Fred Barber (Fredrick Winston Barber Jr.)

Fredrick Winston "Fred" Barber Jr. was a running back on the University of Georgia's first team under legendary coach Vince Dooley and later a longtime pharmacist and civic leader in Blackshear, Georgia. He died on September 21, 2026, at the Satilla Bluffs Senior Care Center in Blackshear, following an extended illness. He was 83.

Barber was born May 21, 1943, in Bainbridge, Georgia, the son of Frederick Winston Barber Sr. and Ruth McDowell Barber. At Bainbridge High School, from which he graduated in 1961, he became a standout in football, baseball and track, finishing his high school football career with 3,357 rushing yards and 42 touchdowns and earning All-State Halfback, All-Southern and All-American recognition, and a place in the Decatur County Sports Hall of Fame, where local reporting recalled him and teammate Ed Varner as the town's "Touchdown Twins".

He carried that success to the University of Georgia, where he played football from 1962 through 1964. He was on the roster for Vince Dooley's first season as Georgia's head coach in 1964, and his family's obituary states that he scored the first touchdown of the Dooley era against Florida, a game Georgia won 7 to 0, and that he remained especially proud of having played for Coach Dooley and being his first running back. He belonged to the University of Georgia Lettermen's Club and the President's Club, and in 2006 he received the university's Post-Graduate Scholar Award from the National Football Foundation.

After his playing days and further study, Barber built his career as a pharmacist in Blackshear, Georgia, where he became a respected pharmacist, community servant and friend to countless people throughout the Southeast. He served on the Georgia State Board of Pharmacy for ten years and on the board of directors of the Georgia Pharmaceutical Association, and held memberships in the National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. Beyond the pharmacy counter, he served as President and Board member of the Pierce County Chamber of Commerce and of the Blackshear Rotary Club and was a Paul Harris Fellow, and his service extended to the American Cancer Society Board of Directors, the Southeast Georgia Cancer Society, the Boy Scouts of America's Okefenokee Swamp Council, Pierce People for Safe Progress, Leadership Pierce and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter in Pierce County. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Blackshear and its Enriched Sunday School class.

Barber's death was announced by his family through Hart Funeral Home of Blackshear and reported by local outlets including The Blacksheare Times. Tributes followed from those who remembered his football career and his decades of service; sports broadcaster Bill Shanks recalled online that Barber "was a hero in the Sun Bowl that season" of 1964 and said Barber was part of why he chose to attend the University of Georgia. Barber was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Julie Musgrove Barber of Blackshear, his children Fredrick Winston Barber III, Downing Musgrove Barber and Heidi Lyneath Barber, and six grandchildren.