Fred Barrett Knopp

05/06/1930 - 08/26/2020

On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, Fred Barrett Knopp, in the loving presence of family, passed away at Halifax Health Medical Center of Daytona Beach. He was 90 years old.

Fred was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Elmer and Margaret (Ott) Knopp. After his father died when Fred was 12 years old, Fred, his mother, and his two sisters, Marilyn and Claire, moved to South Bend, Indiana.

He graduated from John Adams High School in 1948, and in that same year entered the Navy, serving on both the destroyer USS Isherwood and the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea before receiving an Honorable Discharge in 1953. A dream to earn an engineering degree at Purdue University was deferred indefinitely when Fred married his high school sweetheart, Inez Eileen (Shoemaker) Knopp, in 1951, and then was recalled to active duty in 1952. Upon being discharged from military service, Fred began working as a bricklayer, a trade to which he had been apprenticed while still in high school. After working with various contractors in the South Bend area, Fred formed his own masonry subcontracting business, which he operated until 1974.

In that year, he moved his family to Deland in order to be closer to his mother in the sunset years of her life. After a brief stint as an aluminum products salesman, Fred returned to the building trade, earning his General Contractor's License in 1976, and applying himself with his tireless energy to both residential and commercial construction until his retirement in 1995. At that point, he occupied himself in the way he knew best—helping anyone in need with everything he could give.

He is predeceased by both of his parents, his sister Marilyn; his wife of 42 years, Eileen, and one granddaughter, Danielle Nicole Duncan. He is survived by his sister Claire; his daughter, Susan; three sons, Steven, Brian, and Brad; one granddaughter, Alani (Knopp) Floyd, one great-grandson, Dominic Floyd, and his loving companion, Yukiko Maria McGraw.

A Funeral Mass will be held for Fred at 10:00am on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Deland. A Celebration of Life event is to be held in December, the details for which will be provided to friends and family. In lieu of flowers, the family request that you send a donation in his name either to the Sierra Club or to Defenders of Wildlife, two of many charitable organizations to which he contributed generously.

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