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WebPostRobert de Fremery |
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To those who share my belief that we are capable of achieving a far more just society than what we have achieved so far and who are willing to keep working toward that goal. Robert de Fremery
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Very little is known about Robert's childhood years. However during this time his father James de Fremery III was a stockbroker from 1922 to 1934 in San Francisco and also during the 1930's co-founded Onox Inc., a medical company that resembled a modern-day bio-tech startup and which Robert later became President of and retired from. Of note is that his great grandfather, Jacobus (James) Petrus “Ko” De Fremery (1826-1899), co-founded one of the first banks in San Francisco, The San Francisco Savings Union in 1862 which he was president of for about twenty-five years.
Robert, at the age of 26, married Susan Atkins (1919-2006) from San Francisco in February 1943 and with whom they had four children; Phillip (b.1946), followed by Katherine (b.1948), Mary (b.1950) and Dorothy (b.1952).
During Worl War II Robert served as a finance officer in the United States Army stationed in England until he retired with the rank of Major in 1945 while his wife Susan was employed in SanDiego as an aircraft stress analyst.
After the war they settled in Mill Valley, California until approximately 1952 when with four children they moved to a larger home on Bolinas Avenue in Ross, California where they would live until approximately 1992 when they finally moved to Santa Rosa, California for the remainder of their lives.
Robert de Fremery worked for most or all of his career at Onox, Inc. in San Francisco, a medical company co-founded by his father, James de Fremery III. He was Vice President until becoming the company's second President and CEO in approximately 1965 upon the retirement of his father. Under Robert’s leadership ONOX developed solution application tools such as trays, sponges, and super sprayers. During his career he was a member of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Robert De Fremery had a lifelong interest in economics and politics and became one of the most consistent voices for monetary reform in America with the publication of Money and Freedom in 1955. He championed the ideas of one hundred percent reserve banking and increasing the money supply in proportion to population growth. He was also the author of Rights vs. Privileges in 1992 and contributed numerous articles to professional journals, notably Land and Liberty (London, England) and The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, which also published his 1967 debate with Walter S. Salant, Senior Economic Fellow at the Brookings Institution from 1954 to 1976 (Washington, D.C.), "Should Banks be Permitted to Borrow Short and Lend Long?".
Among the economists closely involved with de Fremery's research and findings were Elgin Groseclose, Martin Bronfenbrenner of Duke University, Edward S. Shaw of Stanford University, Milton Friedman (1976 Nobel Laureate who while at the University of Chicago agreed to read, prior to publication, the entire manuscript of Money and Freedom), William F. Rickenbacker whose book "Death of the Dollar" (1968) made extended reference to de Fremery's work in the field of money and the noted cross-disciplinary thinker and Pulitzer Laureate Ernest Becker.
Later an advocate of tax (land) reform, Robert de Fremery taught for some years at the Henry George School of Social Science in San Francisco. He soon realized the need to merge those reforms with his previously proposed monetary principles into a "Unified Theory" which he maintained was critical to the survival of all free nations and made this merger the purpose of his second book Rights vs. Privileges published in 1992. From the Introduction he writes:
"Few Americans are aware of how close we came to the establishment of an authoritarian state during the depths of the Great Depression. In 1934 a Fascist coup was actually planned in this country. It was abandoned when General Smedley Butler refused to act as "leader" and published his report of the plot. A congressional committee investigated the incident, confirmed the existence of such a plot, and then proceeded to 'whitewash' the whole affair! The press said very little about it. Some papers even tried to laugh it off. But that was not something to laugh about either then or today."
Robert de Fremery died November 7, 2000 at the age of 84 in Santa Rosa, California and was cremated with no known final resting place. His wife Susan Atkins de Fremery died in July 2006 at the age of 86 also in Santa Rosa, California.
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Legacy
De Fremery Park in Oakland, California is named after his father, James de Fremery III and became Oakland’s first municipal playground when it was purchased from the family in 1907.
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Books
Money and Freedom (1955)
Rights vs. Privileges (1992)
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Articles
"AM Answers Criticisms of Its Policy Toward Gold Standard" - The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (November 3, 1955)
"Banking and Monetary Reforms to Preserve Private Enterprise" - The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (June 7, 1956)
"Our Unsound Monetary System and Measures for Reform" - The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (November 20, 1958)
"Our Unsound Tax Laws and Measures for Reform" - The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (July 7, 1960)
"What To Do About the Dollar" - The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (September 23, 1965)
"Should Banks Be Permitted To Borrow Short and Lend Long?" - The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (July 20, 1967)
"Banking Reforms to Stop Periodic Liquidity Crises" - The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (July 9, 1970)
"Monetary Requirements Of A Free Society" - Paper delivered at the 1979 Joint Georgist Conference, San Francisco, California.
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Links
Robert de Fremery Obituary (2000) - Ancestry.
Robert De Fremery - Find a Grave Listing.
The Commercial and Financial Chronicle - FRASER (St. Louis FED)
The Commercial and Financial Chronicle - Wikipedia
Land and Liberty (London, England)
National Association of Manufacturers.
ONOX History.
Council of Georgist Organizations.
Henry George School of San Francisco.
The Georgist News, sponsor of the 1979 Joint Georgist Conference.
Georgist Journal.
The Henry George Institute, for Understanding Economics.
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Version 1.0 W.A. Haugen
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Last Modified: January 19, 2022.
Origination date of page January 18, 2022.
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