“Quirky character-actor kind of guy” translated the world into poetry, music, theater and art
Frederick Whiting Bird died peacefully with family at his side on March 12, 2025, in St. Albans, Vt. The cause of death was pneumonia. Fred was born on May 2, 1954, in Evanston, Ill., the second child of Anne and Charles Bird. After stints in Charlotte, Toronto and two Buffalo suburbs, his family landed happily in East Aurora, N.Y. He lived in western New York until 2021, when he moved to an assisted-living residence down the road from his sister, Lucy, in Burlington, Vt. Born with Rh incompatibility, for which today’s proactive treatment was not yet developed, Fred got off to a shaky start involving intensive therapy and a complete blood transfusion soon after birth. He more than made up for those early anxious days, becoming a joyful and talented extrovert, a quirky character-actor kind of guy with a remarkable command of words and music across many genres. As early as elementary school, Fred was growing into what we might now term a “creative”— curious, smart, insightful, and able to translate his observations and understanding of the world into poetry and art and onto the stage. He was equally adept at producing fine, serious writing and theater as he was at making friends, classmates and family laugh, fueled by his prodigious sense of humor. Fred’s happy high school years in East Aurora — as accomplished actor and gifted student chosen by classmates to be one of two graduation speakers — culminated in a gap year and then one semester of college, where the illness that was to challenge the rest of his life first presented. Fred’s life is a both a story of lost potential and of perseverance and lifelong creativity. He was diagnosed with mental illness in the 1970s. Although he did not write a Broadway musical or become the New York Times theater critic, as many had predicted, he made his mark nonetheless. He continued to write and appreciate music virtually every day of his life, organizing his sometimes disordered thinking into meaningful artistic form. Until August 2024, Fred was writing regularly and tooling around his residence, sometimes pushing his walker a little too fast. Everything changed quickly in his last few months, when he experienced a number of falls, ER visits, COVID-19, hospitalizations including spinal decompression surgery, surgical rehab and, ultimately, a short-lived move to a skilled nursing facility, relying on a wheelchair. Perhaps…
“Quirky character-actor kind of guy” translated the world into poetry, music, theater and art
Frederick Whiting Bird died peacefully with family at his side on March 12, 2025, in St. Albans, Vt. The cause of death was pneumonia. Fred was born on May 2, 1954, in Evanston, Ill., the second child of Anne and Charles Bird. After stints in Charlotte, Toronto and two Buffalo suburbs, his family landed happily in East Aurora, N.Y. He lived in western New York until 2021, when he moved to an assisted-living residence down the road from his sister, Lucy, in Burlington, Vt. Born with Rh incompatibility, for which today’s proactive treatment was not yet developed, Fred got off to a shaky start involving intensive therapy and a complete blood transfusion soon after birth. He more than made up for those early anxious days, becoming a joyful and talented extrovert, a quirky character-actor kind of guy with a remarkable command of words and music across many genres. As early as elementary school, Fred was growing into what we might now term a “creative”— curious, smart, insightful, and able to translate his observations and understanding of the world into poetry and art and onto the stage. He was equally adept at producing fine, serious writing and theater as he was at making friends, classmates and family laugh, fueled by his prodigious sense of humor. Fred’s happy high school years in East Aurora — as accomplished actor and gifted student chosen by classmates to be one of two graduation speakers — culminated in a gap year and then one semester of college, where the illness that was to challenge the rest of his life first presented. Fred’s life is a both a story of lost potential and of perseverance and lifelong creativity. He was diagnosed with mental illness in the 1970s. Although he did not write a Broadway musical or become the New York Times theater critic, as many had predicted, he made his mark nonetheless. He continued to write and appreciate music virtually every day of his life, organizing his sometimes disordered thinking into meaningful artistic form. Until August 2024, Fred was writing regularly and tooling around his residence, sometimes pushing his walker a little too fast. Everything changed quickly in his last few months, when he experienced a number of falls, ER visits, COVID-19, hospitalizations including spinal decompression surgery, surgical rehab and, ultimately, a short-lived move to a skilled nursing facility, relying on a wheelchair. Perhaps…