Fred, (named for Abbot Frederick M. Dunne and Abbot Edmund Obrecht of Gethsemani) joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and was killed in action by bomb concussion aboard the USS Atlanta, light cruiser, during the battle of Savo Straights off Guadalcanal, WWII in the Pacific Theater and was buried on an island there. Fred was the first person from St. Catherine's to be killed in the war. A man from the Nelson Co. area saw the headstone there and, knowing of two abbots from Gethsemani named Frederick and Obrecht, inquired about the name when he came home. The monks sent him to Fred's mother and he told her of the grave and its location.

Mary Jean Peak Owens says he was on the USS Maryland when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor.

Originally At Guadal Canal, he was later interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of The Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, January 11, 1949.

I was told by Dick Peake that my father, Howard, thought "the sun rose and set on Fred.", though I never heard my father mention him.

-Ray Peake

Buried at: Honolulu Memorial
Location: Honolulu, HI, USA
Plot: B Grave: 12