Fred was born in Oshawa in 1926 and later moved to Whitby where he attended Brock St. Public and Whitby High Schools. His early hockey memories include playing street hockey on Dufferin St. using a salmon can filled with water and frozen as a puck, and later, as he obtained skates, graduated to a quarry pond and then to the Bay area. In high school, Fred was a Track and Field star winning the Jr. Championship in 1940, the intermediate Championship in 1941 and 1942, and the St. Championship in 1943, collecting the Maundrell Cup, the Langevin Cup, the Bassett Cup and the King Challenge Cup respectively. All of these were coveted trophies at the time. In 1943, Fred joined the RCAF but obtained a leave of absence so he could finish high school and during this period was a member of the Ontario Champion Juvenile “B” Hockey Team. After his discharge from the service in 1945, Fred enrolled at the Ontario Veterinary College and also resumed his hockey career, playing for the Red Wing Jr. “C” Club. In college, Fred once again found himself on the track team, receiving an award for Outstanding Sports Achievement. Fred’s working career began during college when in 1947 he was employed at the Ontario Mental Hospital Farm in Whitby working with large animals. Fred received his DVM from the University of Toronto in 1949 followed by a Diploma in Veterinary Public Health in 1050. For the next 12 years he worked in Public Health out of Toronto, Peterborough, and Belleville improving the safety and quality of milk, meat and milk products in Ontario.