Former Department of Public Works Superintendent and memoirist Fred K. Hanack of Dartmouth died at the age of 94 on Nov. 28, 2020.

Born in Lenin, Germany on April 19, 1926, Hanack became a Wehrmacht soldier in World War II at the age of 17, fighting in Eastern Europe for just over a year before he was captured by Russian forces in Budapest in 1945.

He spent nearly five years in Russian prison camps before his release in December 1949 — during which time he found out that his parents had committed suicide and his 15-year-old sister had moved to Berlin.

“In that misery, everybody lost hope,” he said of the war during an interview at the release of his autobiography, ‘Wanderer Between Two Worlds’. 

After emigrating to America at the age of 28 — a move he described as a “relief” — with a masters degree in engineering and architecture, Hanack lived in Dartmouth for many years, eventually becoming a naturalized US citizen.

He was a family man, a professor at Bristol Community College, and the Superintendent of the Dartmouth Department of Public Works in the 1960s, where he helped the town acquire Round Hill beach by eminent domain and built the beach’s infrastructure including the access road, parking lot, and restrooms.

At the age of 94, he celebrated the release of his self-published memoir at the Cottages at Dartmouth Village in August 2020.

The book details his early life, his time as a soldier and Russian prisoner of war, and his travels through postwar Europe as well as his journey to America.

Hanack was affiliated with the Congregational Church in Dartmouth and was active in several community organizations.

He died at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River after a brief illness.

Hanack was predeceased by his wife Jutta and son Rainer. He is survived by his sister Ursula Nehls of Germany and daughter Beatrice Bigda and her husband William of East Freetown.