Fred Karpoff
OBITUARY
Fred Karpoff Jr., 102, Naval Veteran and Lifelong Problem Solver
Fred Karpoff Jr., a Navy veteran, engineer, volunteer, and family man, passed away on May 15, 2025, in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 102.
Born on December 25, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, Fred was the eldest of four siblings. He served with distinction in the Pacific during World War II aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. After the war, he earned a master’s degree in metallurgy and, in 1951, married Marian Poole—his partner and love of nearly 74 years.
Fred’s early career was interrupted during the McCarthy era when he was wrongly stripped of his security clearance and job at the newly formed NASA. He sued the U.S. government and in a landmark decision, prevailed, before deciding to rebuild his professional life at Chase Brass and Copper Company, where his talent for solving problems and relating to people flourished.
In the 1970s, Fred put his career on hold to volunteer with the Institute for Cultural Affairs, working on grassroots community development in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Chicago. Later, he and Marian settled in Seattle to be closer to their grandchildren, where Fred quickly became involved in his neighborhood community, the University Methodist Temple congregation, and later, the Bayview Retirement community.
Fred had a knack for connecting with people—friends and strangers alike. He built houses and fixed cars with his hands, helped his kids and grandkids with science projects and math problems, and surprised everyone with his beautiful prose when he sat down to write. He and Marian sang harmony to each other’s melodies, early on as their kids listened from the backseat of their station wagon in long nighttime drives, and later on as they would sing each other to sleep at night.
And he danced. It was at a dance where he met Marian, where his lifetime knack for making a polka look graceful led to one date, then another. It was no surprise that Fred was still dancing even in his last few days.