Fred, a former Department of Rhetoric Chair, also served as Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Professor in the Rhetoric Department and the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry.

He took his BA in 1974 from the University of Notre Dame, and his MA (in 1976) and PhD (in 1979) from the Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and the Study of Methods at the University of Chicago. Before coming to Iowa in 1987, he taught in the Rhetoric Department at the University of California-Berkeley, and the Rhetoric and Communication Studies Department at the University of Virginia.

Fred is an ardent student of baseball, as his domination of several fantasy leagues has demonstrated, to the bitter envy of his competitors. Golfers on Iowa City fairways knew him to be long but remarkably inaccurate with every club, including the putter. He claims a 20 handicap, which we think seems a tad optimistic. His wife Deborah Hughes is an attorney, specializing in plaintiff’s work, family law and employment law. They live in Michigan with their brilliant, wildly erratic, and loving border collie Zak.