FRED M. BYERS, LT, USN

Fred Byers '18

Date of birth: May 2, 1895

Date of death: December 3, 1923

Age: 28

Lucky Bag

From the 1918 Lucky Bag:

FRED MERRITT BYERS

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Freddie" "Swede" "Freddie Best" "Beers" "Friz"

CAN you stretch your imagination to the extent of picturing a sawed-off Swede with a build like the Baron, an underslung chassis, a face like the war-map of Germany, and a smile as open as a Pittsburg bar on Saturday night? Well, that smile is Freddy. For, no matter how the game is going, how heavy the drag is, or how much his name is decorating the Academic bill-boards, it never fades. When you feel blue, go see Caruso and get him to break it out and tell you about Christmas leaves he has left. Ask about Olaf's crab cake-walk down the aisle of Keith's or "Who knocked me down?" You will catch the twinkle in Freddie's eyes and come away with a new punch.

Beers weighed in at about 130, but thanks to the rugged Navy training and the rugged Navy bean he has rounded out to the proportions of a $1,000,000 pork packer. If he had a greater overall length in proportion to his beam and draft there is no telling what his athletic record would have been. For all sports are alike to Freddie, if they require nothing more than strength, speed, judgment, skill and nerve. "They ain't no men living what can pass him on the ball-room floor." And when the links are in good condition he even manages to develop tonsillitis so that his game of cow-pasture pool shall not suffer.

When more strenuous sports fail, the Swede sings for exercise, and his whiskey-tenor has been the subject of much adverse criticism and the bane of the existence of the Ninth Company. However, it is really not as bad as it sounds, and for three years his sylph-like form has graced all public performances of the choir and glee club.

But Freddie's characteristic is his smile, for it is a smile that wins friends, and there is a spirit behind the smile that keeps them.

"I say, Chaffe, 'at a boy."

"Say, Dawn, how's it to pipe down?"

"Feeling low tonight, ain't yuh, Chaffe, boy?"

Manager Basketball; Basketball Squad (4, 2); Baseball Squad (4, 2, 1); Football Squad (2); Choir (4, 3); Glee Club (3, 1); Hop Committee; Buzzard.

The Class of 1918 was graduated on June 28, 1917 due to World War I.

FRED MERRITT BYERS

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Freddie" "Swede" "Freddie Best" "Beers" "Friz"

CAN you stretch your imagination to the extent of picturing a sawed-off Swede with a build like the Baron, an underslung chassis, a face like the war-map of Germany, and a smile as open as a Pittsburg bar on Saturday night? Well, that smile is Freddy. For, no matter how the game is going, how heavy the drag is, or how much his name is decorating the Academic bill-boards, it never fades. When you feel blue, go see Caruso and get him to break it out and tell you about Christmas leaves he has left. Ask about Olaf's crab cake-walk down the aisle of Keith's or "Who knocked me down?" You will catch the twinkle in Freddie's eyes and come away with a new punch.

Beers weighed in at about 130, but thanks to the rugged Navy training and the rugged Navy bean he has rounded out to the proportions of a $1,000,000 pork packer. If he had a greater overall length in proportion to his beam and draft there is no telling what his athletic record would have been. For all sports are alike to Freddie, if they require nothing more than strength, speed, judgment, skill and nerve. "They ain't no men living what can pass him on the ball-room floor." And when the links are in good condition he even manages to develop tonsillitis so that his game of cow-pasture pool shall not suffer.

When more strenuous sports fail, the Swede sings for exercise, and his whiskey-tenor has been the subject of much adverse criticism and the bane of the existence of the Ninth Company. However, it is really not as bad as it sounds, and for three years his sylph-like form has graced all public performances of the choir and glee club.

But Freddie's characteristic is his smile, for it is a smile that wins friends, and there is a spirit behind the smile that keeps them.

"I say, Chaffe, 'at a boy."

"Say, Dawn, how's it to pipe down?"

"Feeling low tonight, ain't yuh, Chaffe, boy?"

Manager Basketball; Basketball Squad (4, 2); Baseball Squad (4, 2, 1); Football Squad (2); Choir (4, 3); Glee Club (3, 1); Hop Committee; Buzzard.

The Class of 1918 was graduated on June 28, 1917 due to World War I.

Loss

Fred was lost on December 3, 1923 when his aircraft collided with another near the North Island Naval Air Station, San Diego. Two others were also lost in the incident.

Other Information

He earned his wings as naval aviator #2947 on August 11, 1921.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In 1912, Fred requested that local football teams contact him for a game with McKees Rocks.
In December, 1917, he sailed from Rio de Janeiro to Ellis Island. In January, 1920, he was on the USS Nevada at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Fred married Mary Elizabeth Sheppard on June 29, 1921, at her home in Pensacola. Their son was William.
In 1900, Fred’s family lived in McKees Rocks, and he had a brother named Teodor who was born March, 1899. In 1910, the family lived in nearby Stowe Township, and Teodor was not listed.
Fred’s father was John S., a carpenter, and his mother was Priscilla who died in 1916. His sisters were: Iva born September, 1887 (Mrs. E. S. Moorehead of Baltimore,) Fay born November, 1889 (Mrs. Irwin C. Walstencroft of Grove City,) and Mary born September 1891, a teacher who died in May, 1933 (Mrs. Norman C. Young of Sharon.) His brothers were: Walter born November, 1883; Benjamin, born September, 1885, who became president of the General Contracting Corporation; Wayne born April, 1893; Carrol/Carl born May, 1897; and John, Jr., born 1904. By 1920, his father remarried a woman named Hattie.

He is buried in Florida. The Pittsburgh Daily Post (December 20, 1923) reported he was born in Punxsutawney and survived by his wife, Elizabeth Sheppard Byers, and son William Sheppard Byers. Additional survivors were his father, three sisters, and five brothers.

Photographs

From the 1918 Lucky Bag

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.