Download PDF of this full issue: v49n1.pdf (28 MB)

Fred Wallace, RIP

By Muriel Hogan

On February 22, 2018, my beloved partner Alfred Loren Wallace walked on. He had been sleeping for several days and peacefully slipped away. But while he was awake, he recognized me and other friends. He smiled when I played his favorite music: Django Reinhardt, Doc Watson, Whistlin Alex Moore, the Band, and the Grateful Dead. The last thing Fred said to me was "I love you."

Fred and Muriel.

Fred grew up in Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the first child of Marvin and Edith Wallace. He and his siblings Marva, David, and Mary Sue enjoyed living on their family farm, where they grew raisins, and later pecans.

Fred went to Stanford University as a National Merit Scholar and earned a master's degree in German Language and Literature. While working on his PhD, he taught at the University of Illinois Circle Campus in Chicago. But like many of our generation, our lives were disrupted by the war in Vietnam. Fred became a draft resister, writing to his draft board:

"Gentlemen: I will not report for induction today nor at any other time.

Sincerely, Alfred L. Wallace."

He and other draft resisters started Omega Graphics, a print shop that produced anti-war and anti-draft materials for organizations including the Chicago Area Military Project and Chicago Area Draft Resisters. Fred's own federal case went through appeals and was rejected by the US Supreme Court, which decided it was "non cert." Fred won his case because his draft board wanted to punish him for his anti-war activities. Justice William O. Douglas said that this action impugned the good reputation of the Selective Service.

Fred moved from Chicago to Milwaukee in 1972, when he and I fell in love. From that first day right up to a few years ago, Fred and I had one long conversation. It would start as soon as we woke up, making jokes, talking politics, looking up birds, and arguing about anything we read in The New York Times. I will miss that conversation.

In the late 1970s, we got interested in computers through the Whole Earth Catalog and bought our first computer in 1983. We would sit at the keyboard side by side and take turns driving it. We performed for some years with Redwing, singing songs of labor unions and anti-war movements. We enjoyed being members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War even though Fred had been a draft resister and I was an ex-Air Force brat. We helped VVAW research the health effects of Agent Orange. Later, we spent several years volunteering as patient escorts as part of the Milwaukee Clinic Defense Coalition, facing down vicious anti-abortion protesters.

Fred was never entirely healthy after his battle with viral encephalitis in 2006, but we had several good years before his dementia set in. Our last big trip was to Santa Fe, visiting wonderful museums, eating Mexican-style food, and driving through the mountains. We had good adventures closer to home, going to the Sheboygan art museum, walking around the Madison farmers market, and cooking large amounts of enchiladas and pinto beans. We visited my sister Priscilla and her family often and became honorary grandparents to Payton, Dan, Sam, Tanner, and Tyler. Fred got so much joy from being "Papa Fred."

We made so many good friends over the years that Fred even enjoyed Milwaukee's snow and ice, although he'd grown up in the desert. In our lives together, we made our own sunshine. I will greatly miss Fred, but we shared 47 beautiful years, and I'll always love him madly.

Fred (center) at VVAW event, 1980.

Fred and Muriel at the VVAW Dewey Canyon IV Demonstration in Washington, DC, May 12, 1982.

Fred and Muriel (center) with the Milwaukee Chapter of VVAW at a Milwaukee campout.