Charles Fredric Foulon

Charles "Fred" Foulon, 96, passed away September 14, 2020, with his family by his side. Fred was born April 13, 1924 on the family farm in Paul, Idaho, to Lila G. “Grace” Pollack and Edward P, moving at the age of eight to the Klamath Basin. He attended Roosevelt, Mills and Riverside elementary schools and later Klamath Union High School where he was manager of the KUHS State Champion football team and on the track team. Fred volunteered his senior year to serve as a paratrooper in the 17th Airborne Army division, where he was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne, Belgium on Jan 4th 1945. He was awarded an Army  Purple Heart and Bronze Star and a medal of appreciation from the city of Bastogne, Belgium. Fred completed his high school degree while hospitalized for his war injuries and earned an architecture degree from the University of Oregon. Fred accepted a teaching position at the Oregon Institute of Technology in the civil engineering technology department where he taught surveying and served as an administrator for 35 years, including as Director of OIT Portland Center, retiring with the rank of Professor Emeritus and a “pioneer” of college. Fred met his wife, Jo Ann C. Foulon (born O’Neill) at a Klamath Falls Armory dance. They were married 71 years. In addition to teaching, Fred drew plans for many homes and buildings in the Klamath Falls area, and designed, built and managed rental property. He designed and built the family’s first home on Painter Street and, at age 76, his last, on Merganser Street at the Running Y. Fred loved spending time with family, particularly at the family cabin at Lake of the Woods where he loved a game of ping pong and touring the lake in his yellow boat, recognizable from a long ways off and still known by fellow cabin owners as “Fred’s”. Fred also loved spending time with friends, including his poker group of 50 years. Fred’s kindness to others is exemplified by his membership in the Red Cross “100 gallon club”, earned by always responding to an urgent plea for his Type 0 negative blood type, and his practice of keeping rents artificially low at his apartments to benefit longtime renters. Fred will be remembered by his children and grandchildren for “Fred’s fudge” at Christmas, made from his mother’s recipe, and his devotion to spending time with them, in recent years frequently sending cards to each across the miles, always making a “happy face” in the “P” for their name for him: “Papa Fred”. Fred was preceded in death by his parents, brothers James, Porter and Richard Foulon and sister Doris Allen. He is survived by his wife, JoAnn; sister Donna Fitzpatrick Maloney; sister-in-law Dorothy Foulon; daughter Michele Soule and son-in-law Ben Soule of McMinnville, Oregon; son Robert and daughter-in-law Theresa of Bellevue, Washington;  grandchildren Liza Womac, Patrick and Matthew Foulon and Megan and Steven Soule; and two great-granddaughters, Leanna and Kara Womac. Interment ceremonies will be held at Eagle Point National Cemetery.  Remembrances can be made to the OIT Presidential Fred Foulon scholarship fund. A celebration of life service will be held in the summer of 2021 at the Lake of the Woods Lodge.