Frederick Louis Rose

Frederick Louis Rose, Jr., 88, of Keizer, died at his home on March 5, 2024 in Keizer, Oregon, after a brief illness. A college dean, university professor, researcher, consultant, and veteran, Dr. Rose was a highly regarded colleague, mentor, and beloved husband and father.

Born in Salem, Oregon on August 1, 1935, Fred Rose began life helping his family raise turkeys as part of the war effort, later assisting his father with logging and sawmill operations around western Oregon throughout his teens.

Fred completed his undergraduate degree at Willamette University, later obtaining his PhD in Botany at Oregon State University, all while starting a young family (marrying the love of his life [Veleda] Jeanne Rawlins on January 6, 1956), working as an x-ray technician, teaching science classes, and serving his country as an Air Force reservist and meteorologist.

Following a post-doctoral fellowship for the Atomic Energy Commission at the Hanford site in Richland, Washington, Fred accepted a professorship at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho in 1970. A gifted lecturer and two-time Professor of the Year, his turn as Department Chair led him to find higher education management more rewarding than research. He completed his career in public service as a graduate program administrator first back at UW/WSU-Tri Cities, then as Dean of ISU’s Idaho Falls branch campus.

Fred loved the outdoors and was an irreverent defender of wild places and sensitive ecosystems (including his support for Western Watersheds). As a lifelong outdoorsman, he hunted and fished throughout the West. Fred was a tough, strong man who grew up a talented football and baseball player (left-handed first baseman), a boxer (he once got in the ring with Jim Thorpe’s son, and didn’t lose), and could extend his body sideways from a steel pole - defying gravity - well past his teens.

He is preceded in death by his sister Alice (Rose) Jones and grandson Nicolas Storey, and is survived by cherished wife Jeanne, daughter Amy (Rose) Storey, son Murray Rose, son Martin Rose, and grandchildren Jackson (and Amber) Baker and Syringa Rose.