Fred Barber (Fredrick Winston Barber Jr.)

Fred Barber died on Monday, 21 September 2026, at the Satilla Bluffs Senior Care Center in Blackshear, Georgia, following an extended illness, surrounded by his family. He was 83. No specific medical cause was publicly disclosed. Hart Funeral Home of Blackshear handled arrangements. Visitation and a funeral service were held on 24 September 2026 at First Baptist Church of Blackshear. A further visitation and graveside service took place on 28 September 2026 at Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, in the Bulldog Haven section. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister Priscilla Bailey. Survivors include his wife Julie, children Fredrick Winston Barber III, Downing Musgrove Barber and Heidi Lyneath Barber, six grandchildren and his sister Brenda Martin.

Fredrick Winston Barber Jr. was born on 21 May 1943 in Bainbridge, Georgia, to Frederick Winston Barber Sr. and Ruth McDowell Barber. He graduated from Bainbridge High School in 1961 as a standout in football, baseball and track and as an Eagle Scout. He later married Julie Musgrove; they shared 58 years of marriage and raised three children in Blackshear after he settled there in the early 1970s.

Barber played for the University of Georgia from 1962 to 1964 and was on Vince Dooley's first team in 1964. After completing pharmacy studies he opened Barber's Pharmacy in Blackshear and operated it for 50 years. He served a decade on the Georgia State Board of Pharmacy and on the Georgia Pharmaceutical Association board, and held national pharmacy association memberships. In 2006 he received the University of Georgia Post-Graduate Scholar Award from the National Football Foundation. He was inducted into the Decatur County Sports Hall of Fame.

Barber was a member of First Baptist Church of Blackshear and its Enriched Sunday School class. He led or served the Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, Blackshear Rotary Club, American Cancer Society and Southeast Georgia cancer efforts, Boy Scouts Okefenokee Swamp Council, Leadership Pierce and the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. Family, hunting and Georgia football remained central pleasures alongside pharmacy work.

Barber is remembered both as an early Dooley-era Georgia running back and as a half-century Blackshear pharmacist whose civic leadership spanned pharmacy regulation, Rotary, chamber work and youth and cancer causes. Local sports writing and fan tributes linked his college career to later community life in Pierce County.