Ferdinand "Fred" Edward Spring

Ferdinand “Fred” E. Spring, Jr. was born in Davenport, IA, on December 20, 1930. He was
raised in Davenport and graduated Davenport High School in 1949. After working for two years, he
joined the US Air Force in January 1951. His basic training assignment was at Lackland AFB in
Texas. Following that he was assigned to Radar Tech Training at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS. In
November of 1951 he was sent to Korea and spent the next 11 months at Pusan AFB helping to keep the radar operational on the runway. During his Radar Tech Training at Keesler he went to a lake near Hattiesburg, MS, for an afternoon of swimming and exploring the area with some other airmen from Davenport who were also training. While at the lake he met Joanne Quarles who was a student at Mississippi Southern College. When he left Keesler to be assigned to Korea he was engaged to be married to Joanne when he returned. His parents in Iowa wanted to meet her before he left the states, so subsequently she traveled to Iowa while he was on his pre-deployment leave to meet his family. A year later on Thanksgiving Day he landed back in San Francisco. Fred and Joanne were married on December 20, 1952, in Long Beach, MS, in a Baptist church with half the town there to witness the event. Sixty four years and 8 months later, their three sons and two daughters- in- law, David Mark (Kathy) Spring of Bella Vista, AR, Ferdinand E. (Karen) Spring, III of Dubuque, IA and Jac Spring, Winona of MS; eight Grand Children; and six Great-Grand Children are the happy result of the marriage. Places they have lived include Lake Charles, LA, AFB, while Fred finished the last two years of his four year enlistment in the Air Force and in Starkville, MS., where Fred earned a BS degree in Industrial Engineering at Mississippi State College. Following graduation he was employed by Ralston Purina Company at the Davenport, IA, plant, the Sharonville, OH, plant and then to Checkerboard Square in St. Louis where he worked in the R&D lab for seven years. In 1977 he accepted a transfer back to Davenport where he worked as a Project Engineer for the remainder of his career with Purina until he eventually retired in 1989. He worked a total of 33 years for Purina which included some employment before he enlisted in the Air Force. He and Joanne lived in Blue Grass, IA, for the last ten years they were in IA. In 1995 they decided to sell that property and motor home their way to Florida. After touring the state for a couple years they settled in the Fox Run subdivision in Tavares, FL. To date Fred and Joanne have lived in Tavares for 22 years. He has been active on the HOA Board and in other positions in the HOA organization in Fox Run, and has valued the friendships and activities of the community during his time in Fox Run. His passing on September 3 closes the last chapter of his journey through life and he shall be missed by his family and friends. Memorial donations may be made to Cornerstone Hospice Foundation, 2445 Lane Park Road, Tavares, FL 32778 or to the American Diabetes Association, 2451 Crystal Drive, Suite 900, Arlington, VA 22202 ( www.diabetes.org ).