  Frederick William Gehring was a hugely influential mathematician who spent
most of his career at the University of Michigan. Gehring's major research
contributions were to Geometric Function Theory, particularly in higher
dimensions $\IR^n$, $n\geq 3$. This field he developed in close coordination
with colleagues, primarily in Finland, over three decades 1960 -- 1990.
Gehring's seminal work drove this field forward initiating important
connections with geometry and nonlinear partial differential equations, while
addressing and solving major problems. During his career Gehring received many
honours from the international mathematical community. He was invited three
times to address the International Congress of Mathematicians, at Moscow in
1966, at Vancouver in 1974, and at Berkeley (a plenary lecture) in 1986. He was
awarded honorary degrees from the University of Helsinki (1979), the University
of Jyv\"askyl\"a (1990), and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(1997). In 1989, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and the National Academy of Sciences. This is an extended obituary of his life
and mathematical contributions.
