John Fromm

John Hubbard Fromm passed away peacefully on October 30^th 2016 at the age of 73 in Arlington, Virginia.  He was born July 9^th 1943 in Paterson, New Jersey and moved with his parents and brother to Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1948 when his father took a job with Philips Petroleum.  He attended College High School (class of 1961) in Bartlesville, OK where he participated with the American Field Service as an exchange student to Denmark.  It was this first international experience that set the conditions for John’s future global life, work, and endeavors.  Following graduation from high school he attend and graduated from the University of Minnesota (class of 1965) with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (with minors in Russian and Scandinavian Area Studies).  Following graduation from college he received a Theta Delta Chi fraternity graduate scholarship and studied at the University of Stockholm in Sweden where he continued his graduate studies in International Relations.  After completing school he volunteered for Officer Candidate School with the U.S. Army where he was commissioned as an Ordnance Corps Officer and assigned to the Federal Republic of Germany.  While in Germany he met his wife Gabriele (Gaby) E. Pfau.  Following service in Germany, he completed his final months of active service in Vietnam and was discharged from the Army as a Captain.  John then joined Bank of America in California under their executive management program and served overseas in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, England, Belgium, and the Philippines before returning to California.  While at Bank of America he served as Regional Vice President for Banking Operations and Human Resources (earning a Professional Certification from the University of California in 1992) for UK, Scandinavia, and Africa for five years and then for Southern and Southeast Asia for four years.  Following a successful career with Bank of America in international banking human resources, John decided to transition to the telecommunications field.  In 1994, he accepted a position with Alltel Communications in Little Rock, Arkansas and served as the first director of International Human Resources for Alltel Information Services.   In 1998, he accepted a position with GTE, later to become Verizon, in Dallas, Texas.  While at Verizon he was responsible for establishing the human resources function for Verizon’s South Africa expansion.  During the last several years he dedicated his work to a variety of senior consulting jobs in international business development specifically in financial and telecommunication projects around the globe in Asia and Africa.  This included serving for three years as Chief Operating Officer for Opportunity International Bank of Malawi.  In addition he provided countless hours of pro bono work and support as the Director of Business Development and member of the board for Uproot Poverty One by One, a non-profit organization for over two years until his passing.  His last consulting jobs took him to Myanmar, Azerbaijan, Tanzania, and finally Egypt, fulfilling a number of life long dreams.

John was always an avid man of history, art, and culture who appreciated learning more about the world around him both the past and the present in order to better understand the future.  A true adventurer with a passion for history he always wanted to greater understand and learn about the places he lived or visited.  Connecting with the past was important to him whether walking the grounds of old cities and battlefields or collecting rare historical books, maps, or art.   He was also a connoisseur of fine wines, spirits, cigars, and beers from around the world.   Throughout his life he enjoyed traveling and discovering the wonders the world had to offer and it is these interests, knowledge, and lessons he imparted on his children and friends.  His knowledge, memories, and stories unfortunately will only live with those who remember them.  He never took anyone or anything for granted and truly lived life to the fullest, always young at heart and always appreciating the positive side of things in life and trying to make a positive impact in the world.  We know to the end he was making a positive impact around the globe and to those in his life especially those he loved and those who loved him.   His time to leave this life came too soon and he will be missed by the many who loved him dearly.

He was active with and a proud his sponsor of his high school and college alumni associations as well as a member of the Portsmouth Society.

He is preceded in death by his father Ellsworth Hubbard Fromm and his mother Margaret Pauline (Marshall) Fromm, his brother Alfred Fromm, and daughter-in-law Estelle Fromm.

He is survived by his former wife Gabriele Fromm, of St. Louis, MO; two sons Jens Fromm of Newberg, Oregon and Kevin Fromm, and his wife Heather, of Fayetteville, North Carolina; a daughter Patricia (Fromm) Quesnel of Port Henry, New York; two grand children Jeffrey and Kiren Quesnel and two great grandchildren.  He also leaves behind countless family, friends, and dear loved ones who will miss him greatly.

John was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on July 9^th 2018 with full military honors entitled to him.  His final resting place is at the Columbarium Court 9, Section 3, Column 9, Niche 6.