Fred Duda, Retired Food Executive, Dies

Fred V. (Fritz) Duda, 87, a businessman and retired food retailing executive, died Sunday of an extended pulmonary illness at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Duda, an Anaheim resident, was active as a real estate investor and builder before his ailment. He was born in Cermna, Czechoslovakia, in 1904, immigrating with his parents to America when he was a boy. The family settled in Plattsmouth, Neb.

In the early 1920s, Duda came to California, where he worked at a Los Angeles restaurant. He married his wife, the late Fountiene Duda, while living in Los Angeles.

Duda joined the Jewel Tea Co., where he worked in food retailing for nearly 40 years. He first worked for the company in the Midwest but then managed and expanded the company’s home coffee route service to California, starting with Long Beach. In 1952, he became an executive with Jewel in Chicago.

He is survived by a son, Fritz L. Duda of Dallas; a daughter, Fountiene Prince of Thousand Oaks; two sisters, Mary Jorgensen of Huntington Beach and Ann Zeiss of Lincoln, Neb.; nine grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A rosary will be said today at 7:30 p.m. at Hilgenfeld Mortuary in Anaheim. Memorial services will be on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church in Anaheim.

Memorials can be made to the St. Justin Martyr Fred V. Duda Scholarship Fund or to the Fred V. Duda Scholarship Fund at Plattsmouth High School, Plattsmouth, Neb.