Frederick Wilhelmsen

Frederick D. Wilhelmsen (18 May 1923–21 May 1996) was an American Catholic philosopher known for his explication and advancement of the Thomistic tradition.

He also was a political commentator, assessing American politics and society from a traditionalist perspective, and a political thinker, addressing what he perceived to be the failings of secular liberal democracy.

He went on to earn his BA from the University of San Francisco in 1947, followed by his MA in Philosophy in 1948 at the University of Notre Dame.

He was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in Philosophy in 1956.

He was a prolific writer.

He contributed articles to the following: America, The Angelus, The Commonweal, Faith & Reason, The Grail, The Intercollegiate Review, Modern Age, National Review, The Political Science Reviewer, Triumph, The University Bookman, and The Wanderer, among others.

He also was a founding editor of Triumph, a Roman Catholic monthly that sought the sacralization of American society and organized the first anti-abortion rally in the United States.

In addition to assessing American politics and society, he was inspired by and extensively reflected upon Spanish politics and society.

Alvaro d'Ors, a notable Spanish political philosopher, wrote that Wilhelmsen, an American from Detroit, was "the best interpreter of Spanish traditionalism, a body of political thought also known as Carlism, after King Charles V (Don Carlos)".

He completed his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Madrid in 1958.

He principally was a professor at the University of Dallas from 1965 to his death in 1996.

He also taught at the University of Santa Clara, the Al-Hikma University in Baghdad, the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and lectured and taught classes at many other universities.

His Spanish students called him "Don Federico" while his American students called him "Fritz."

Wilhelmsen grew up in Detroit and began his higher education at the University of Detroit.

His time there was interrupted by World War II and he served as an army medic for three years.

Wilhelmsen enjoyed a lively friendship and correspondence with Marshall McLuhan, who spent time at the University of Dallas in the 1970s.