What makes a real estate broker? Fred, born to a real estate broker mom and hotelman-builder father, was always hell bent on exploring his surrounds. Beginning in the second grade Fred took random solo bus trips throughout the city of Richmond, rapidly expanding to all of the Oakland-San Francisco bus routes. As he migrated to Clearlake he spent his youth visiting his parents projects of his mom
and helped his dad with house repair, house moving and hotel management. It was as a teenager Fred learned golf course management (at family owned Bandon’s Westmost Golfcourse), almond orchard management, a family owned farm in Clearlake, and dairying at the family dairy south of Bandon. It was during the stint at the almond farm, that Fred operated a caterpillar tractor before he has a permit to drive. During high school he was an apprentice printer at the Clearlake Observer for three years. He became a skilled photographer, both behind the lens and in the darkroom, linotype operator, typesetter, press operator plus the normal printer devils duties of cleaning up and melting lead. When Fred turned 17 he passed his private pilots license exam and became certificated pilot. Beginning in 1967 Fred attended the University of Santa Clara, during college he painted and maintained buildings in Bandon. His mom had branched out to ranching and farming. So Fred could be seen painting a house, hauling antiques from Butterfield and Butterfield Auctions in San Francisco or chasing his sister’s horses. Undergraduate work included stints at Gonzaga University and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. The summer of 1970 Fred managed the Whistlepunk Inn which is now Billy Smoothboars. He learned fry cooking, hiring and training employees and accounting and all other aspects of restaurant management, including the skill of grease trap cleaning. During two years of Economics graduate study at UC Davis, Fred continued to raise his family plus acquire his instrument rating as a pilot. In 1974 his real estate bug was firmly implanted as Fred received his first commission selling family property. He immediately earned his real estate license and began his career with his brother David L. Through out his 34+ years at David L. Davis Real Estate he helped develop and sell David L. Davis and Frances Cavoretto Subdivisions including selling 100’s of homes in Bandon. Projects include Seabird Terrace, Seabird Dunes, Golf Link’s Estates, Strawberry Point, Sophie’s Addition, Pelican Point, Seabird Village, and many smaller projects. As previously mentioned, Fred’s exploring nature was not lost on his children. After son # 1, David, graduated from University of Oregon, he worked as a real estate agent with his dad, Fred and with his uncle, David L. then earned his PhD from OSU and married Sol. David is now teaching Botany at National Autonomous University of Mexico and has three children. After completing High School, Son #2, Ben, moved to NYC to study at AMDA and he is now a real estate broker and vice president with the Corcoran Group in Manhattan. He and his wife, Milena, live with their two children in NYC, and have a second home in Colombia. Son #3, Matt, is a registered Civil Engineer in Del Mar, California and is vice president of Devine Engineering. Matt graduated from Santa Clara University also. Daughter Courtney Freitag lives in Bandon with her husband Todd and two children. Son # 4 Adam, is a recent Bandon High graduate and works with the Garrett’s and their grocery store chain. Fred’s wife Keeli is a mortgage broker with Bank of America. Their three daughters attend Bandon High and University of Oregon. Fred, never a stranger to work will show you his SS earnings report to show that he has been paying into the ‘system’ since he was 14 years old. When he works for his clients, they know it. Early in 2009, he had active escrows in 5 Oregon counties, Coos, Lane, Douglas, Curry and Lake! Also, Fred Gernandt’s first cousin, Dorothy Pirone, is Babe Ruths only child.
