Frederick Ernest Krueger was born in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, in 1939, the son of Fredrick and Audry Krueger. He attended public schools at Sleepy Eye and graduated from the local high school in 1958. From the fall of 1958 until he graduated in the spring of 1962 he studied teaching science and social studies at Mankato State College. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science, he taught at schools in Moville and Keokuk, Iowa. In 1965, Krueger was accepted in the Russian Regional Studies Program at the University of Washington. He left the program in 1967 for a teaching position in social studies at Cle Elum High - Roslyn School. In 1969, Krueger received his Masters degree from the University of Washington.
Soon after his arrival in Cle Elum, Krueger launched several student-oriented projects to capture the regional history of the upper Kittitas Valley. His many students became involved in historical community projects, oral history programs and various other activities to preserve the area’s rich heritage. The most notable was the Roslyn cemeteries preservation and documentation project carried out in partnership with the Roslyn Kiwanis Club. Krueger managed the project from 1974 to 1996. He was one of the founding members of the Upper Kittitas County Heritage Council in 1973 and was very influential in saving the historic Salmon la Sac guard station from destruction in 1977. He was a recepient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study China and Japan from 1988 to 1990. In 1993, Mr. Krueger was recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Grant that allowed him to study in China for five weeks. Between 1994 and 1995, he was selected by Governor Lowery and the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction to teach in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He retired from teaching in June of 1996. Thereafter, he collaborated on several state, county, and regional history books and wrote numerous articles for local newspapers.
From the guide to the Frederick Krueger Collection, circa 1870-2000, (Central Washington University Archives and Special Collections)
