Frederick Francis Silski

Growing up in the Chicago suburb of Riverdale, Fred was the oldest of five children. He met the love of his life, Karen Bishop, soon after he had joined the Navy. Fred married Karen in Riverdale on December 9, 1967, and they moved to San Francisco the following day where he had been stationed and continued his military service at the bay area naval base. Before long his ship was transferred to the Long Beach navy base. Fred and Karen moved to Long Beach, and met what would become lifelong friends in the church, and started their family, welcoming their first child, Kim in 1969. Fred went on to serve two tours in Vietnam on the USS Somers as a fire control technician.

After serving his country, and with a GI Bill in hand, Fred attended Cerritos College and then Cal State Fullerton earning a Bachelor of Science degree. Fred and Karen moved with Kim to Anaheim Hills in 1976, and soon after had their second child, Todd, in 1977 and third child, Katie in 1978.

Fred enjoyed a career as a computer engineer and traveled to Asia and Europe many times for business trips and often was able to bring Karen along for the adventure. He had an entrepreneur spirit and started a company, building and shipping computers all over the world. He offered his computer skills to the church, building their first server system in the 80's, and to any friend or family that needed computer and software help.

In addition to his devotion to family, Fred was also an active member in his church congregations. At first Bethany Lutheran in Long Beach where he and Karen were active in the Couples Club, and for many decades attended St John’s Lutheran in Orange.

As a father, Fred taught his children to be kind and helpful to all and could be counted on to enthusiastically support their school projects and hobbies. He spoke proudly of their successes, even bragging to all who would listen about the good grades his children received on challenging school assignments…especially those assignments he helped shape so that “we got” an A!

While in his later years Fred experienced limitations due to MS, he loved time with his family and friends who admired his strength and humor when faced with these challenges. Worth noting as well, Fred was a devoted Angels baseball fan who never missed a game on TV. And if the Angels were playing poorly, he would simply switch over to watch a recorded game that they won. Fred always sided with the Angels.

He is survived by his wife Karen, daughter Kim and her husband John (Parbst) and their children Hannah and Lukas, son Todd and his wife Robin and their children Robby and Amaya, daughter Katie and husband Ted (Tuggle) and son Garen. Also siblings Pat, Bob, Rick, and Dave and their families. He will be missed by all.

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