Fred Garlett

Fred Gordon Garlett passed away peacefully in his Claremont, California home on May 29, 2025. The native of Kansas City and 33-year resident of Southern California was 81.

Fred graduated from Kansas State Teacher's College (now known as Emporia State) in 1965, and worked as a high school band director. He then moved on to college, and was the Director of Bands and Music Education at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas; Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville, Tennessee; and then Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. 

After 20 years of teaching music and leading musicians, Fred went back to school and got his doctorate in Adult and Continuing Education from Columbia University in New York. He began the second half of his career in education as the head of the College of Continuing Education, first at Friends University, then at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. He served as dean for the School of Adult and Professional Studies for more than 20 years, and helped develop five undergraduate majors and a masters degree in a collaboration with the School of Business and Management.

Fred served for many years in the administrative side of higher education, but nothing gave him a thrill like being in the classroom. Even as he ran the program, he still taught. Being with students was what he loved most. 

Outside of his professional life, Fred loved his family, sports, travel, and Kansas City. He met his wife, Marti Watson Garlett, at Emporia State, and the two were married for 58 years before her passing in 2023. She was also a teacher, and through a university exchange program they taught together in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. When the two moved to Southern California in 1992, both of them joined the faculty at Azusa Pacific.

Fred is survived by his two sons, Marc and Kyle. He was the Little League coach for both, and he is to blame for their love of barbecue and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Garletts were season ticket holders for the Chiefs for most of the 1990s, and after they moved to Southern California they never failed to attend the game when the team was on the road in San Diego or Los Angeles. If you knew Fred Garlett, you knew he loved the Chiefs.

Fred was able to combine his love of sports with his professional life on more than one occasion, He served as the president of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference from 1985-1990, and from 1998-2012 he was the Faculty Athletic Representative for Azusa Pacific University.

Along with his two sons, Fred is survived by his daughters-in-law, Yan and Carrie, and his two grandchildren, Cade and Ella.

Fred will be laid to rest next to his wife, Marti, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills at 12pm on June 17.