A timeline of the life of Dave Frohnmayer, the first native Oregonian to serve as president of any large research university in the state. He passed away on March 10, 2015.
July 9, 1940: Born in Medford, Oregon. Attended public schools in Medford.
1962: Earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Harvard College, Magna Cum Laude.
1964: Studied at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree.
1964: Married Lynn Diane Frohnmayer, with whom he had five children, two of whom died from Fanconi Anemia. The Frohnmayers would spend much of their lives promoting research into this rare disease, founding the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund.
1967: Earned a Juris Doctor degree from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
1969-70: Served as Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, D.C.
1971: Earned a Master of Arts degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University.
1971-81: Served as Professor of Law and Special Assistant to the President, University of Oregon.
1973-74: Served as a consultant to the U.S. Civil Rights Division, U.S. Justice Department, Washington, D.C.
1975-81: Elected to three terms as a member of the House in the Oregon Legislature.
1981-91: Elected to three terms as Attorney General for the State of Oregon. He personally argued and won six of seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court — the most cases and best record of any contemporary state Attorney General.
1992-94: Dean and Professor of Law, University of Oregon.
1994-2009: Served as President of the University of Oregon. During his service as president, the university increased its enrollment from 16,700 to 21,000 students and finished two fund-raising campaigns raising more than $1.1 billion. The university became a founding member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities; hosted the annual meeting of the Association of American Universities; and completed or began construction projects totaling more than $650 million.
2009-15: Served as President Emeritus of the University of Oregon. Upon his appointment, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education adopted a resolution honoring Frohnmayer for “his leadership over 15 years of exemplary service to the University, the Oregon University System and the State Oregon.”
Notable: He held leadership roles on national and higher education organizations. He was a founding member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and served on the executive committee of the American Association of Universities and the Internet2 board of trustees. He served on a variety of NCAA committees and chaired the Bowl Championship Series Presidential Oversight Committee.
He was the recipient of numerous awards and professional recognition, including: Outstanding Senior Man, Medford High School; Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard; Rhodes Scholar, Oxford; Order of the Coif, University of California at Berkeley; one of five Outstanding Young Men of Oregon; Roger W. Williams Freedom of Information Award, from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, 1981; Pioneer Award, University of Oregon, 1985; President, National Association of Attorneys General, 1987-88; Wyman Award for Outstanding Attorney General, 1987.