Rupa Mathur
Fred is the past president of the International Club, and an active member on whom the club relies greatly for guidance, support and advice.
Fred’s lineage is fascinating. Fred was born in Bolivia to Dutch parents. Fred’s father was born in the Dutch colony of East Indies (Indonesia). When his father was sixteen years old he went to Holland to study and become a mining engineer. During this time, he met Fred’s mother. He travelled to South America to work in the copper mines. While he was in Chile he married Fred’s mother by proxy; his mother at that time was still in Holland. During the Colonial days it was possible to marry by proxy. In the Netherlands, the term used was “getting married by glove”. His father’s uncle stood in Fred father’s place during the wedding ceremony wearing a white glove. Fred’s mother travelled to South America in 1938 where he and his two brothers were born.
When his father received the news of starvation in Holland in 1944, where Fred’s mother and her family were living and also of internment and POW camps in Indonesia where Fred’s father’s family was living, his father decided to join the Dutch army, and travelled to Surinam, where he became an officer. He was then stationed in New York. They settled in a suburb of the city.
Fred graduated from Bryant College in 1963 and enlisted in the Army. While serving in Germany, he visited Holland for the first time, took an overseas discharge and stayed with relatives and learned the Dutch language. When he returned to the U.S. he got his CPA qualification, and worked as an auditor for Price Waterhouse in New York City. He then joined Union Pacific Corporation. During this time, he met Diane, his wife. When he passed his CPA exam, he asked Diane to join him to celebrate the occasion which led to several dates, followed by a marriage proposal. They have one son named Fred. Fred traveled to different parts of the U.S. because of his job. The highlight of his career was ringing the New York Stock Exchange opening bell in October 2001, a month after 9/11.
Following retirement, they moved to Robson Ranch, because the Robson houses seemed the best built among all the communities they had looked at, and it was also close to friends they had made in the Metroplex and to DFW. Fred and Diane are involved in the International Club, the library and Living Well among other activities. Fred is an amazing cook and once a year he gives a party for the International Club. He cooks numerous Indonesian dishes including rijsttafel (rice table). Diane and Fred love to read, travel and cruise to different parts of the world. They travel to Holland for reunions, and frequently to Indonesia. They visit a bridge in Bali that his grandfather built in the north of Bali, which is still used by pedestrians.