Fred, Who?

From the Toronto Sun over the weekend, we learn who "Fred" is:

When retired phone company man, Frederic Arthur Clark, died in a car crash last Father’s Day, his family expected to be the ones to carry on his memory.

But the Virginia dad of two had the last laugh — and word.

In the months that have followed his death, his rare spirit has been carried, via ethernet and modem and torn clippings tacked on refrigerators, to far corners he likely could never have imagined. There was just something about his written legacy which people have found, well, very human.

Clark — not a professional writer, or a politician, or an entry in a Who’s Who — has joined an unusual, post-mortem fraternity. They are the dead who are remembered, and often revered, by countless strangers, as much for their well-penned obituaries as their well-lived lives.

Read the rest of this story now, at The Toronto Sun or better yet, go read Fred's Obituary, as it was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (preserved online for posterity's sake). Be sure to view (or even sign) Fred's Guest Book and think of Fred, next time you get into a phone booth. "Fred, who?" :-)