Fred Dietrich felt strongly about making a difference in his community, his family said.
“He certainly wasn’t afraid of a challenge,” said his son and business successor, Jake Dietrich of De Soto. “If he saw a need for something, he just did it. He was so passionate about it.”
Mr. Dietrich owned and operated Dietrich-Mothershead Funeral Home in De Soto until his retirement, and was active in many community organizations. He died April 9 at age 85.
He grew up in De Soto and lived with his family in an apartment above the funeral home his father had founded. Mr. Dietrich and his brother, Bob, went to De Soto High School.
While still in high school, Mr. Dietrich was on a trip to England sponsored by the Rotary Club when he met fellow traveler Rebekah Huffman, who hailed from Blytheville, Ark.
“They kept in touch,” Jake said. “While he was at Westminster, she was at the University of Missouri in Columbia.”
Between his junior and senior years, Mr. Dietrich completed a course at the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science and then went back and finished a bachelor’s degree.
“Both he and Bob came back here and worked with the family business,” Jake said.
At that time, funeral homes also provided ambulance services, and Bob ran that part of the business while Fred ran the funeral home part.
Mr. Dietrich married Rebekah in 1961, and they welcomed Jake in 1964, John in 1966 and Doug in 1969.
Mr. Dietrich joined the National Guard unit based in De Soto in 1962.
“He served for four years,” Jake said. “He did six months active duty in Fort Riley, Kan. That was kind of a common thing; many of his contemporaries did the same thing.”
Mr. Dietrich’s involvement in community affairs and local politics began early.
“The whole family was active in politics,” Jake said. “Bob served as mayor of De Soto and on the (De Soto) school board. My dad was in a lot of things.
“They were cousins to Bill Emerson, who went on to become a U.S. representative.”
The young family led busy, happy lives.
“With three young boys, we were at the Little League field every night of the week,” Jake said. “Our poor mother spent more time in the concession stand than anywhere else. It was just a natural progression for my dad to be on the board.”
The family lived in town, but had a farm on Petermore Lane where they raised Black Angus cattle and alfalfa hay.
The three boys were teenagers in 1981 when their mother died at 40 from cancer.
“My dad’s mother was still alive, living in a house on that same farm, and I had aunts and uncles who helped out as well,” Jake said.
Mr. Dietrich was a charter member of the De Soto Park Board and was involved with Jefferson Memorial Hospital (now Mercy Hospital Jefferson) in Crystal City for many years.
“He spent a lot of time over there and was chairman (of the board) three times,” Jake said. “He did some work with a group that represented nonprofit hospitals in Washington, D.C.”
Jake said his dad had mixed feelings about the sale in 2013 of the hospital to the Mercy system.
“He acknowledged that the hospital couldn’t stay the way it was, that something had to happen,” he said. “But he had put in a lot of work and time over there.”
Mr. Dietrich remarried briefly to a Catholic woman.
“We were raised in a German Evangelical church, the United Church of Christ,” Jake said. “But when he joined St. Rose (of Lima Catholic Church in De Soto), something clicked there with him. Even after they were divorced, he stayed with the church and served on its council.
“He formed the Families of Calvary Cemetery, a nonprofit designed to support the cemetery. Up until a week before he passed away, he still attended Mass every day.”
Jake said it was a smooth transition for the business when his father retired in 2005.
“We had already arranged for me to assume his responsibilities,” he said. “But he didn’t slow down; he was doing a lot of volunteer work, was very busy.”
Then, in 2014, Mr. Dietrich suffered a stroke, which left him physically compromised.
“He was no longer able to drive, and he moved to assisted living at Crystal Oaks,” Jake said. “But he was still mentally sharp as ever. He enjoyed going out to eat, going shopping, going to church. He walked every day until probably a week before he died.”
Mr. Dietrich’s health deteriorated quickly the last few days of his life.
“He went to church on Easter Sunday, and then on Monday, he was exhibiting signs of a cold,” Jake said. “My brother took him to the doctor on Wednesday. By the weekend, he was on hospice and passed away (shortly after).”
Jake said his father will be remembered as a compassionate and understanding man with the force of personality to make things happen.
“He remodeled the funeral home in 1989, at a time when the business mathematically shouldn’t have been able to support it,” Jake said. “But it worked out. If he had an idea about something, he saw it through.
“Not everything went the way he wanted, but even a week before he passed away, he was still writing his own rules.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.