Fred Goetz, Outdoor
Writer, Dies at 83
PORTLAND, Ore.
Fred Goetz, an outdoors writer whose fishing and hunting column appeared in the UE NEWS for nearly 20 years, died
Feb. 7 at age 83. He suffered fatal injuries when the car in which he was a passenger was struck by a vehicle that ran a stop sign at a
high rate of speed, driven by a 17-year-old with a suspended driver’s license.
A native of Baltimore, Md., Goetz worked as a copy boy for the Baltimore Sun and in the Bethlehem Fairfield
Shipyards prior to serving in the U.S. Maritime Service in World War II. He moved to Portland after the war.
Goetz began writing an outdoor column for the weekly Oregon Labor Press in 1955. When 850 workers struck the Oregonian
and Oregon Journal in 1960 and launched an alternative weekly tabloid, the Portland Reporter, Goetz became sports
editor. His columns had already begun to appear in labor newspapers around the Pacific Northwest and from coast to coast.
UE NEWS COLUMN
His "Over the Horizon" column first appeared in the UE NEWS on May 17, 1965 and continued until 1983.
Like his columns appearing in other labor papers, Goetz illustrated "Over the Horizon" with photos he took on his angling jaunts
and with snapshots submitted by UE members and relations that documented success in hunting and fishing.
Goetz received the Izaak Walton League’s Golden Beaver Award for his work against stream pollution caused by chemical
plants and paper mills.
He owned Cameron’s Book Store for nearly 13 years, until 1989, but continued with an Internet book-selling business. In
his retirement, Goetz worked with the homeless and outcast, delivering friendship, counseling, and bags of paperback books from his
business to the residents of cheap hotels, alleys and bridges.
UE News - 4/02
