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Fred Norman Rabe was born in Woodlake, California on September 19, 1925. He passed away in Fresno on August 2, 2017 at the age of 91. He is preceded in death by his son Alan Rabe. Fred is survived by his wife Jan Rabe of Fresno; daughters Carol Irwin of Central Point, Oregon and Janet Schneider of San Diego; step-sons Joseph Bedrosian of Coalinga and Lanny Bedrosian of Lompoc; four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. A Memorial Service will be held at the Campus Bible Church, 4710 N. Maple Avenue in Fresno on Saturday, August 26, 2017 at 10:30 a.m. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Fred N. Rabe please visit our Sympathy Store. In his own words… extracted from “My Life Story” by Fred Norman Rabe “It all started on September 19, 1925 when my mother gave birth to her first son Fred Norman Rabe. Actually, it started in April of 1919 when Charles Bryan Rabe and Eunice Gertrude Ragle were married. At the age of 6 in 1931 I started the first grade at the Woodlake Elementary School. Sometime between the 5th and 7th grade I started playing the trombone and started in the school band. At age 14 I was a freshman at Woodlake High School where among other things I participated in placing the first large “W” for Woodlake on a hill overlooking the town. It remains today! During my freshman year I made the varsity baseball team, became one of the 3 pitchers, and even started several of the games. I was shy and did not date or go to school dances even though I could dance. On December 7, 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbor will be a date and time I will never forget. I was 16 years old. During the summer of 1942 we moved to Fresno. I turned 17 about 2 weeks after the start of my senior year at Roosevelt High School in Fresno. On April 14, 1943 I joined the Navy and started my aviator training. In the early spring of 1945 we departed Glenview for Pensacola and additional basic training (flying in a Steerman). By then he war in Europe was over and the war in the Pacific was nearing an end. So just before being 20 I was discharged and came home in August of 1945. I went to work for JA Ross as a surveyor. After 2 years it was obvious that a college degree was necessary to become a Civil Engineer. Around Christmas of 1948 I decided to marry June McCormick (met her on a blind date). I asked her to marry me and she accepted with one condition; that I go back to school and get my degree in engineering. So we set the date of our marriage for January 29, 1949. Since she and Carol, 18 month old daughter, were very important to me, I started at Fresno State College in the spring semester. Not an easy decision because there were now five persons in the family. Alan was born on Father’s Day, June 11th 1950, and Janet was born on August 25th 1951. We also had purchased a home in the Mayfair district of Fresno. I graduated from Fresno State with a degree in General Engineering in June 1951. I went back to work for JA Ross as a young engineer. In 1953 the state board advised me that because my degree was from Fresno State (not accredited then) I was not qualified to take the civil engineer examination. While the decision was difficult, June encouraged me to enroll at the University of California in Berkeley. We sold the house and car and moved to Berkeley. I worked fulltime and still finished the classes with all “A’s”. Graduated Spring of 1954 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. We returned to Fresno and I started back to work with JA Ross. I took the CE test and passed in the spring of 1956. Also I took the Licensed Land Surveyor test and passed in the fall of 1956. February 1, 1965 we departed from JA Ross and Associates and soon started Fred N Rabe Engineering. In early 1972, June started having headaches. Tests determined she had a tumor in her brain. She did not recover from the surgery in May of 1972. In early July I received a call from Mary Pagel inviting me to a barbecue with her and her daughter Holly. Later that month I invited Mary to dinner. In December we decided to get married. January 6, 1973 was set as the date for the wedding. During 1977, on April 23rd Janet gave birth to Jason; their first child and my first grandchild. On July 14th 1979 Janet presented her second child; a daughter that she named Suzanne. On July 24th 1980 Jan gave birth to Denise. Alan was very proud of Denise and invested a lot of time with her encouraging her, especially math, and in other activities including skiing. On September 1, 1981 we saw the birth of Mary’s first granddaughter, Elizabeth Yarris. On June 7th 1982 Janet had her third child a daughter she named Stephanie. On January 25th 1988 Alyson Yarris was born. In 1988 I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and since then my life has been more complete, peaceful and secure. On July 31, 1999 we had another crisis. Our home on caught fire at about 1:30 AM and burned. The house was a total loss. On March 31, 1995, Alan did not survive a traffic accident. Mary succumbed due to a massive stroke at about 5:00 AM on January 21st, 2000. I believe that if I hadn’t had a strong faith in God, I could have been in a bad condition after losing 3 members of my family within a few years. I don’t know how people survive if they don’t have a deep and abiding faith. But wait, there’s more! One evening in early July, I received a telephone from Jan Curry with an invitation to go dancing. I thought we ought to meet before we went dancing. The rest is history, and we were married on September 16, 2000. Jan has two sons; Joseph and Lanny. Joe and Melissa have 5 boys; Jacob, Zachary, Caleb, Kyle, and Wyatt. Lanny and Tracy have 2 boys and a daughter; T.J., Travis, and Dallas, who was born after Jan and I were married. I’ve had a wonderful life, full of family riches and blessed by God!”

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Fred N. Rabe

September 19, 1925 - August 2, 2017