Congressman, radio commentator helped listeners understand politics
LOUIS FREY JR. 1934-2019
Louis Frey Jr., who represented Central Florida in Congress for 10 years, founded a UCF institute for politics and had a long career as a commentator on public radio, died Monday at a hospice center in Winter Springs.
He was 85.
Frey was best known in later years as a political commentator with former Democratic state Rep. Dick Batchelor at WMFE-90.7 FM public radio. The duo first appeared together on WUCF-TV in 1996 before moving to radio for their show “The Notebook” in 1998, according to WMFE.
They later appeared on a continuing segment on the show called “Intersection” from 2007 until 2016.
“He was a guy who got things done,” Batchelor said. “For 20 years at NPR, we did point/counterpoint as a Republican and Democrat, and we never argued about anything. We may have disagreed, but he was factual and learned about his positions. … He could actually educate about the political process in an informative way.” His daughter, Julia Frey, said her parents had known each other for 66 years and would have had
their 63rd wedding anniversary in November.
“We politicked together when he was in Congress, supported each other … and we were with him when he passed. And he was a man of faith,” she said.
“We loved our father dearly, and admired him greatly,” she said. “He was not just a great member of Congress, but a terrific parent and husband to my mother. .. It’s tough to lose him, but he’s with us in our hearts every moment,” she said.
Frey had been suffering from dementia at the time of his death.
Born in New Jersey, Frey served in the U.S. Navy and graduated from Colgate University and the University of Michigan Law School before becoming a lawyer in Orange County in the 1960s.
In 1968, at age 32, he became just the fourth Republican to be elected to Congress from Florida in the 20th century, serving for 10 years representing the 5th and then the 9th Districts in the Orlando area. He was a member of Republican House leadership from 1973 through 1976.
“Back then, they said it was impossible to win,” said Oscar Juarez, Frey’s longtime chief of staff. “He knocked on 30,000 doors the first time he ran … and [the district] was four counties back then.”
Frey appealed to President Richard Nixon to sell McCoy Air Force Base to the city of Orlando for $1 to turn it into Orlando International Airport. He also was one of the House managers of the space shuttle program in the 1970s, pushing hard for Kennedy Space Center to be the shuttle’s home base.
“Are you going to take all that away from here and put it someplace else? Heck no,” Frey told Titusville businessmen in 1971, as Cape Canaveral faced real challenges from California and Utah to become the shuttle’s permanent launch site. “We are just going to get it. We’ve got to get it.”
Former Democratic U.S. Sen Bill Nelson, who succeeded Frey in his congressional seat in 1979, said Frey knew that Cape Canaveral “was the logical place for it to be. It just needed authorization, and it needed funding.”
Frey also co-sponsored legislation with Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Chappell creating what is now Canaveral National Seashore.
“He was very bipartisan,” Juarez said. “He and Bill Chappell protected thousands of acres in Brevard County for the environment. … He made Central Florida and the country better by serving.”
Frey left the House after an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 1978. He also unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 1980, and again for governor in 1986. He worked at the Lowndes law firm in Orlando from 1987 until his retirement in 2016.
Frey donated his congressional archives to UCF to create the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government.
In 2006, he joined with former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham to establish the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship, which supports civics education for students in grades K-12. Frey and Graham were also the driving force behind the Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act in 2010.
Nelson, who became good friends with Frey, said his legacy is of “a very hard-working public servant who reached across party lines. … He found consensus between the [political] 40-yard lines.”
Former Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood, a Republican, echoed Nelson.
“He was of the old school,” Hood said of Frey. “He liked to talk to all points of view, and looked for ways to find compromise and collaborate with people.”
Details about service arrangements were not yet announced.