Sex: Male
DOB: 1957
State: Alabama (1st Dist.)
Region/Super-region: Gulf Coase/Dixie
Political Party: Republican
Hometown: Flomaton, Alabama
Fred Rockwell was born in Pensacola, Florida in 1957 to parents Edward and Helen Rockwell (nee Spooner). The family resided on a small farm just outside of the tiny town of Flomaton, Alabama only a few miles from the border with Florida. Fred is the oldest of five brothers: John (b. 1959), Henry (b. 1961), Robert (b. 1963), and Patrick (b. 1969). Fred graduated from Flomaton High School in 1975. In the fall, he enrolled at the University of Alabama where he made the football team as a walk-on defensive back. He was put in the game for the last play in the first half of the Tide's final game in 1979. A few months later, Fred graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Political Science.
After graduation, Fred returned to Flomaton and worked with his family on the farm for three years. At the same time, he took whatever shifts he could get at the local Hardee's to save money for graduate school. When he had saved just enough for his first year's tuition, Fred went back to Tuscaloosa to pursue his master's degree in Political Science.
Upon graduation in 1985, Fred returned to Flomaton with high hopes for getting elected to the city council on a platform of breaking the "good old boy" stereotype long associated with local government in the area. He was soundly defeated in his first attempt at election as all the city council incumbents were reelected. Undeterred, Fred went back to working on the farm and spent evenings canvassing the Flomaton area, talking to his neighbors and deciding what it would take to change things in Flomaton. The following election in 1987, Fred successfully won a seat on the city council and lost a close vote of the city council to become vice mayor.
Fred's political activities drew the attention of several prominent Republicans in Southeastern Alabama and in 1988 he was asked to run for the House of Representatives in Alabama's 1st District. Despite the fact that the district had almost exclusively elected Democrats since the days of Reconstruction, it was no secret that its demographics remained conservative to the core. He won the election that year by a healthy margin over his Democratic opponent and was subsequently reelected in 1990 and 1992.
Fred married his high school sweetheart, Jessica Cooper in 1983. They have three children, one boy and two girls: Fred, Jr. (b. 1987), Grace (b. 1989), and Faith (b. 1991).