Fred and his wife Irene were born and spent many years in England, coming to NZ in 1975 with their young family, twin daughters and a son.  They settled in Napier and apart from their first Sunday in the country and their subsequent periods overseas, they have called OBC (or Riverbend Road Chapel as it used to be known) their spiritual home.  They built a house on the hill in Napier and lived there for 30 years until acquiring a section and building a home in Havelock North, where they moved in 2007.
 
Their three children all married New Zealanders and have families of their own, each having a son and a daughter, thus giving Fred and Irene six grandchildren, ranging in age (as at November 2011) from 13 to almost 19.
 
Until 2001 Fred worked as a Quantity Surveyor in Napier and during that time he and Irene had two extended periods (a total of 4½ years) in the Solomon Islands where Fred set up an office for his NZ employer.
 
In the early 1990’s Fred felt a call to embark on full-time theological study and so in 1994 he and Irene moved from the Solomons to Dallas, Texas where they enrolled at Dallas Theological Seminary.  They graduated in 1996, Fred with a MA degree in Biblical Studies and Irene with a Certificate of Graduate Studies.  On returning to NZ they both began to get involved with the Bible College of NZ (now Laidlaw College) in Hawkes Bay and Fred finally abandoned his QS work and became Dean of Studies at the HB Centre of BCNZ in January 2001.  Irene was also involved in an administrative role and both of them were active in teaching some of the courses.
 
BCNZ closed a number of Regional Centres, including Hawkes Bay, at the end of 2006 and after a couple of years of involvement part-time at the Manawatu Centre and with the Distance Learning operation of BCNZ, Fred and Irene ‘retired’ at the end of 2008.
 
In February 2009 Irene was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and after surgery and an extended period of chemotherapy she went home to be with her Lord in May 2010.  Since then Fred has continued to remain active as he pursues, with varying degrees of success, his enjoyment of golf, genealogy and gardening.  Fred preaches occasionally at OBC and also at a number of other churches in Napier and Hastings.