Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
About 10 days ago the Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular announced they were pushing ahead with the 2021 derby and scheduled the 10 day affair for August 27th to September 5th.
The announcement was made in an interview with Derby Co-Chair Chris Geberdt.
When the recording stopped, Chris Geberdt took a second to tell me he had been called home to Owen Sound as his father, Fred, was in grave condition.
Owen Sound is small enough and Fred Geberdt’s profile is high enough that his ailment wasn’t a secret in the community, but at that moment, hearing it from Chris, it rendered a sense of pending reality.
A week later, Chris and I were talking again, this time about the passing of his father who had been a driving force for decades with the Sydenham Sportsmen Club and the Salmon Spectacular.
Fred Geberdt was well known in many circles.
In hockey season, he was a regular supporter and frequent winner with the Attack Pak.
As a teacher his influence was generational. At the Salmon Spectacular the joke was that virtually every prize winner had been in his class at some point in the time.
As a further indication, Chris says when the employees of the Brian E. Wood Funeral Home came to the house, they quickly related that Mr Geberdt had been their teacher.
And among his passions, there was no question the Salmon Spectacular was as much a part of his heart as the veins, the ventricles, the valves and the aortas.
Chris Geberdt says everything you touch at the Salmon Spectacular has Fred Geberdt’s fingerprints on it and as a tribute to his father, Chris Geberdt has promised to carry on his father’s legacy with the annual fishing festival on Owen Sound’s waterfront
I’m Fred Wallace