0657. Frederick Putnam Meader (1930 - 1977) Gender: M
Born: 1930
Died: 1977
0657. Frederick Putnam Meader (1930 - 1977)
Frederick Putnam Meader, son of Nelson Meader (1896-1975) [0564] and Mabel Putnam (1896-1955), was born in Warrensburg, NY May 20, 1930 and was killed September 7, 1977 when he walked forward on a plane's pontoon and into the propeller. The September 16, 1974 issue of Newsweek carried a feature article on his life, captioned "The Call of the Wild." He studied at Ithaca College, Baker University, Arizona State and Boston University, as well as half a dozen other colleges. He earned his M.A. degree in philosophy from Boston University. While there he met and in 1954 married Elaine McCausland, a student nurse at the University. According to Newsweek:
“After five years of odd jobs, European travel and an abortive try at homesteading in Canada, a vague sense of dissatisfaction with civilized life drove them to Alaska...For most of the past 15 years they have lived in the remote Brooks Range of the Arctic interior, 50 miles from their nearest neighbor and 250 miles from the nearest road...Their home was a three-room log cabin; their diet was meat, fish and berries. They fashioned bowls from spruce roots and made clothing from caribou hides.
“The Meaders rarely left their mountains. There were two trips out for medical treatment and in 1967 they took Dion to California for his schooling. Later he returned to Alaska, and the Meaders imported two foster children to play with him. At first the family planted vegetables and had flour, dried milk, raisins and books shipped in from the outside world. But ultimately, going back to nature meant going all the way back. They stopped cultivating the land and decided not to keep sled dogs.
“Fred soon learned to kill the family's meat with a rifle (he intends to take up the bow and arrow later on). We have a soup pot boiling all the time, Elaine reports, 'and we just drop frozen chunks of meat into it. We eat the bones, especially the marrow and the fat, so we don't get protein poisoning; the Eskimo feed the lean steaks to their dogs.”
The Newsweek article concludes that the Meaders soon "may find civilization crowding in on them...The Alaska pipeline will bring a road within 50 miles of their cabin, and to them, that's the equivalent of urban sprawl."
The children of Frederick Meader and Elaine McCausland were:
2336 i. Dion Meader, born February 7, 1957 and drowned in a lake near their home in September, 1974.
2337 ii. Jay Meader, adopted, born about 1956. He was of Eskimo blood.
2338 iii. Heather Eileen Meader, born April 19, 1974.
2339 iv. Dawn Fredericka Meader, born April 21, 1977.