Dr. Howard Handthorne Frederick
April 1, 1949-August 22, 2021
Howard was born April 1, 1949 in Seattle, WA. During his senior year in California at Indio High School he was an American Field Service exchange student to Austria; this would ignite a lifelong love of travel and exploring other cultures. He had a particular passion for Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Island nations.
He attended Stanford University in the late 1960s, and received his Master’s degree from San Francisco State University. With his first wife, Claire Gorfinkel, he had one daughter, Carrie, born in 1976.
He went on to earn a PhD in International Relations, with a focus on communications, at the American University, in Washington, DC. Later, Howard worked for the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) and the new email venture “PeaceNet.” in California. He won a Fulbright Fellowship to Austria, and in 1992 completed a textbook on Global Communications & International Relations.
Howard and Claire divorced in 1995, and Howard married Dr. Hanna Fejerdy. For the remainder of his life, she was the yin to his yang. He supported and encouraged Hanna’s passion for chocolate making and entertaining. They opened a high tea salon in Melbourne, Australia and Howard enjoyed being Hanna’s right-hand man in service there.
Having been born on April Fool’s Day, Howard had a mischievous, fun-loving spirit. He also subscribed to the “ask forgiveness, not permission” philosophy of life and threw himself fearlessly into adventures.
Howard loved being a teacher. In mid-life he pivoted from teaching communications to entrepreneurship and would go on to mentor budding entrepreneurs in the US, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. He was passionate to not only teach but coach his students to go for their dreams. He kept a sign in his office window at Plymouth State University that read “Inspirando generaciones (Inspire generations).” He took great pride as his students won multiple national awards for their projects.
He taught in Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and the United States and was fluent in Spanish and German. In 2006 he wrote a popular textbook, Entrepreneurship – Theory/Process/Practice Asia-Pacific, now in his 5th edition. He also had his own blog – Entreversity and Vimeo channel.
In a testament to his love of teaching, when pressed on whether he would retire soon, he would say that he planned to die in the classroom. He did, however, finally come around to the idea of life after professor-hood, and sadly did not live long enough to enjoy his beautiful retirement home and community in Mexico. In true Howard fashion, he died at his desk, preparing his lectures for Plymouth State University for the start of the academic year.
Hanna and Howard attended the Starr King UUF, Plymouth NH prior to moving to Lakeside. They became members of the Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico in 2021.
He leaves behind his devoted wife Hanna, sister Heidi, daughter Carrie, stepchildren Kinga and David, and cousins Posie, Allison and Matt.