F. Alden Moberg

Fred Alden Moberg was born Dec. 28, 1932, in a rural area of Chisago County, Minnesota. Both of his parents were immigrants from Sweden. His namesake was his father, whose Swedish given name had been translated to “Fred” during immigration formalities on Ellis Island in New York harbor in 1907. Alden’s mother, the former Anna E. Sundberg, emigrated in 1912 at the age of seventeen. His father, a Baptist pastor, and his mother, a nurse, raised five children, the youngest of whom was Alden. Alden died in Salem on Dec. 15, 2022, at the age of eighty-nine.

The family moved to Chicago when Fred left his pastorate to take up superintendency of a retirement community there in 1947. A year and a half later, the senior Mobergs and Alden, who was still in high school, relocated to California, where the parents were resident superintendents of Verdugo Home, a retirement community in Los Angeles. Alden finished his high school education at Eagle Rock High School. For a period of about two years, he took up work as a hospital orderly and postal employee to finance commuting from Los Angeles to Pasadena to attend John Muir Junior College. He then entered Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he gained his baccalaureate degree majoring in English Literature and minoring in Music. He was graduated in absentia in 1957, by which time he had returned to California and again was variously employed to gain tuition for enrollment at the University of Southern California School of Library Science for a Master of Library Science degree, which he achieved in 1961.

Alden spent two extended summers during his college and post-graduate career as a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service. In 1954, he was stationed atop Red Mountain in Umpqua National Forest in southern Oregon. In 1958, he was atop Burney Mountain in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in northern California.

In 1962, Alden was employed by the Oregon State Library. In October of that year, he arrived in Salem to take up his staff position two days before the Columbus Day hurricane that felled and damaged trees on the State Capitol grounds. Despite the inauspicious weather event, Alden reported for his first day of duty on schedule in the immediate aftermath and enjoyed a productive and rewarding career with colleagues at the State Library that spanned thirty-five years to his retirement in 1998. In addition to being a research consultant for state legislative branch employees, he directed services for the blind and physically handicapped and then served as the Library’s liaison to state institutions across the map. From 1981 onward, he was the Library’s Oregon history specialist.

A devotee of choral music, Alden, a tenor, sang in the Calvary Baptist Church choir throughout most of his career in Salem. He also enjoyed rewarding affiliations with Willamette Master Chorus, directed by Wallace Long, Willamette University, Salem, and the Master Works Chorale, directed by Larry Marsh, Linfield College, McMinnville.

Among social affiliations he enjoyed were Vasa Order of America, a Swedish American fraternal organization, the Audubon Society, the Oregon Historical Society, and the Marion County Historical Society and Mission Mill Museum, the latter two having merged as today’s Willamette Heritage Center. He was an adroit and enthusiastic player of Scrabble, the board game of words.

Alden’s passion for natural history and the outdoors took him to all parts of the state to hike and watch birds and wildlife. His extensive collection of state and county maps served him well over the years as he explored and came to know intimately the back roads and byways of Oregon.

Alden was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Anna Moberg, his siblings, Ruth Moberg, Nancy Simmons, and Stanley Moberg, his niece Joyann Moberg, and his nephew Paul Moberg. Alden is survived by his 100-year old brother David Moberg, his niece, Lynette Janssen, and nephews Jonathan Moberg, Philip Moberg, and James Simmons. His family deeply appreciates the support given to Alden in his final years by his friend Elisabeth Potter, the Grace Center for assisted living at the Willamette Lutheran Retirement Center, Keizer, Oregon, and his beloved Calvary Baptist Church family in Salem, Oregon. Also appreciated were more recent services of Salem Senior Helpers, Serenity Hospice, and Golden Nest Adult Foster Care. A memorial service will be conducted at Calvary Baptist Church on January 10, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. Arrangements by Virgil T. Golden Funeral Service.