Fred S. Rabe was born on March 5, 1918 in Ogden to Fred C. and Maude Stratford Rabe. He graduated from Ogden High School in 1936, Weber College in 1938, received a B.S. in agronomy from Brigham Young University, and an M.S. degree in earth sciences from the University of Utah in 1971. He completed post graduate work at Winona School of Photography in Warsaw, Indiana. He married Helen Smith on June 21, 1950, and had five children. Fred started his career at Weber State in 1945 as a physics, chemistry, and agronomy professor. In 1946 he started the photography department. He managed all of the photography services at Weber State including, photographing events and faculty, photographing students for the yearbook, taking photographs for the newspaper, and then developing and distributing all of those photographs. He was an advisor to the fraternity Alpha Rho Omega and a member of the WSC Alumni Association Emeritus Club. He was popularly known as the “Absent-minded professor” among the students. He died on October 21, 1982.