Fred Lewis White

Fred Lewis White was born on January 24, 1930, in Tallahassee, Florida, to Emmett and Rosalie White. He passed away on January 6, 2021.

Fred grew up in Albuquerque and attended Albuquerque High School, where he was a member of the state championship football team and graduated in 1948.

When the Korean War broke out, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He trained and qualified for the elite Underwater Demolition Team, on which he served out his enlistment. He had unforgettable memories of this war service, though he only talked about the good ones. He had great disdain for what he called “professional veterans.”

When Fred returned to Albuquerque, he enrolled at the University of New Mexico and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education. In 1961, he married Patricia Walters and began his career in law enforcement with the New Mexico State Police. After two years, he joined the Naval Investigative Service (now the Naval Criminal Investigative Service), in which he served in Dallas, Washington D.C., and the Republic of Panama. From there he went to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, after which he finally came back to New Mexico because he, like Dorothy, believed there was “no place like home.”

Fred was an amateur horseman who occasionally did some team roping. He loved his horse, Butch and his dogs – the favorite being a German Shepherd named Buck, memorable for being the only dog we ever knew who had a tooth capped by the family dentist. He broke the tooth catching rocks and, after having it so carefully repaired, he promptly swallowed the cap.

Fred’s children grew up in Corrales, NM, where he and his wife are longtime residents. Fred taught his boys to shoot the right way and would go to the cliff area in what is now Rio Rancho to practice. He hauled hi daughter and horses to horse shows far and near and had a wonderfully close relationship with her. Fred is survived by his wife and three sons: Bret and wife Emily, Scott and wife Cathy Jo, and Mark and wife Jamilyn, as well as six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. On January 14, he was followed in death by his daughter, Stacy.

After a small funeral service, Fred will be interred in the National cemetery in Santa Fe.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or Shriners Hospitals for Children.