0n February 4th, Fritz Weatherbee, Newspaper and television reporter of great renown in the state, and a ninth generation New Hampsherite, addressed the Rotary Club of Nashua regarding, growing up in New Hampshire. Fritz was born at SNHMC when it was known as Memorial Hospital. After being born in 1936, he grew up in Milford and his first memories were of World War II starting at Pearl Harbor. He finds it hard to believe he is the age he is and does not feel his age.
He is New Hampshire thru and thru. His first known relative in NH came here in 1744.A variety of “Speak NH like a Native” stories were told. The members were greatly entertained. His story of how he ‘wrote’ “Speak NH like a Native”, tape recording his stories and ‘idea-rs’ that later thru the publisher became the book and a regular annuity much to his chagrin.
He is not a historian or smart guy, but he enjoys playing one on TV. He feels he is somewhat dyslexic and has a hard time spelling. In spite of this challenge he has published 10 or so books. He feels respect comes more from being published than any of his other TV or Radio work. Surprisingly he feels TV is much more challenging to produce than writing a book.
We learned that he is frequently confused with Willem Lange, who is an older (84) outdoorsman from Vermont. He is also a writer and appears on public television doing outdoorsy things. He is often confused with Fritz and vice-versa. They both are now comfortable playing their doppleganger’s role as needed with autographs etc.
Fritz ‘winged’ it thru a number of great NH jokes and stories. He entertained questions and provided answers with depth and nuances special only to NH.
He has 3 brothers, 1 sister, 1 son, two grandchildren. His aunt was a good friend of Bette Davis of Hollywood. He spoke of a concert he produced for Bonnie Raitt at Temple mountain.
We all enjoyed a tremendous NH Classic at Rotary today!