Obituary of Frederick MacKinnon

Frederick John MacKinnon was born on June 7th, 1941, in Williamstown, Ontario, Canada and died on October 25, 2021, in Arlington, Texas after a long battle with lung cancer. Fred worked construction most of his adult life, one of his first jobs was part of a construction crew in the Arctic Circle. Fred was on his way to Mexico to celebrate when he stopped off in Buffalo, New York. He walked into a local bar and was immediately grabbed by a very attractive woman who asked him to pretend to be her date. That was a date that lasted the rest of his life. In his construction career, Fred was quickly recognized for his skills managing others, and supervised crews on the Buffalo and Washington DC subways, as well as working with Tri Dal in Texas. But it just working for Fred, by any stretch of the imagination. A die-hard Buffalo Bills fan, there were not many games that he missed, surrounded by friends and a “few” beers. He passed that love of football onto Ginny, working with one of his buddies to help her write up the play by plays at the college football games. Larger than life, Fred always made things interesting for those around him—in fact, while Ginny was busy laboring with the birth of Collin, Dad turned the waiting room into a party—complete with beer, stories, gambling, and laughter. There are so many other stories, we know every one of you have one including the one about the Radar Lounge in Beaumont and a suspiciously deceased tropical fish... We would love to hear all your stories and memories of Fred and would appreciate you adding them in the comments section below. He and Barbara enjoyed camping together, taking many trips as a family in their RV as well as fishing trips with the kids and grandkids. Another of Fred’s passions were his antique cars - restoring, modifying and showing off his beautifully restored 1930 Chevy Sedan. He greatly enjoyed time with the car club and loved to take the car in parades, toting the kids around and bringing it to special events for photo ops. Most of all, Fred was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather, always putting family first. He was always there for all the activities that any of family member was involved in, making sure to be present for them in every way possible. In fact, one of his grandson Collin’s favorite memories was impromptu chess and checkers games with grandpa. Loving family man, good friend and co-worker, Fred is survived by Barbara, their daughters, Virginia and Danielle as well as their son in laws, Paul and Alan. Fred also leaves behind two beloved grandchildren, Collin and Madison as well as many cherished nieces and nephews in Canada and Buffalo. Fred and Barbara’s sons, Timothy and Daniel, predeceased him in death. Services will be held on November 6, 2021, at 10:00 A.M. at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church 5851 New York Avenue Arlington, Texas 76018. A lunch will be provided after the service at the church. We kindly request that all guests, regardless of vaccination status, wear a face mask to the service. We understand local regulations may not currently require facemasks; however, we have chosen to enforce this at the service in order to keep everyone safe as possible.