Obituary of Frederick J. W. Heft

Frederick J. W. Heft, son of Frederick and Louise Heft, was born July 4, 1918 in Liverpool, England of American parents. He and his family moved to the United States in 1920 and settled in Waterbury, CT. At the age of 7, the family moved to the Capitol District of New York State. He attended schools in Troy, NY and prior to World War II, was employed by the Ford Motor Company in Green Island, NY and Allegheny Ludlum Steel Company of Watervliet, NY. In 1942, he entered the US Army Signal Corps and served in the American and Caribbean Theatres. Following his discharge in 1946, he was employed in Albany and Schenectady by New York Telephone Company where he held managerial positions. He worked in New York City with Bell Laboratories and Western Electric on new state of the art switching systems and the implementation of long distance area codes. He was transferred to Hamburg, NY in 1955 and was responsible for Plant Operations for the Southwestern New York Region. During the time period he attended Dartmouth College for a specialized course in Humanities. In 1957, he was transferred to AT & T Headquarters, New York City in the Operations and Engineering Department. He traveled the entire country during his association with AT & T, visiting the various operating company sites. During his career he traveled to Japan, Soviet Union and its various states and China on telecommunication engineering matters. He transferred back to New York Telephone in Buffalo in 1959 and assumed responsibility for all of the Bell System plant operations for Western New York. He left New York Telephone in 1965 and came to Jamestown as the operating head of Jamestown, NY, Meadville, PA and Ridgeway, PA Telephone companies. In 1967, he assumed the Executive Vice President of Operations position of Mid-Continent Telephone Corporation, which was headquartered in Hudson, OH. He had administrative responsibilities for a Headquarters Staff and operating telephone companies located in 11 states east of the Mississippi. He continued serving on the board of Mid-Continent and ALLTEL Corporations after the merger of Allied Telephone in Little Rock, Arkansas from 1968 to 1991, when he retired. While living in the Jamestown area, he resided in West Ellicott and Philips Mills. He resided in Jamestown on the Lutheran Social Services Campus where he served on the Group Board at LSS and as Chairman of the LSS Foundation. He married the former Dorothy G. Jacques of Staten Island in 1943. She passed away in 1995. Mr. and Mrs. Heft were very supportive of charitable events in all of the locations where they lived. He worked with various boards such as the United Way, WCA Hospital, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Lutheran Social Services and the Salvation Army and she enjoyed working with the Red Cross, Untied Way, Brownies and the WCA Hospital snack shop among other things. An avid skeet and trap shooter, he particularly enjoyed hunting for grouse. He belonged to a number of shooting clubs in New York and Pennsylvania. He will be sorely missed by his many friends. Contributions may be made to LSS Foundation, 715 Falconer Street, Jamestown, NY 14701, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation Heft Scholarship Fund, 418 Spring Street, Jamestown, Jamestown Salvation Army, 83 South Main Street or a charity of choice. Private services will be held at the convenience of family and friends. Inurnment will be in Bemus Point Cemetery. Lind Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements