Fred Seitz

John Frederick (Fred) Seitz, Jr. died at his home in Hyattsville, Maryland, on April 26, at age 73.

Born in Baltimore on October 26, 1952, to the late John Frederick Seitz and Mary Hart Seitz, Fred was raised in Arbutus, Maryland, and graduated from Catonsville High School in 1971.

He earned his undergraduate degree and master’s degree at the University of Maryland, College Park. He completed a PhD in criminology and taught there for several years.

He was an analyst and researcher in forensic science during the 1980s at St. Elizabeths Hospital, which at that time was part of the federal government.

Fred went on to serve as an analyst or program officer with the National Center for Health Statistics, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

He authored or co-authored reports on subjects including the release of patients from St. Elizabeths and on persons found not guilty by reason of insanity. At the National Center for Health Statistics, he worked on decisions for gathering good data for “Healthy People,” the massive effort to measure progress in the public’s health. He authored or co-authored reports including, “Monitoring Violence in Healthy People 2000,” and “Monitoring Air Quality in Healthy People 2000."

In 1986 he met Kathryn (Kathy) Foxhall on a canoe trip on the Shenandoah River when the guides assigned them to the same canoe. They were married on April 30, 1988, and have lived in the Hyattsville home they bought that year since that time.

Fred had an abiding love for a huge range of subjects from spy craft to folklore. He earned a black belt in Karate and taught that sport to adults and to children.

He had a special expertise on bats and gave talks on them and the current threats to their well-being. A member of Bat Conservation International, he joined expeditions with nationally renowned bat expert Merlin Tuttle.

A lover of the wild areas of Canada, Fred travelled to Banff National Park, Newfoundland and the far northern Baffin Island. He told of finding himself on an overloaded ferry boat with many Inuit people and others in very icy waters.

For several years he wrote a column called Nature Nearby in the Hyattsville Life and Times. One contribution was a poem on: “To leave the leaves or not to leave them? That is Autumn’s question pending.”

In addition to his wife, Kathy, Fred is survived by his niece Michelle Salmon and her wife, Sarah, of Annapolis; nephew John Salmon and his wife, Kathleen of Gettysburg; great nephews and niece Conor, Liam, Leo and Emma also of Gettysburg; and his committed caregiver, Michael Freeburger of Hyattsville.

Proceeding him in death is his sister Mary Carol (Seitz) Salmon and brother-in-law John Salmon.

Also surviving Fred are the many members of his brother-in-law John Salmon’s family who included Fred and Kathy in family gatherings over decades.

Contributions in Fred’s memory may be made to Bat Conservation International.