‘God’s been great to me’

One person who deserves to claim he’s helped Waseca get to where it is today is 92-year-old Ed Frederick. But, for those who try to thank him, he simply turns the tables. “All I feel is gratitude for my time in Waseca. 

“I’ve been so fortunate in my life,” Frederick expressed. “I’m 92 going on 93. God’s been great to me.”

Despite his age, Frederick still gets around with the help of an assistant. His eyesight limits him a little bit; he cannot drive by himself anymore, and he uses a machine that allows him to zoom in on smaller print on letters or papers. But that hasn’t stopped him from being a “cheerleader” of the community.

“When I hit 92, I decided that God was giving me some extra time,” Frederick explained. “So I thought I should spend a few days asking Him what He wants me to do. I decided not being able to see or drive, I’d become a cheerleader for Him, the family, the community, and for agriculture.”

Frederick is still active in Rotary Club, whose meetings he hasn’t missed in 58 years, is a Waseca Area Ambassador, a member of the Knights of Columbus, and active with the Waseca FFA. But that only scratches the surface of what he’s done for the community.

He’s been around so long and done so much that many forget he isn’t a Waseca native. He grew up in a family of nine children on a farm near Madison Lake, attending All Saints Catholic School there before attending high school in Mankato.

Frederick’s family has a lot of roots in Mankato. Four of his brothers worked at the North Mankato Happy Chef. He joked, “One brother grew the food. Others cooked the food. And I educated people about food.”

It was during his time in grade school that Frederick’s interest in agriculture grew. Thanks to the size of his family (and of many others back in that time), Blue Earth County Aide Leonard Hartness started a 4-H club in the area. “He was smart enough to know if he went to a family that was a size of nine, you could start a club pretty quickly,” he joked.

It was through 4-H that he met his wife of many years, Shirley May. She was a country western singer, and Frederick loved that genre. “We had to get somebody to entertain us for the banquet,” he claimed. “So we invited her. At that time, only my older brother could drive and we went and picked her up and took her home.”

He called her a smart lady, as she forgot her guitar in his brother’s trunk. “My dad noticed that as he would always take the truck up to the creamery,” he claimed. He believes she did that on purpose to have an excuse to see him again.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Shortly after graduating in the late 40s, Frederick attended the Crookston campus of the University of Minnesota, where he received his Bachelor and Master degrees in dairy production and a Ph.D. In physiology. After graduating, he joined the university’s staff of teachers and researchers in 1958.

The Waseca chapter of Frederick’s story began in 1963.

“I was offered a job to be the superintendent of the University of Minnesota Southern Experiment Station and the Southern School of Agriculture the year after Bob Hodgson retired,” he explained. “They bragged that Waseca has the best conditions for farming and claimed it was a great opportunity for me. I talked it over with my wife, and we agreed it would be.”

From there, over 58 years ago, he cemented his legacy as a modern-day Waseca Pioneer, teaching about agriculture until the Waseca University’s closing, pushing for a farming interpretive center in the Waseca area, and getting more involved in Waseca clubs and organizations.

After he and Shirley were married for 65 years, she passed away in 2016. The two were at Colony Court during her period of health issues. He and the family decided that with the help of an assistant, he was more than capable of going back home. He and his family still celebrate her birthday. And these days, Frederick loves any excuse to celebrate life.

“I had one student from Crookston drive all the way down here to celebrate her birthday last year,” he said. “It was great to have a visit from him and his wife.”

It’s the connections he’s made with students that he claims is one of his greatest achievements. “Educators have that advantage over others,” he claimed. “It’s just plain great. There’s no way to explain it.”

He is also very proud of his family. He and his wife have five children. One son, Donald, works with controlled data, while another son, Kenny, works in hazardous waste. All the girls in the family went into the medical field.

Frederick is currently the oldest guy in his family. That gives him more reason to regard every day as a blessing. “God’s been so good to me,” he reflected. “He really has. It’s a joy getting up every morning. I want to continue being involved in the community for as long as possible, because Waseca has been great to my family. I only hope I can show my gratitude for it.”