Frederick John Behrens

Frederick John Behrens, 81, retired Art Professor at Columbia State Community College and long-time resident of Columbia, died Friday, February 14, 2020 at Maury Regional Medical Center. Funeral services will be conducted Thursday at 3:00 P.M. at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home with Dr. Rebecca O. Hawkins and Larry Behrens officiating. The family request for you to wear your favorite sportswear in honor of Mr. Behrens. Burial will follow in Polk Memorial Gardens. The family will visit with friends Thursday from 1:00 P.M. until service time at the funeral home. The family suggests memorials to Columbia State Community College Foundation, c/o Founding Faculty of Clement, http://columbiastate.edu/foundation/founding-faculty-clement. Condolences may be extended online at www.oakesandnichols.com. Born February 27, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois, he was the son of the late Frederick John Behrens, II and the late Anna Elizabeth Messner Behrens. He was a graduate of Lane Tech in Chicago, Illinois and earned his Master of Fine Art degree at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. While at S.I.U., he primarily studied with Herbert Fink (noted Printmaker) and Bruce Breland (noted Painter), and was a member of Sigma Pi national fraternity. Mr. Behrens dedicated his professional life to teaching art at Columbia State Community College for 45 years and retired as Full Professor of Art. He was very active with the students, yearbook, and always involved in Columbia State Community College sports. Mr. Behrens was an avid Chicago Cub’s fan and enjoyed coaching youth sports, girls’ soccer, pee wee girls’ basketball, and girl’s fast pitch softball. For several years, he served on the City of Housing Board with Mayor Barbara McIntyre. Fred’s earlier subject matter was primarily landscape and these landscapes usually employed mixed media, in various combinations, such as acrylics, watercolor, collage, pen and ink, pencil and crayon. He didn’t feel he had a particular style of painting, but expressionism-three vivid colors and building up paint surfaces was his main emphasis. He stated, “The basic nature of my artwork is free form and non-objective imagery. I use mostly acrylic enamel paint (house paint) and I pour thick or thinned paint on a flat canvas- to create organic shapes or forms. The final result of my paintings is a combination of both planned and accidental art works.” Many of his pieces of work are in a large number of private collections throughout Middle Tennessee, including Nashville, Franklin and Columbia.   Mr. Behrens participated in and won awards in many arts shows, including Tennessee All-State Artists Exhibitions (Honorable Mention), Central South Art Exhibition (Special Award), Tennessee Watercolor Society 9th Annual Exhibition-Traveling Show, Action Auction Art and Antique Shows (Honorable Mentions), Action Auction Arts Exhibit, Maury County Spring Arts Festival (Best of Show), Meriwether Lewis Arts and Crafts Fair, Davy Crockett Arts Festival, Blue Grass Regional Library Art Exhibition (Purchase Award), Vanderbilt Faculty Gallery, Maury County Artists Guild, The Mercantile, Pryor Art Gallery at Columbia State, and most recently the Square West Arts Loft. He was a member of Southeastern College Art Conference, Tennessee Watercolor Society, and formally a member of the Tennessee Art League and the Maury County Creative Artists Guild. Survivors include his wife of 49 years, whom he married September 5, 1970, Patricia Ann Lillard Behrens of Columbia; daughter, Rebecca Dianna Behrens (Darrell) Hinton of Columbia; grandson, John Austin Mitchell of Columbia; great grandson, Rylan Kayce Mitchell of Lawrenceburg; brother, Lawrence “Larry” (Marcia) Behrens of Geneva, Illinois; niece, Heidi Elizabeth (Dr. Daniel) Lehenbauer of Lemont, Illinois; great niece, Ashley Lehenbauer; great nephew, David Lehenbauer; and brother-in-law, Gary Michael Lillard of the Duck River Community. Active pallbearers will include Austin Mitchell, Darrell Hinton, and Rudy Sanchez. Honorary pallbearers include past and present faculty and staff of Columbia State Community College, and his former students.