Fred Carl Senftleber

Fred Carl Senftleber, retired chemistry professor, inventor, house builder, genealogist, wine enthusiast, and craftsman, died March 19, 2022, at his home in Dripping Springs, Texas. He was 73.

At his core, Fred was a New Yorker, born November 19, 1948, in Roslyn, NY, with his twin, Albert Fred Senftleber. Their father, Albert F. Senftleber, was a New York City detective and their mother, Ruth M. (Monkemeyer) Senftleber, was a homemaker and later a church secretary. Fred played stickball and handball near his home on 266th Street in New Hyde Park, Queens and was educated at P.S. 115, Hillside Junior High, and Martin Van Buren High School. He was a clarinet player and a gymnast (pommel horse) and tried out for "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour" with his brother and friends as the Tumbling Tumbleweeds. Early years found Fred and his brother dressed in similar long-sleeved Oxford shirts and chinos, both habitually whistling or humming and harmonizing "Moon River" in bed most nights. Fred favored these Oxford shirts, usually in blue, for the rest of his life and never lost his enjoyment of whistling.

Fred discovered his academic future in chemistry, a subject he enjoyed in junior and senior high school. His twelfth-grade science project, "Fallacy in the Periodic Table," received an award at the 28th School Science Fair of the American Institute of New York. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Tampa, where he played clarinet in the band and was a cheerleader and member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He earned a PhD in chemistry from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and did post doctorate work at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Choosing to teach at the college level, he nurtured future chemists at Providence College in Rhode Island, Murray State University in Kentucky, and Jacksonville University in Florida.

A professor and sometimes department head at JU from 1983 through 2016, he taught general chemistry, analytical chemistry, instrumental analysis, forensic science, and scientific glass working. In 2001 he pursued a sabbatical studying cell separation at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Limoges, France. In 2010 he investigated algal blooms and their control in North Carolina. His inventive mind earned him three U.S. patents for apparatuses and methods for sedimentation field-flow fractionation, a separation technique used in analytical chemistry. While at JU, he was awarded three National Science Foundation grants for science teacher education as well as several grants for instrumentation for the JU chemistry department.

Though he never again lived in New York after leaving for college in 1966, he returned to NYC once every year or two, a pilgrimage to reinvigorate the inner culture that defined him. He loved foldable, cheese-dripping New York pizza. He loved navigating the city by subway and walking briskly with the expectation that others keep pace with him. He loved the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Broadway plays, and store window Christmas displays. He delighted in telling how he taught affluent Dalton School students how to make shoeshine boxes in a summer school woodworking class he led. He wanted to instill his love of New York City in his grandchildren, vowing to take each one there when they turned 12. The trip with the first grandchild in January 2018 was memorable for many reasons, including the intense snowstorm that hit NYC that month.

Fred's family was always a source of pride for him, and he showed his love for them through his actions. He had three children, David, Michael, and Amy, from his first marriage to Janice Wells, and a stepson, Niel, and stepdaughter, Maria, from his second marriage to Ruth Stuver. He built a backyard skateboard park for his sons and a two-story playhouse for his daughter. He screened in porches and helped renovate bathrooms, usually planning the project with a design software. He planned and built two homes, getting electrical and plumbing licenses so he had total control over the construction. He installed brick or stone fireplaces in four homes over the years, once even traveling from Florida to Michigan to get the right stones. A perfectionist by nature and thrifty to a high degree, he liked to visit multiple stores to find the best price for the highest quality materials or tools for his projects.

Fred always volunteered to help his children move for college, work, or a new house. Distance was irrelevant, whether it was within a city or to Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, or Palatka, or across the country to California. His organizational skills were evident in the closely packed moving trucks and trailers. Fred offered the ultimate gift to his brother, sharing his stem cells with Al, who had multiple myeloma, to help his twin have an additional six months of life.

After retiring from JU, he and Ruth moved to Texas to be closer to his grandchildren. He designed a treehouse for three of them and constructed it with the help of son Michael and the boys. He was a serious board game player, enjoying many hours of Monopoly and Clue with his grandchildren. One summer, all five grandchildren attended a week-long Grandpa Camp, complete with hands-on chemistry, tie-dyed T-shirts, and swimming.

Fred was passionate about his family's history. In NYC and Germany, he researched census files, ordered birth, death, and marriage certificates, and visited old family addresses to imagine the lives of the Senftlebers and Monkemeyers, who came to New York from Germany in the late 1800s. He traveled twice to Germany, in 2007 and 2019, both times to the Senftleber family town, Neckargerach, that 11-year-old Albert Senftleber left in 1881 for NYC. On the 2019 trip with his wife and sister, he found church records in Neckargerach that added to the family history. Keeping family connections alive over the years, he stayed in touch with cousins in Vermont, upstate New York, and California.

Fred and Ruth shared a love of science, education, travel, and friends. They provided science workshops for teachers in Jacksonville, FL, and at state and national science conferences. They drove across the country, Fred in the driver's seat, a practice developed in his youth from many NYC-Florida trips. Sometimes they joined family or friends on cruises to the Caribbean or in Europe. They enjoyed gatherings of a long-standing wine group in Jacksonville and often met friends on Friday afternoons at JU for wine and discussions on wide-ranging topics. At home, Fred liked to prepare one of his specialties, beef bourguignon, jambalaya, or French onion soup, for family and friends, always paired with a suitable wine.

Fred ultimately died from HLH (hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis), a rare inflammatory condition in the blood resulting from treatment for metastatic and aggressive small cell prostate cancer. His final goal was to get home after months of treatments at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Fred was grateful he lived long enough for his daughter Amy and her husband Pete to share a sonogram of their first child, his sixth grandchild.

He is survived by his wife, Ruth Senftleber; two sons, David W. Senftleber (Jennifer Davis) of Houston and Michael J. Senftleber (Katherine Senftleber) of Driftwood, TX; a daughter, Amy K. Senftleber-Makopoulos (Pete Makopoulos-Senftleber) of Houston; a stepson, Niel Stuver of San Marcos, TX; a stepdaughter, Maria Vaughn of Florida; 7 grandchildren – Colin and Claire Senftleber of Houston; twins Isaac and Aaron Senftleber and Thomas Ephraim Senftleber of Driftwood, TX; Olive and Emily Vaughn of Gainesville, FL; a sister, Barbara Senftleber (Sue Cleere) of Atlanta; ex-wife, Janice Wells of Houston; sister-in-laws, Jana Ahlers (Rich Ahlers) of Chappell Hill, TX; and Pat Farrell of Houston, nephews Travis A. Van Meter of Dallas, Michael DeChellis (Michal Leah DeChellis) of Livingston, MT, and Matthew DeChellis (Annamaria DeChellis) of Houston; and nieces Michelle Miller (Ken Miller) of Spring Branch, TX, Maria Senftleber of Austin, and Callan B. Wells (Nick Stephens) of Atlanta.

A family celebration of Fred's life will be held over Memorial Day weekend in Texas. Burial of his cremains will be in the Monkemeyer-Senftleber plot at All-Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, NY, at a time yet to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in Fred's name to Hospice Austin, Austin, TX, or a blood donation to any local blood bank.