Frederick H. Krock, Jr.

Frederick H. Krock, Jr passed peacefully to the great train barn and radio studio in the sky on August 26, 2020, at the age of 87. Fred was predeceased in 2018 by his wife of 61 years, Pat Krock. Their children, Alan Krock and Diana Godwin (Rich); sibling, Curtis Krock, his seven grandchildren, Erika, Marshall, Graham, Nathan, Alice, Vince, Aiden, and his devoted cat, Riley, all miss him.

Fred was born May 29, 1933, in Fort Smith, Arkansas to Dr. Frederick and Hazel Krock. He migrated west to attend Stanford University and met his future wife while living in Palo Alto. Pat and Fred were married in 1957, and after experiencing living in Georgia and a memorable time in New York City with Fred working for the Armed Forces Radio, Pat and Fred started their family in the West Portal neighborhood of San Francisco. They moved their family to Orinda, CA in 1972 for many enjoyable years before their final home in Rossmoor, CA.

Fred’s rich bass-baritone voice was familiar to many in Bay Area radio and TV. Fred’s career in radio started by accident when he was thrown into action at Stanford’s campus radio station, KZSU when someone didn’t show up for their shift. He was hooked and went on to be the chief sound engineer and announcer for almost 50 years at classical radio station KKHI and later public radio, KQED 88.5FM. Fred was an amateur radio enthusiast (N6AJV) making lifelong friendships with HAM enthusiasts across the globe. The CB radio added some excitement to our family’s summer cross country drives to visit family in Fort Smith. Fred’s contribution to radio engineering were recognized with his 2018 enshrinement into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. As a longtime historian of Bay Area radio, Fred took advantage of many opportunities to write and speak about his unique career and the history of the Golden Age of radio

Fred’s lifelong passion of all things railways allowed him strong opinions in making the distinction between rail fans and true railway enthusiasts! Fred was a respected rail historian with many years of detailed restoration of trolley cars, street cars and trains. Fred cherished his annual trips to volunteer at the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, Connecticut and found a home for his many talents volunteering closer to home at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction and the Niles Canyon Railway in Fremont. His grandchildren were thrilled to have an authentic train operator as a grandfather! Fred was able to combine his passions of radio and train as the voice over talent for many train enthusiast video productions as well as the familiar docent voice providing the narration for the Niles Canyon Railways Holiday Train of Lights. In some ways, he has not left us as his voice still narrates the museum video that welcomes all visitors to the Western Railway Museum. Upon his passing, his family was pleased to share with others his impressive library of train books and videos. The extended family looked forward to Grandpa’s delicious homemade potato rolls at every family gathering and Fred retained his enthusiasm for authentic Southern BBQ. Pat and Fred shared a love of opera and were dedicated SF Opera Company attendees for the past 40 years, traveling with friends to Bayreuth Festival in Germany to enjoy one of their favorite Wagner opera, The Ring. Pat and Fred were devoted cat owners for most of their 61 years of marriage; that’s a lot of cats. Fred loved his newspapers, spending a full week reading the Sunday NY Times and always ready to speak with authority on most every topic. With travel now allowed, the family had a private celebration of Fred’s life. Memories and condolences for the family can be emailed to krockfamily2@ gmail.com.