Beloved Oregon leader Dave Frohnmayer remembered at memorial

EUGENE, Ore. — Family, friends and colleagues remembered Dave Frohnmayer, a widely respected leader in Oregon politics and academics, as a listener, teacher, and poet.

The Eugene Register-Guard reported about 3,000 people attended his two-hour memorial at the Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday. Gov. Kate Brown ordered flags across the state to be flown at half-staff in Frohnmayer’s honor.

He died earlier this month in his sleep after a five-year battle with prostate cancer.

“His 74 years among us was not enough,” Bill Gary, Frohnmayer’s law colleague and friend of 34 years, told the audience at the memorial. “It seems unfair. But Dave would be the last person to complain.”

Frohnmayer’s brother, sister, U.S. and state senators and his children also attended the memorial. They remembered him as a man who was as comfortable socializing with Oregon farmers as he was arguing a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

They said Frohnmayer remembered Safeway checkers’ names, bought a University of Oregon student celebrating the end of a term a pitcher of beer and served as the UO’s “accidental president” for 15 years.

Frohnmayer, a Republican, served in the Legislature before he was elected attorney general in 1980, a job he held through three terms.

He ran for governor in 1990 but lost in a three-way race to Democrat Barbara Roberts.

After his career in elective office, he went to the University of Oregon, where he served as dean of the law school and then, for 15 years, as president of the school until his retirement in 2009.

Born in Medford, Frohnmayer graduated from Harvard and went on to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

His son, Mark Frohnmayer, said his dad always made time to grab breakfast with him and talk. He said he felt lucky to spend decades with his dad.

“And still it wasn’t enough,” he said. “I miss you, Pops.”

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