Frederic Oberlin Sargent

1919 - 2017

Frederic Oberlin Sargent

Age: 97

Frederic Oberlin Sargent, 97, passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 due to complications from pneumonia. He was born on September 30, 1919 as the third child of Rev. Arthur Hayes Sargent and Joanna Dyke Kinsley Sargent in Post Mills, Vermont.

Fred grew up in the Northeast. He surprised his mother at the age of four by stating "All my days are full of wonder". He graduated with 23 others as the Class of 1936 from Jonesport High School in Jonesport, Maine.

Fred attended Colby College in Waterville, Maine and graduated with a BA degree in Social Science. Every summer Fred worked odd jobs to earn the money to attend the next semester. These jobs included selling Fuller brushes, wheelbarrowing cement, spraying apples, and fighting forest fires.

Fred was a veteran of World War II as a corporal in the 415th Night Fighter Squadron and spent two years in the European theater crossing North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Corsica, France and Germany. Making the best of a bad situation, Fred visited ancient Cartage and Pompeii, witnessed the eruption of Mt. Aetna, saw an opera in Naples, and was blessed by the Pope. After sweating out the Battle of the Bulge and living in a tent for two years, Fred returned home and used the GI Bill to further his education.

The GI Bill financed Fred's intellectual journey at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He became fascinated by economics and scientific humanism and the roles these play in everyday life. While attending UW Fred made side trips to Mexico and France and became interested in rural economics and planning. He met, courted, and married Shirley June Fork, tying the knot on August 28, 1947. They were married in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania and honeymooned by hitchhiking to Montreal and Quebec City and returning to Madison.

Fred used the GI Bill to further his education by attending universities in France, the most famous being the Sorbonne in Paris. He also received a Fulbright Scholarship and worked under the Marshall Plan helping to rebuild Europe. All these experiences were written into a dissertation and Fred received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1952.

Fred returned from Europe with two sons and started a cross country trip while looking for a job at a University. Colorado State University in Fort Collins was the first to offer a position. From 1956 to 1960 he taught at Texas A&M University in College Station as a land and institutional economist. The highlight of his stay was the birth of his daughter. At the time, life was segregated in Texas and Fred joined a group that worked to desegregate churches and work with black professors at Prairie View College to study the economic differences between the races. Fred was gently fired (his words) for his activism but at the same time accepted a position at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, Canada. It felt like returning to New England. There was no tenure track available so after three years Fred left Canada for the University of Vermont in 1962 and stayed for 23 years.

Fred was most proud of his environmental work while living in Vermont. He headed committees that turned Camels Hump Mountain into a state park in 1969; took on the Army Corps of Engineers for their policy of damming rivers; turned old railroad tracks into bicycle and hiking trails; created Winooski Valley Park District; and worked on numerous other rural planning projects.

While living in South Burlington, Vermont Fred and his family enjoyed activities on Lake Champlain such as sailing, canoeing, swimming, birding, biking, ice skating and ice sailing in the winter.

Fred retired as Professor Emeritus in 1985 and being of sound mind and body and married to a willing partner began travelling. They frequented Elderhostels where experts and professors lectured on interesting topics, returned to France to visit old friends, started new hobbies such as bread making, painting, ceramics, and kept at old hobbies such as canoeing and writing. Fred felt he had hit his stride while participating at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota Forum where free-thinkers (but opinionated) tackled sensitive and controversial issues of the day.

Fred was preceded in death by his parents Arthur and Joanna; his brothers Eugene Kinsley Sargent and Dwight Emerson Sargent; and his sister Miriam (Sargent) Watson.

He is survived by his spouse Shirley. He was the dear father of Blaine Pierre Sargent, Wendell Derek Sargent, and Bettina Louise (Sargent) Reardon. He was a loving grandfather of Chelsea Rose (Sargent) Smiley, Loren Kristofor Sargent, Sean Duncan Reardon, and Michelle Lan Smith. He also was a cherished friend to many.

A memorial service will be held at Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, 3975 Fruitville Road, Sarasota on Saturday, August, 26th at 2:00 PM.

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