Frederick Loran Roddy of East Middlebury, Vermont, and more recently Haymarket, Virginia, passed away peacefully at the ripe old age of 96 on January 17 at the family home in Haymarket.

He was born in Summit, New Jersey, in 1926 and grew up in Madison, New Jersey. Fred, as he was affectionately known, spent his childhood in what was then rural New Jersey, often bringing a rifle to school and hunting with his classmates on his way to school in the morning and home in the afternoons. The family home was littered with the hides of a variety of animals that Fred had tanned, much to his mother’s dismay. Fred enlisted in the Army in 1943 and was deployed to the Pacific theatre. He served as a lead gunner in his company in the cavalry in the Philippines and received the Bronze Star for meritorious achievement during the Leyte Campaign. At the time, the cavalry utilized mules rather than horses and Fred had several colorful stories of the adventures caused by his independent mule named Red Bluff. He participated in the occupations of Japan and Germany after the war, eventually becoming an instructor at Ft. Sam Houston in the Army Laboratory Technician School. After the war he returned to high school, graduated, and went on to graduate from Seton Hall University. He met Jean Broadfoot of Short Hills while working as a laboratory technician at Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey in 1959. They married in June of 1961 in Short Hills, NJ, and shortly afterwards went to the Netherlands, where Fred taught himself Dutch while attending medical school. The couple’s offspring, Margaret and John, were both born in the Netherlands. After Fred graduated from medical school, the family returned to Millington, New Jersey, where Fred completed his internship and residency at Morristown Memorial Hospital. He continued his career there as a pathologist, and Morris County Medical Examiner, until 1985. After Jean died of ovarian cancer in 1985, Fred moved to Vermont and continued his Army career having reenlisted in the Army Medical Corps prior to Jean’s passing. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia and was the second oldest serving member of the Army during Operation Desert Storm. During this tour Fred met General Norman Schwarzkopf and exclaimed that he had met his father when he was a boy in the 1930’s. Prior to serving in the Middle East, Fred had met Karen Jones of Newington, CT, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. They were married in 1986 and children Stephanie and Jamie were born in Vermont. The couple divorced in 1998. In 2001 Fred married Nancy Ruckgaber of Madison, NJ. Fred continued working, this time for the Choctaw Nation contractors to the Department of Defense as a locum tenens physician and in 2015 retired at the age of 89. For his entire life Fred was an avid outdoorsman and animal lover. He could identify just about any local bird from its call. He loved German Shepherds and had several of them during this lifetime. Asta, the dog that he was initially discharged with from the Army in 1958, was the subject of many adventures including cornering a home intruder until the police arrived, jumping through closed car windows, eating the neighbor’s Christmas roast and their cat, and having multiple run-ins with skunks and porcupines. Since his childhood and over the course of his lifetime, Fred was an accomplished marksman, winning numerous competitions, some on teams with his father. Fred also enjoyed horsemanship and kept horses until his passing. In his later years he enjoyed the company of cats as well, particularly while working on a crossword puzzle, at which he excelled. He also excelled at eating desserts and could pack away a third of a chocolate layer cake, even after a large holiday meal, though no one knew where he put it! In his final days, he was inseparable from Jasper the goldendoodle and was often overheard remarking, “I love this dog!” It was clear that Jasper had an equally complimentary thought bubble. In any setting, Fred brought a pleasant, calming presence, he had wonderful stories from a full life, surprised everyone occasionally with a well-timed zinger, and he will be sorely missed. He is survived by his wife Nancy, children Jamie, Stephanie, John, and Margaret, stepdaughter Ellen Wulfhorst, and grandchildren Jamie, Hannah, Hayley, Jackson, Ellen, and Mason. Fred donated his body to the George Washington University Medical School, but a private family service is being planned for March in Vermont.

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