Frederick Hampton "Fred" Franklin

Frederick Hampton "Fred" Franklin

Longtime teacher and friend to many, Frederick Hampton "Fred" Franklin, shuffled off his mortal coil on July 4, 2025.

For him, all the world was a stage, and the center of that stage was the classroom. Fred began his teaching career at Gayle Junior High school in 1964, where he formed "The Shakespeareans" dramatic club. He went on to be the Creative Arts Coordinator for Stafford County Public Schools, running federal programs that received national recognition. He helped begin what is now the Regional Summer Governor's School for the Fine and Performing Arts at the then Mary Washington College. He then moved over to teaching English and Drama in high school. His reach as an educator was national and international. He directed a yearly Shakespearean play, devised award- winning one act plays, took student work to other states and abroad. He brought in leaders in the theatre industry from New York, Washington and London to work with his casts and classes. He retired, after 38 years of service, in 2003.

All the men and women around him were merely players: Those were his students, colleagues and friends. As the main character in this lifelong play that spanned decades, the scenes consisted of countless field trips to plays, thousands of hours of teaching, directing and rehearsing with youngsters and adults, and creating innumerable fond memories in the minds of the lives he touched.

In his time, he played many parts. Owing to his father's and brother's sense of humor, Fred had a caustic and cutting wit, which infused his roles of son, brother, cousin, godfather, friend, and above all, storyteller.

At first the infant, he made his entrance, born in his family home on February 3, 1941, in Richmond County in the Northern Neck of Virginia. It was a place whose culture informed his outlook and theatrical sensibility for his entire life. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Hampton and Geneva Franklin, and by his brother, Marlan.

He, himself, the whining schoolboy, he often recalled his teenage years at Washington and Lee High School in Montross. Even returning there to direct a play during retirement. He earned his bachelor's degree at Frederick College and his master's from New York University-- studying abroad in the UK during their summer program at Bretton Hall College. He never lost touch with friends he made at all levels of his formal schooling.

Filled with wise saws and strange oaths, jealous in honor and sudden in quarrel: To interact with him was to be an audience of one with a Bard. He could be disarming when provoked, passionate in politics; and he entertained everyone with his humor, literary background and life observations, making personal and professional friendships that were legion. His legacy is that of a true master teacher who shaped lives and was responsible for the career choices of countless individuals.

Eventually aging into lean and slipper'd pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on the side, Fred spent retirement continuing to work. He supported many former students in their professional careers. He went to their productions, invested in dance projects in NYC and sent funding to their theatre projects he found interesting. He also directed professionally at The Fusion Theatre Company in Albuquerque, N.M.-a theatre established by a previous student. He continued directing and teaching young people through the Shakespeare on The Lawn series at Kenmore, Actorshop UK, the Rude Mechanicals community theatre troupe and visiting local school classrooms to share his knowledge of theatre. Many of his later projects dealt with social issues such as human trafficking, relationship abuse and HIV-AIDS.

Last scene of all was beneficence. Fred gave generously to charity organizations and individuals that were destitute, homeless, hungry or needed medical treatment. A lifelong progressive democrat, he felt the need to help others-those sans means, sans health, sans rights, sans love. In that spirit, he requested that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to The Trevor Project-- https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

All services will be private.

Online guest book is available at covenantfuneralservice.com.