Louis Frey Jr. (January 11, 1934 – October 14, 2019) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a Republican member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from 1969 until 1979. He represented

Florida's 5th congressional district Florida's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Florida. It includes the southeastern area of Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville which comprises areas such as Arlington, East Arlington, Southside, Mandarin ...

from 1969 to 1973 and the 9th district from 1973 to 1979, until he ran unsuccessfully in 1978 for the Republican nomination for

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

to succeed the term-limited

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Reubin Askew Reubin O'Donovan Askew (September 11, 1928 – March 13, 2014) was an American politician, who served as the 37th governor of Florida from 1971 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 7th U.S. trade representative from 1979 ...

Pensacola Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only city in Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Pensacola metropolitan area, which ha ...

Early life, education, and career

Frey was born in

Rutherford, New Jersey Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 18,834, an increase of 773 (+4.3%) from the 2010 census count of 18,061, which in turn reflected a de ...

, the son of Mildred (Engel) and Louis Frey. He graduated in 1951 from Rutherford High School, and received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in 1955 from

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

naval aviation Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of Military aviation, military air power by Navy, navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves ''navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seab ...

from 1955 to 1958, and in the Naval Reserve from 1958 to 1978, where he retired as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. In 1961, he earned a J.D. from the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparati ...

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, and he was admitted that same year to the Florida bar.

Legal career

He worked as a lawyer in private practice, with a brief stint as assistant county solicitor in Orange County, Florida; became an associate, and then partner, in the law firm of Gurney, Skolfield & Frey in Winter Park, Florida, from 1963 to 1967. He then served as acting general counsel of the

Florida State Turnpike Authority Florida's Turnpike, designated as unsigned State Road 91 (SR 91), is a controlled-access toll road in the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). Spanning approximately along a northwest–southeast axis, the ...

from 1966 to 1967. Afterwards, he became a partner in 1967 in the law firm of Mateer, Frey, Young & Harbert of

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

Congress

Frey was first elected in 1968 to succeed

Edward Gurney Edward John Gurney Jr. (January 12, 1914 – May 14, 1996) was an American politician, attorney, and U.S. Army officer who represented the state of Florida in the United States Congress, first in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1 ...

, who in turn became Florida's first Republican

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

since

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

. Frey himself is the fourth Florida Republican to have been elected to the U.S. House in the 20th century. While in Congress, Frey served on the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, the Science and Technology Committee, and the Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. Frey received the "Watch Dog of the Treasury Award" in each of his terms for "voting to hold the line against

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

and to curb excess government spending." He also received the "Guardian of Small Business Award". In 1970, Congressman Frey addressed the Florida Republican State convention in Orlando at a time when divisive primaries for governor and the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

had seriously undermined

GOP The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a right-wing political party in the United States. One of the two major parties, it emerged as the main rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the tw ...

chances of victory in the general election. Senate nominee and U.S. Representative William C. Cramer of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

had defeated the former judge

G. Harrold Carswell George Harrold Carswell (December 22, 1919 – July 13, 1992) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern Di ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...

. Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr., had topped two intraparty rivals, drugstore magnate

Jack Eckerd Jack Eckerd (May 16, 1913 – May 19, 2004) was an American businessman and the second generation owner of Eckerd chain of drugstores. Early life Eckerd was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Culver Military Academy and the Boein ...

of Clearwater and state Senator and later Congressman L. A. "Skip" Bafalis of Palm Beach. Then Cramer and Kirk, who were intraparty rivals themselves, faced a united Democratic ticket of

Lawton Chiles Lawton Mainor Chiles Jr. (April 3, 1930 – December 12, 1998) was an American politician and military officer. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senate, United States senator fr ...

of Lakeland, running for the Senate, and Reubin Askew, the gubernatorial nominee. Though Carswell and Eckerd endorsed Cramer and Kirk, the primary candidates were inactive in the fall campaign. Apprehensive Republicans cheered Frey, who implored the factions to forget their "family feud" and to unite. But Cramer and Kirk both went down to defeat at the hands of Chiles and Askew, respectively. Frey served as chairman of the Florida Federation of

Young Republicans The Young Republican National Federation, commonly referred to as the Young Republicans or YRNF, is a 527 organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It has both a national organization ...

. He was nominated and elected as a Republican to the

Ninety-first Congress The 91st United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 19 ...

and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1969 to January 3, 1979) from what was then the 5th congressional district. Frey was not a candidate for reelection to the Ninety-sixth Congress in 1978. Instead he launched an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for governor, having lost to Jack Eckerd, whom Kirk had beaten for the nomination in 1970.

Statewide campaigns

In 1980, Frey was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

, being defeated by the eventual winner, Senator Paula Hawkins of Maitland. He ran in 1986 for governor again, but he was defeated in the Republican primary by

Bob Martinez Robert Martinez (born December 25, 1934) is an American retired politician who served as the 40th governor of Florida from 1987 to 1991. A member of the Republican Party, Martinez was the first Hispanic American governor since colonial Flori ...

, the former Republican mayor of

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

Later career and death

Frey was a past president of The United States Association of Former Members of Congress and served as a member of its executive committee. He regularly provided political commentary on radio and television, co-hosting a show with former Democratic state representative Dick Batchelor on

WMFE-FM WMFE-FM (90.7 MHz) is a listener-supported FM radio station in Orlando, Florida, owned by Community Communications, Inc. WMFE-FM is Central Florida's National Public Radio (NPR) member station, with a format of news and information. Most pr ...

and appeared on talk shows on

WUCF-TV WUCF-TV (channel 24) is a PBS member television station in Orlando, Florida, United States. Owned by the University of Central Florida (UCF), it is the region's sole PBS member station, reaching an estimated population of 4.6 million people in it ...

. Frey resided in Winter Park until his death on October 14, 2019.

The Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government

Frey was the founder of The Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government at the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in unincorporated area, unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida. ...

in Orlando. The institute is described as:

References

*Some content from the Public Domain Biographical Directory of The United States Congress. {{DEFAULTSORT:Frey, Louis Jr. 1934 births 2019 deaths Colgate University alumni Florida lawyers Rutherford High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Rutherford, New Jersey Military personnel from Bergen County, New Jersey University of Michigan Law School alumni People from Winter Park, Florida United States Navy captains Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Florida Candidates in the 1978 United States elections 20th-century American lawyers United States Navy reservists 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives