FOL Volunteer Board Member of the Month!
November 2008
Fred Kirkland
November 2008
Fred was born July 6, 1931 in Proctor, North Carolina on Hazel Creek in Swain County. He is proud of this heritage and often tells stories of growing up there. He often talks about boarding away from home with his aunts during the school year. This was because his father was one of the first park wardens on the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountain national park and was stationed in areas of the mountains that did not have schools. However, he had wonderful summers at those locations!
He graduated from high school at Marion, NC in 1949. During high school he was very active in sports (football, basketball & baseball). He then attended Western Carolina University were he was majoring in Physical Education & Science.
In January of 1951 he left college and joined the US Navy. He spent most of the time on the heavy cruiser USS Los Angeles which made three active duty assignments to Korea during the Korean War. During this time he attained the rank of Fire Control First Class Petty Officer. While in the Navy he married his wife, Pauline “Polly” Keener in January of 1952.
Leaving the Navy in 1954, he attended Auburn University where, in I957, he attained a BS degree in Electrical Engineering.
In December of 1957 he went to work for the Western Electric Company in Winston-Salem, NC. In 1959 he graduated from their Graduate Engineering Training Program. Shortly thereafter he transferred to Bell Telephone Labs where he was engaged in the design of Navy Weapons Direction and Submarine Cable Test Set equipment until 1976. During this time he was active in coaching little league football, basketball, and baseball in the communities of Winston-Salem and Greensboro.
In 1976, he transferred to AT&T Long Lines Overseas. There he was responsible for the planning and testing of Submarine Cable Systems as the telephone cables were laid in the oceans in different parts of the world. His first long lines office was in the World Trade Center in New York City. Later he had offices in different locations in New Jersey. This job demanded that he ride cable laying ships and travel to different parts of the world. This travel took him to east and west coasts of the US, Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa, Taiwan, Japan, England, France, Spain, Canary Islands, Egypt, Greece, Venezuela, Brazil, Virgin Islands, and Porte Rica.
In 1987 he retired from the Bell System and for eight years resided with his wife Polly in Cornelius, NC near Lake Norman. In 1995, he and his wife Polly moved back to the mountains to Franklin, NC (Polly’s home town).
Fred enjoys reading mysteries, woodworking and playing guitar & singing in the Patton String Band. He is an avid fly fisherman, ties his own flies and fishes only native trout waters.
Over the years Fred & Polly have also been blessed with three sons, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
For the last 5 years he has served on the Macon County Friends of the Library(FOL) board and is presently the FOL Membership Chair..