Fred Champaigne lived in Toledo Ohio When Nancy was born, and moved to South Bend, Indiana early 1940's where Jim and Jack and Pam were born.
During WWII he held rank as Captain in the US Army but was a civilian technical instructor working for the Bendix Corporation for the Norden bomb site in the Pacific theater including Papa New Guiney.

After the war he returned to South Bend and continued working for Bendix as an illustrator for their home products such as washing machines and dryers. He crafted the exploded parts pages by photographing each part of the machine and then arranging them on the final layout.
In the evening he had his own neon sign shop where he made numerous signs for businesses in the South Bend area.
A television tower was erected next to the house when he purchased the first TV set in the neighborhood.

In 1952 Bendix discontinued the home appliance division when the family moved from Englewood Place to Miami Street in South Bend. The house built in 1905 was a duplex with one half of the first floor rented out. The coal furnace was upgraded to an oil burner with a large tank in basement, and later to a new gas furnace as the city expanded gas service to the area.
The old coal bin became his photography dark room and his neon shop was built in the garage. His converted short wave radio (Army Surplus)
would receive police and fire messages. He would chase both of them taking his triple turret 16mm camera and his Speed Grafic large format camera hoping to get a scoop on the news.

He did some work with his business name of Creative Graphics.
He later returned to Bendix as a technician in the experimental brake department. He was a very talented machinest.
In 1972 the family moved to a smaller home on Beverly Place in South Bend. Nancy was married to Bill Dunfee in 1959 and the boys were enrolled at Purdue and Pam would be attending Central high school.

In 1974 they were able to purchase an empty lot on Sisters lake in Dowagiac, Michigan. A modular home was put on the lot in 1975 or 1976. His hobby was to make fishing lures and flys. Many colorful creations.

He passed away in January 1995 at the age of 84 years.

He retired from Bendix

One photo in the 1931 Central yearbook shows Fred working as a stage hand in the lighting department. His father, Fred E. Champaigne was the Electrical Inspector for the city of South bend from (I think) 1927 until his death in 1950. Thus Fred had a great deal of knowledge of all things electrical.

Betty Champaigne (Hildebrand)
Jack Champaigne