Fred Rydholm Dies of Cancer

A longtime U.P. teacher who made himself one of the region’s best-known historians has passed away.

Fred Rydholm was a Marquette native who taught in the city schools from the early 1950s to the early ’80s.

He also served 3 terms as Marquette mayor over the years.

But he may be best known locally for writing.

20 years ago, Rydholm published a huge 2-volume history of the U.P., “Superior Heartland: A Backwoods History”, that he’d been working on since he was in college.

And he kept publishing until 2006.

But he said for many years he never considered himself an historian.

He thought of himself as a storyteller instead.

Fred Rydholm died of cancer Saturday night at his home in Harvey.

He was 85.