Alfred Pellmann

Alfred Konrad “Fred” Pellmann, born December 6, 1929, quietly passed March 30, 2026. His wife Jane and children, Timothy and Karin, were with him.

Fred was born in Long Island, New York and spent his early years growing up in Kiel, Germany on the Baltic Sea coast with his parents Theodore and Gertrude and his older sister Mary during World War II. Fred’s stories of growing up in Germany while the war went on around him – from air raids in the middle of the night to food rations and helping neighbors whose homes had been bombed – his stories were a picture into a life that most of us could not imagine and no child should ever endure. When he was barely 11 years old, he and his sister along with nearly all the other schoolchildren were taken away from their homes because of the bombings occurring in the city, which was also a submarine base. As the end of the war neared, just when Fred was completing his schooling, nearly all of his classmates were drafted into the German army. Because of his American citizenship, he was not. He believed none of his classmates survived.

After the war, Fred completed his trade training in radio and electronics, and eventually relocated to New York to be closer to Mary and her new husband, William Shoreland. Fred joined the United States Army and served during the Korean War. He was stationed on the East/West German border as part of an Army Intelligence unit.

After Fred was discharged, he moved to Tarrytown, New York where he was a radio and television repairman and an automotive repairman. He recalls having worked on a television set for Eleanor Roosevelt, and as well for Jackie Gleason, and fixing cars for the Rockefeller family.

In 1963, he was invited to go bowling by some friends, and lo and behold, there was a new friend with them who hadn’t met before. Much to the friends’ surprise, they made a match: Jane Barrie married Fred on April 18, 1964.

Fred and Jane started their life in Yonkers, New York while building a house just upstate in Mahopac, where they would raise their family. Fred worked as an engineer and was involved in the development of the first digital thermometer and blood pressure cuff. He also worked on vacuum tubes for radios. A part he worked on actually went up the International Space Station – and this is perhaps where Fred’s love of astronomy was born.

Fred and Jane enjoyed a wonderful retirement in Palm Coast, Florida. While Jane volunteered at the local hospital, Fred started volunteering at Whitney Labs maintaining technical equipment. He also became active in the Marineland Right Whale Project where he spent many years on the beach watching and reporting activity.

Soon after, he took his love of astronomy to a new level. In 2005, he founded the Palm Coast Astronomy Club. He did presentations for the community at the local library, and during solar and lunar events, he and his fellow club members would take their collections of telescopes to public parks so that the community could enjoy the phenomenon and a lesson on what they were seeing – he called these events Star Parties. He was often featured in the local newspaper doing these events. He got the most gratification teaching astronomy at one of the local middle schools with his club partner, Lee Bentzley. He would set up displays at the local library each year to honor significant events in history including the Apollo 11 moon landing and Space Shuttle program. He often said that the Palm Coast Astronomy Club gave him a feeling of enrichment and purpose because he could help others to explore the great beyond.

At the ripe young age of 90, Fred started to slow down and decided to take step back at the Astronomy Club, handing the reins over to Skip Westphal – although we’re not totally convinced he ever really let go completely, such is the folly of a proud founder.

Fred loved his family more than anything in this world – especially Jane. He cherished her and the life they built together. He always told her he loved her and how happy he was with the life they created. Over 96 years, Fred’s life was rich and diverse, full of challenges and triumphs and ultimately spent doing good by other people. He possessed a brilliant mind, a strong moral compass and he never met a stranger. He was funny and kind, curious and outgoing, and spent a lifetime defying the odds, right up until the end. He never missed an opportunity to share a story of his life – the world has indeed lost one of its great storytellers.

Fred is survived by his wife of nearly 62 years, Jane and his children Timothy (Margarita) and Karin (Bryan) Unger, as well as their spouses’ children Melissa, Jean-Luc and Cayal, and one great-granddaughter Scarlett. Fred was predeceased by his and Jane’s first son Richard John, his parents, his sister Mary and brother-in-law Bill. He is also survived by a loving family that includes John and Sue Barrie, Margaret and Charles Applegate, Raymond and Melissa Shoreland, Steven and Shelley Shoreland and their children and families. Fred was the senior statesman of this loving family and will be missed terribly, not just by them, but by his friends near and far, and the Palm Coast Astronomy Club members as well.

Fly high Fred – we’ll see you in the stars…

A Memorial Service will be planned for the near future. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in his name.