Fred Ginn

1936 - 2025

Fred L Ginn, 89, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, in Cary, NC. Born in El Paso, TX, in 1936, Fred grew up in North Carolina and graduated from Goldsboro High in 1954. Following high school, he completed a Mathematics degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill followed by a medical degree from Duke University. While in medical school at Duke, he met Elizabeth Tate of Liberty, NC. The two married on Labor Day, 1960, beginning a devoted union that lasted nearly 60 years.

Active lives in service to others led Betty and Fred to reside at various points in Texas, Durham, NC, Baltimore, southern Maine, Fayetteville, NC, and Blacksburg, VA, before settling in the Raleigh/Cary area. During the 1960s, he served in the United States Air Force in Texas and Southeast Asia. As a pathologist, Fred savored the opportunity to apply skills of observation, analysis, and logic in the search for insights about how the human body responds to internal and external forces. In this pursuit, he enjoyed collaborating with his medical partners but loved even more working with the specialists and technicians who did much of the behind-the-scenes work while receiving little recognition for their efforts. Throughout his life, Fred was a tireless learner on an endless quest for knowledge and growth. His studies and interests led him to earn a pilot license, build numerous electronics, and cultivate impressive gardens. His many bookshelves included well-read medical textbooks as well as works of classic literature, quantum physics, astronomy, and mathematical theory. After nearly 30 years as a pathologist, Fred returned to academic life, earning a degree in Geology from North Carolina State University.

In his retirement, Fred connected deeply with those who shared his interests, specifically his ham radio community, his NCSU classmates, and his caregiving team. He never forgot those who supported his efforts to overcome many challenges of his youth. From those experiences, he labored intensely and efficiently to create opportunities for others through an emphasis on education and the pursuit of improvement. The positive effects of those efforts enduring through successive generations will be his greatest legacy.

Fred was preceded in death by his mother, Annie Mildred Kelly, father William M. Ginn, and wife Betty. He is survived by his brother William Ginn of Raleigh, NC, daughters Shannon (Rick) Rochelle of Lander, WY, and Heather (Don) Hall of Bellingham, WA, son Mark Ginn of Kemblesville, PA, grandchildren Allison Hall of Ashby, MA, Graham Hall of Tacoma, WA, Emilie Ginn of Bar Harbor, ME, Sam Ginn of Landenberg, PA, William Ginn of Baltimore, MD, as well as four nieces and four nephews.