Fredric Ray Judkins
May 9, 1953 – December 17, 2022
The One and Only Totally Amazing Derf!
a.k.a., “The Magnificent Man in the Sexy Spats”
I met Fred on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
June 5, 2011, to be exact.
In the Carriage House at the Banning Museum.
He was dancing.
I was immediately taken in, not only by his dancing skill, but also by his gentlemanly demeanor, his delightful sense of humor … and his joy for life.
Over the next few months of long email conversations and sharing a variety of cultural events with friends, I learned a lot about this amazing man and his love for the Lord.
However, as every red-blooded, 21st Century American girl does, I “Googled him” to see what else there was to know.
And that’s how l learned that he’d outlasted leukemia.
I was already amazed by Fred. And when he let me read the manuscript of his “cancer book,” I was even more amazed by his ability to place his trust fully in the Lord’s goodness and to depend on the Lord’s love for his very survival.
Fred inspired the content for my first book, Ephesians 5 Romance, which I dedicated to him. Together we produced couple dances in the OC and a few years later in Whittier.
We danced everywhere we went.
From museums, to churches, to parks in LA and the OC, to theaters, at Technicolor on Isabel (where he was a greatly admired Emmy-winning sound supervisor), on the campus at Vanguard University, on the Newport Pier on the Balboa Peninsula, at multiple Denny’s Restaurants, at McDonalds in Burbank, the Dickens Faire in San Francisco, Parks and Rec in Portland, Oregon, and even in a couple of Forest Lawn’s most famous cemeteries.
Thus my motto: Always be ready to dance!
Fred loved the fact that we both went to Biola University, although we weren’t there at the same time. Cancer free for 24 years, he died suddenly from a heart attack the week before Christmas, his favorite time of the year.
Fred was brilliant, gifted, funny, encouraging, and the Absolute Best Man I have ever known. I have no doubt that he’s dancing in Heaven right now.
Happy Birthday to My Dearest Fred!
Thank you for being yourself and for doing it so well. My life is so much richer because you were in it. You are deeply loved and greatly missed.
Yours Always,
Debi
