Fredrick S Gram

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Fredrick grew up in Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota, receiving a master's degree in history. He worked on the student newspaper. Fredrick's first job after graduation was as a congressman's assistant. He married Mary Elvene Hoag (when, exactly?), a neighbor in Minneapolis who had a received a master's degree in art education at the University of Minnesota, and was teaching high school art. The couple traveled to Europe, and ran out of money while in Moscow. Fredrick got a job on the Moscow News, an English language newspaper (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moscow_News). The great depression had begun, and there was little prospect for employment back in the U S. Lou was born there in June, 1931. After returning to the U S in September, 1931, Fredrick got a low-paying position as a reporter with Oak Leaves, a small newspaper in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. Fredrick claimed that a priest had once preached a sermon condemning him to Eternal Damnation, in response to something he had written in the newspaper. (Fredrick was fond of such stories, but would decline to give specific details.) Mary Elvene took Lou to Montana for awhile, living with her family on their ranch. The family eventually re-assembled, and lived in Berwyn, Illinois.

In 1947 the family returned to Minnesota, acquiring a decrepit house on a nicely wooded lot on Lake Owasso, outside St Paul. Fredrick got a job at Group Health doing public relations, and he kept this job until the early 1960's. In 1952 Fredrick and Mary Elvene had a new house designed and built on the same lot by noted architects Elizabeth Scheu and Winston Close (the firm still exists: http://www.closearchitects.com/; see for historical perspective: http://www.closehomes.org/).

In the early 1960's there was a widespread firing of personnel at Group Health, and Fredrick was out of work for several years. In the late 1960's he got a job as a staff writer for the Minnesota Highway Department. Initially he seemed to consider the job beneath him, but it grew on him and he stayed well beyond the age of 65. Fortunately, the job paid a living salary and included a pension. Fredrick continued to do independent writing jobs for small newspapers (including the Minnesota Spokesman run by Cecil Newman), and for some credit unions. He enjoyed doing a weekly column called Dry Points, and would send out an annual New Year's card with a selection of that year's Dry Points. A professor at the William Mitchell law school used to quote his favorite Dry Point to his classes : " 'Hard cases make bad law.' Yes! And some the hardest cases we know are sitting on the Minnesota Supreme Court!"

While at the University of Minnesota, Fredrick became friends with Ed Clubb, who became a diplomat in Manchuria, and later taught at Columbia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Edmund_Clubb and http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/clubb.htm ). Ed Clubb gave Fredrick and Mary Elvene several magnificent presents from Manchuria including an antique red brides dress (now owned by Marty and Joan), a set of pewter goblets, and a small carved ivory statue. Fredrick and Ed lived through the "McCarthy era," a period in the 1950's in which many people were falsely accused of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. Ed was forced out of the U S State Department, and Fredrick acquired an FBI file that revealed that he had been on a "Domestic Detention List". This was ridiculous, as Fredrick was a mainstream Democrat.

Fredrick liked to talk about politics, and it was his favorite subject at the dinner table. Some in the family would make leading statements that would provoke disgruntled comments from Fredrick. He seemed to thrive on being disgruntled. In his retirement years, he took to writing and publishing pamphlets on various civic issues that disgruntled him. Such a pamphlet ("A Minnesota energy inventory" Gram, Fredrick S., St. Paul : Minnesota Civic Information Council c1979) is in the University of Minnesota Library (http://www.lib.umn.edu/).

He was an idealist, with desires to live in a society freed from racism, consumerism, pollution, the medical industry, corrupt politicians, aggressive dogs and so on. He felt cooperatives were the way to achieving some important objectives, and he served as secretary for a cooperative housing association in the sixties (an effort that did not, however, go on to pay him or indeed to create any housing). He liked to recycle, compost, grow vegetables, and repair his own house and equipment (though his skills had clear limitations). Although he resisted getting a television for many years, once a hand-me-down model was installed, he never turned back and spent many happy hours in front of it grumbling about the poor quality of the programming.

Once in his 70s, he developed diabetes, and was not able to stick to the sugar-free diets recommended, even after having part of a foot removed, and ultimately his left leg had to be amputated. He recovered and navigated quite well with his prosthesis, and was able to drive his car again.

Fredrick's hair was black, which was a mystery, since his parents and sisters all had brown hair.

Y-dna haplogroup is R-L21* (as measured in a son of Fredrick)