Marshall M. Fredericks Extended Biography

Fredericks was born January 31, 1908 in Rock Island, Illinois. A graduate of the Cleveland (Ohio) School of Art, he studied in Sweden, Germany, France and Italy, traveling extensively in Europe and North Africa. He taught in Cleveland and at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan for more than nine years. He volunteered for the armed services during World War II and served in the Pacific and Far East.

A winner of many important awards, Fredericks exhibited his work throughout the United States and abroad. Many of his sculptures are in national, civic and private collections.

He received the Gold Fine Arts Medal of the American Institute of Architects, the Gold Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York, the Gold Medal of Honor from the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, and the Henry Hering Medal from the National Sculpture Society. In 1966, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the Michigan Association of the Professions. In 1968, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement and the President's Cabinet Medallion from the University of Detroit. He received the Governor’s International Achievement Award from Concerned Citizens for the Arts in Michigan in 1993.

Fredericks was an academician of the National Academy of Design, a fellow of the International Consular Academy, a fellow of the National Sculpture Society, a life fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters, an honorary member of the Michigan Society of Architects and belonged to the American Institute of Decorators, the National Society of Interior Designers and Beta Sigma Phi. Other memberships include the Federation International de la Medaille, the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, the Norse Civic League, the Rebild National Park Society, the Danish Brotherhood, the Sons of Norway, the Nordmanns Forbundet and the Royal Society of the Arts in London, England.

He has received citations from:

University of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan

Dana College, Blair, Nebraska

State of Michigan

American Institute of Architects

Michigan Society of Architects

National Society of Crippled Children and Adults

People-to-People International

People-to-People Committee for the Handicapped

City of Aalborg, Denmark

Michigan Medical Society

Vanfore Foreningen, Denmark

American Scandinavian Foundation

Cad of Detroit, Michigan

National Association for Retarded Children

Royal Academy of Art, London, England

Sons of Norway

Statens Institute for Blinde, Svagsnede, Denmark

University of Oslo, Norway

With Urban Hansen, lord mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark, he co-founded DIADEM, or Disabled Americans’ Denmark Meeting. This was established as an exchange program between Denmark and the United States for disabled young adults.  Fredericks also co-chaired DIADEM-Return and DIADEM Leader programs. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the People-to-People Committee for the Handicapped, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Rebild National Park Society and Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

In 1963, King Frederik IX of Denmark conferred upon him the Knighthood of the Order of Dannebrog. In 1971, King Frederik IX conferred upon him Knighthood First Class of the Order of Dannebrog. King Olav V of Norway, in 1972, conferred upon him the Order of Saint Olav, First Class. In 1978, Queen Margrethe of Denmark bestowed upon him the Commander's Cross of the Order of Dannebrog. In 1995, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden conferred upon him the Commander's Cross of the Order of the North Star. He also was the recipient of 21 other foreign decorations for his sculpture and humanitarian accomplishments. Fredericks served as the royal Danish consul for Michigan from 1965 until 1995.

He married Rosalind Bell Cooke in 1943 and was the father of five children. They had eight grandchildren. After World War II, Fredericks resided in Birmingham, Michigan, and maintained studios in nearby Royal Oak and Bloomfield Hills until his death on April 4, 1998.