Obituary of Albert Joseph Froelich

For those of you who do not know me, I am Jim Beaupre. I am honored to be here today to share some thoughts about Al Froelich—my dear friend who was also a loving husband, devoted father, good neighbor and colleague, and excellent physicist.

Almost 50 years ago, in September of 1958, outside of Jaeger hall at St. Procopius College, I met my college roommate, Al Froelich, Fro, as he was called then and some now. I weighted 120-lbs and Al weighed about the same. We were the same height and were gawky stick men, but boys really. It was a more innocent age, though we would have denied it then. And so began a life-long association, with Al, my best friend.

This physical similarity led to some pretty amusing situations: In particular, our math and physics teachers often confused us. One of them, Father Willie, had a Middle-European accent, which we all promptly began to imitate. No one was better at it than Al. There was nothing like the feeling of being looked at squarely in the eyes by Fr. Willie and hearing him say, Froelich, what is the right answer- Al ate this up, of course, unless I muffed the answer. I kept waiting for Al to say, But, I m Froelich!, and I really wished Father Willie would say, Yes, Beaupre, I know . When the one time Dr. Rose Carney confused us, I thought she was just kidding us, and I didn t get it for a long time, but I think Al did, right away.

A few times, I visited his family home in the Chicago suburbs and met the Froelichs in their natural habitant, Bensonville. Afterwards, I thought I understood Al better, especially his drive and determination. He was always proud of his Chicago-area roots and there was always a trace of Chicago in his speech. His brothers and sister were there for him then as they are here now.

I learned a lot with Al and from Al. I learned how to really play cards, Pinochle, especially. I had played at home and elsewhere, but with Al and our other classmates, it was Pinochle on steroids. Non-stop Pinochle in the dorm, can you believe it? That was a real measure of our innocence the 60s were happening and we played Pinochle. I was sucked in many times because Al would, on purpose, use deceptive body language and speech, a practice that he continued as long as we played cards together, well after college.

Al was very intelligent and did well in college. He was a natural knowledge sponge and he was persistent then, we called it stubborn. In an argument, he would never gracefully give up a point and always stuck to his guns.

He was a class officer, and VP of the student government. But his real love in college was physics. At that time, we shared the view that the world would be better if run by physicists. Al graduated and went to Notre Dame for his Ph.D. and I went elsewhere, but we kept in touch, then and afterwards. He visited me at grad school and we occasionally exchanged letters.

I remember one letter in particular: The words just jumped off the page and into my brain and I imagined that I heard Al, imitating Fr. Willie, say, By the way, Beaupre, I just met the most beautiful girl . That, of course, was Gail, his future wife and life, whom I met several years later.

Later, when I was looking for work, I got in touch with Al. He was here in Huntsville working at Teledyne Brown Engineering. He said that there were openings for work I could do and that Nick Passino was also there. I applied and so our friendship continued here in Huntsville. I think frugal Al got $500 for me.

Al was a good physicist and at work he was especially good as a troubleshooter. He had a reputation for this, and not long ago Rex Geveden, formerly of head of NASA Marshall and now president of Teledyne Brown, reminisced to me about how Al had helped one of his projects.

Throughout the years, it was a pleasure to watch Al take pride in his daughters, Gisela and Adrienne. He loved to brag on their accomplishments. He especially took pride in them when they became the next generation of Froelich Ph.Ds.

About this time, Al became a little nutty about his genealogy and talked enthusiastically about German great-great grandmas and traced the path of the Froelichs across Europe and North America. I confess, I sometimes tuned him out, because, after all, I m a 13th cousin of Madonna and have a 3rd cousin who can prove it.

Tribute by Jim Beaupre

July 26, 2008

Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Huntsville, Alabama