Local garage owner remembered for humor
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Freddie Sloan, a mechanic and Vietnam veteran, died of a heart attack Jan.30 in Crossville, Tenn. He was 75.
Friends and family celebrated his life with a meal and stories at the Haines American Legion on March 14.
"His sense of humor was hysterical," daughter Kaitlin McLaughlin said this week. "He said after he passed he wanted to be skinned and made into a lampshade to watch over people." She's keeping his ashes in an urn on a mantle near the lamp. "That's as close as he got."
Fredrick Dunbar Sloan Jr. was born Sept. 17, 1944 in Winfield, Kansas to Fred D. Sr. and Vivian Lou "Pat" Sloan. The family, including two daughters, moved around until Fred Sr.'s retirement from the military. In the late 1950s, they came to Alaska, where Fred Sr. worked as a traveling engineer on construction projects, including in Haines.
Sloan attended Juneau-Douglas High School, where he was voted "best dancer" and "pep king" of the class of 1964. He played drums in a local band, sang in school musicals and served in the Civil Air Patrol.
"Our music teacher used to love to hear him sing," said Gene Keene, a fellow CAP member, high school buddy and lifelong friend.
On graduation, Sloan joined the U.S. Navy and served nearly four years, including aboard the destroyer USS Samuel N. Moore. Military histories say the destroyer fired on coastal defense sites along the Mekong Delta in 1966 and destroyed 18 "waterborne logistics craft" and supply and transshipment points during "Operation Sea Dragon" in 1967.
Once out of the service, Sloan bought a Harley motorcycle and "lived life to the fullest," finding work in Southern California as a trucker, mechanic and traveling salesman. In the early 1980s, he moved to Haines, where his parents had settled. He owned and operated the Second Avenue gas station.
Tim Ward, who operated a competing gas station and fuel dealership, said he and Sloan would outfit their motorcycles with a half-rack of beer on Sundays and drive to the top of Chilkat Pass. "We were competitors in business, but we were friends. Everybody thought we were price-fixing," Ward recalled.
For having "too much fun," his father phoned him and said, "This town's only big enough for one Fred Sloan," according to daughter McLaughlin. Sloan moved to Juneau, married high school sweetheart Nancy Brummeler, and found jobs as a mechanic at garages and at the University of Alaska.
He returned to Haines in 2005, bought property on Beach Road and reopened the Second Avenue service station as "Freddie's Auto." Sloan spent his free time with his daughter and grandchildren and riding his motorcycle.
His health faltering, he moved to Crossville, Tenn. two years ago, buying a spot near high school buddy Keene.
Keene said Sloan had a soft spot for the elderly – working on their cars for free – for military veterans and prisoners of war and family. "He was totally changed when he came back from Vietnam. It really messed him up" Keene said. "But he had all good intentions of returning to Haines someday to be with his family."
McLaughlin said she spoke with her father every day. "He was an amazing dad and my best friend. He had a great sense of humor and an unwavering love for his family and friends, an overall amazing person, who I dearly miss."
Fred Sloan Jr. is survived by sisters Jodie Clarke of Anchorage and Janet O'Malley of Juneau; by daughters Kaitlin McLaughlin of Haines and Tara Janu of Dayton, Nev., and by grandchildren Rylee Sloan and Landon McLaughlin of Haines and Logan Janu of Dayton.
