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Sam and Carol Fredericks leave lasting legacy at LHU

LOCK HAVEN — The Fredericks Family Guest House is just one of many contributions Samuel H. and Dr. Carol Whitcraft Fredericks have made to Lock Haven University.

In addition to the Guest House, the Fredericks’ support of the university includes one of the university’s signature landmarks, the Fredericks Family Memorial Carillon, located in front of Stevenson Library.

Sam and Carol are the largest philanthropic donors to Lock Haven University.

The Fredericks also endowed a scholarship for rising junior and senior students, and sponsored the Samuel H. Fredericks Leadership Seminar, which brought leaders from Pennsylvania business, government and education together to address strategies for change.

In addition, Carol served on the Lock Haven University Foundation Board of Directors from 1993-95.

Samuel Jr. was born in Lock Haven in 1912 and attended the model school at Central State Normal School, now Akeley Hall at the University. He graduated from the Lawrenceville School in 1931 and went on to Yale where he received his undergraduate degree in 1935, and a graduate certificate in transportation the following year.

An avid railroad enthusiast, his management career in the railroad industry spanned 25 years. He worked for both the New Haven Railroad and the New York Central Railroad until his retirement in 1967.

During World War II, Samuel served his country as a naval officer for four years, retiring from active duty in 1945 as a lieutenant commander. He married Carol Whitcraft of Austin, Texas in April 1991.

In 1985 Carol’s husband of 37 years, Franklin Pierce (Chris) Whitcraft III — financial editor of The Austin American Statesman — passed away. While attending a Yale University alumni meeting for the class of ’35, Carol met Samuel H. Fredericks of Lock Haven, whom she married in 1991.

Carol Whitcraft Fredericks earned her doctoral degree from the University of Texas and was the founding president of Whitcraft Consultants, which focused on organizational and executive development and research. She was also deputy director and coordinator of the Governor’s Executive Development Program of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin from 1985 until her retirement in 1992.

Samuel received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University in 1993 and Carol received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 2000. In 1998, the State System of Higher Education recognized the Fredericks with the prestigious Everly Award for Philanthropy for the contribution to the University.

In the late 1980s, Samuel Jr., who was widowed with no children and lived in Scarsdale, N.Y., decided to return to Lock Haven and refurbish the house at 55 W. Main St.

He and Carol lived there until his death on Dec. 15, 1999. After Sam’s death, Carol moved to Austin, Texas to be with her family. She died there on Feb. 28, 2021.

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