier (an enlisted crew member assigned to the position of bombardier) and assigned to the Eighth Air Force in England, he flew 31 combat missions over Germany and was with the Army of Occupation in Germany from late 1945 until the spring of 1946.

While on inactive duty in the Air Force Reserves, Fredette earned a degree in history from Tufts University and a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

In 1951, after marrying Pamela M. Dorsey of Derby, England, Fredette was recalled to active duty, working as a French interpreter in Morocco. He then served as an intelligence officer with the Air Defense Command from 1954 to 1956, and with the USAFE in Germany from 1956 to 1959. He also worked as an ROTC instructor in New Jersey, a staff instructor in Washington, D.C., an intelligence officer in Vietnam, and a foreign liaison officer at the Pentagon, where he was tasked with researching Air Force recipients of the Medal of Honor.

During his career, Fredette was awarded the Bronze Star, a Defense Meritorious Medal, a Joint Service Commendation Medal, and an Air Force Commendation Medal.

A passion for history

After retiring from the military in 1970, Fredette decided to pursue his passion for history, focusing on his lifelong love of airplanes. After authoring several articles on aviation history and publishing a book, “The Sky on Fire,” about the origins of strategic bombing in World War I, Fredette met with famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, who agreed to allow Fredette to write a book about his life, giving the author unrestricted access to his papers at Yale University. The book went unpublished, however, after a dispute with the publisher.

Although he had settled down in Alexandria, Virginia, near President George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, his hometown was never far from Fredette’s thoughts, according to Knoll.

“He really liked the Gardner Museum, and he was a very big contributor, and not just financially – he would send us books that he found,” Knoll said. “I got along with him well, and it was very easy to involve him from a distance.”

“He will be very deeply missed by our museum family,” she added.

Fredette will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, and a graveside service is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Veteran Raymond Fredette inspired Gardner students' love of history