David B. Frohnmayer

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David B. Frohnmayer
In office
January 5, 1981 – December 31, 1991
Preceded by James M. Brown
Succeeded by Charles S. Crookham
President of the University of Oregon
Incumbent
Assumed office 
July 1, 1994
Preceded by Myles Brand
Born July 9, 1940 (1940-07-09) (age 67)
Medford, Oregon
Political party Republican
Profession attorney

Dave Frohnmayer (born July 9, 1940, Medford, Oregon) is the 15th President of the University of Oregon. Appointed on July 1, 1994, he is now the second-longest serving UO president behind John Wesley Johnson. He is the first native of the U.S. state of Oregon to run the University of Oregon. Frohnmayer previously served as the state of Oregon’s Attorney General from 1981 to 1991, and subsequently served as dean at the University of Oregon School of Law before becoming president of the entire university.

Contents

[edit] Education

Frohnmayer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1962. He then attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and received his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967.

[edit] Political career

Frohnmayer, a Republican, served three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1975 to 1981, representing southern Eugene.

Frohnmayer was elected as Oregon Attorney General in November 1980, and was sworn into office on January 5, 1981. Re-elected in 1984 and then again in 1988, when he was nominated by both the Democratic and Republican parties. Frohnmayer served as Attorney General until his resignation on December 31, 1991, when he became Dean of the University of Oregon School of Law. As Attorney General, one of his most notable cases involved leading the prosecution of the Rajneeshees (followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.) Frohnmayer prevailed in six out of the seven cases that he took to the United States Supreme Court.

Frohnmayer was the Republican nominee for Governor of Oregon in 1990. Popular Democratic incumbent Neil Goldschmidt withdrew after Frohnmayer's campaign manager, Donna Zajonc, said "...you've got to believe that the best family will win" at a news conference,[1] which was then reported by Jeff Mapes in The Oregonian.[2] Zajonc's statement was interpreted at the time as threat to use Goldschmidt's collapsing marriage as a political issue.[2][3] Goldschmidt quickly withdrew from the race, an event that was considered one of the "great mysteries in Oregon politics"[1] until 2004, when Goldschmidt admitted to having a sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s.[4] He and Goldschmidt had been classmates at University of California, Berkeley law school. Frohnmayer subsequently lost the election to Barbara Roberts, the Democrat who was nominated after Goldschmidt's withdrawal, in a three-way race that included independent, Oregon Citizens Alliance-backed[5] candidate Al Mobley.[6]

[edit] Academic career

He served as Dean of the University of Oregon School of Law from January 1, 1992 until his assumption of duties as President of the University in 1994. He teaches a popular undergraduate course on political leadership. As he announced his planned retirement to take place at the close of the 2008-09 academic year, he also indicated that he would continue to teach this course. His retirement announcement, formally submitted to Oregon's Governor Ted Kulongoski and Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner on April 29, 2008, evoked strong accolades about his leadership of the state's flagship AAU University. The Eugene Register Guard and the Oregonian, Oregon's two largest newspapers each published editorials expressing the view that his remarkable leadership would be hard to replace. The Register Guard's editorial titled "Retiring from the a University he Remade" opined that "Dave Frohnmayer has steered the University of Oregon through grim and changing times and he's leaving a different and stronger institution." [7] The Oregonian called Frohnmayer's presidency "one of the most remarkable higher education performances in Oregon history."[8]

[edit] Family

Dave Frohnmayer is active in support of research into treatment of the disease Fanconi anemia. Two of his daughters died from complications arising from this disease. He was a founding Director of the National Marrow Donor Program and served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Inc. Lynn and Dave Frohnmayer established the FA Family Support Group in 1985, which they helped incorporate in the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund in 1989.[9] Frohnmayer's father, Otto Frohnmayer, was a noted southern Oregon lawyer. His brother, John Frohnmayer, served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts under the administration of President George H.W. Bush and recently announced he would challenge incumbent senator Gordon Smith in the 2008 election as an independent. His son is Mark Frohnmayer, lead programmer of Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 at Dynamix before leaving to co-found GarageGames with Jeff Tunnell, Rick Overman and Tim Gift.

In 2005, the University of Oregon MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building was named in honor of his mother.[10]

[edit] Further Reading


Preceded by
James M. Brown		 Oregon Attorney General
1981 – 1991		 Succeeded by
Charles Crookham

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b “The 30-Year Secret”. Willamette Week,May 12, 2004.
  2. ^ a b Mapes, Jeff; Jim Long, Alan Ota, Steve Duin. "Goldschmidt rumors frustrated his aides", The Oregonian, February 14, 1990. 
  3. ^ Sullivan, Julie; Harry Esteve and Gail Kinsey Hill. "Two-edged alliance", The Oregonian, June 27, 2004. 
  4. ^ Wong, Peter. "Goldschmidt’s records provide private insight", Statesman Journal, June 8, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-03-14. 
  5. ^ Graves, Bill; Don Hamilton. "Abortion foes name candidate", The Oregonian, August 20, 1990. 
  6. ^ Hortsch, Dan. "GOP on crusade for majority-rule ballot", The Oregonian, April 14, 1992. 
  7. ^ Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA
  8. ^ >
  9. ^ Fanconi Anemia Research Fund
  10. ^ Inside Oregon - For the University of Oregon Community

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Presidents of the University of Oregon

Johnson • Chapman • Strong • Campbell • Hall • Boyer • Erb • Newburn • Wilson • Flemming • Clark • Boyd • Olum • Brand • Frohnmayer Interim: Straub • Hollis • Morris • Jones • Johnson • Hawk