By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
With Thanksgiving just two days away, the mood at the Nov. 21 meeting of the North Syracuse Board of Trustees was more somber than festive. Trustee Pat Gustafson sat alone at the table to the right of Mayor Gary Butterfield. Missing from her side was Deputy Mayor Fred Fergerson.
Fergerson, 69, passed away unexpectedly Friday, Nov. 17. He leaves behind his wife of 40 years, Pat, and their adult children, Bill Fergerson and Victoria Smith. (See obituary, page 11.)
His colleagues remembered him as a jokester who was obsessed with the latest technological gadgets. The president of Fergerson Funeral Home built his business’s website and introduced live streaming of calling hours and funerals to his clients. Just weeks before his death, according to his colleagues, Fergerson had been showing off his brand-new iPhone.
“He was a techie,” Butterfield recalled. “He had the latest and greatest of everything when it came to electronics.”
Fergerson’s motto, according to the funeral home website, was “Significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Trustee Diane Browning, who appointed Fergerson to the board in 2010, said he created e-cards for birthdays and holidays. One year, he sent a card of the village board members in Santa’s sleigh.
Fergerson’s passing came as a shock to his colleagues in the village.
“When I learned of Deputy Mayor Fergerson’s passing, I was just flabbergasted,” said village attorney Scott Chatfield.
Butterfield said he and Fergerson had just interviewed the village’s new police chief, one day before Fergerson’s passing.
Butterfield said he had known Fergerson for about 40 years. Their fathers were friends, and the two became friends after high school.
“I don’t know that he had a best buddy,” Butterfield said, “but I certainly considered him a friend.”
While Butterfield counted Fergerson as an old friend, Gustafson, who was elected to the board in 2015, mourned her newfound mentor.
“Fred was the kindest and most gentle man I’ve ever met, and he’s helped me a great deal. We’ll miss him,” she said.
According to the Fergerson Funeral Home website, Fred Fergerson was a sixth-generation “Pioneering Fergerson.” His family, who originated in Scotland, settled in North Syracuse in 1826. Today, the Fergerson home and business sit on the very same land their ancestors settled.
“They’re a fixture of the village,” Butterfield said.
In 1977, Fred Fergerson took on his father’s funeral home business, which began in 1948. A graduate of North Syracuse High School, Fergerson went on to earn degrees from Onondaga Community College, SUNY Oswego and Simmons School of Mortuary Science.
Fergerson’s activities spread far beyond his business and his involvement in village government. A certified solo, rescue and master scuba diver, Fergerson was also a senior officer in the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary.
In 2011, he published “His Footsteps are Still Warm,” a book about his 1994 travels to Egypt and the Middle East. There, Fergerson climbed the pyramids in Cairo and retraced the footprints of Jesus. He was a communicant and Eucharistic minister of St. Rose of Lima Church, where he also served on the liturgy committee. Fergerson was a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Masons and numerous other organizations.
Under Fergerson’s tenure as chair of the village’s public safety committee, Browning said North Syracuse has never been safer.
“When I became mayor unexpectedly, on the top of my list was to appoint a trustee to take my place, and I think I did a damn good job,” she said of Fergerson.
Fergerson was punctual to a fault. “I was to the minute, and he was to the second,” said Butterfield, recalling that Fergerson would count down the seconds until the beginning of a meeting, making sure the mayor called the board to order exactly on the dot.
“Fred had his quirks,” Butterfield said, “but that’s what made him Fred.”
