Former Regent Robert ‘Mort’ Frayn Sr. dies
Robert Mortimer “Mort” Frayn Sr., ’29, former president of the UW Board of Regents, died Aug. 1, at the age of 87. His 12 years on that governing body overlapped three University presidencies: Charles Odegaard, John Hogness and William P. Gerberding.
Frayr, who served in the Washington state legislature from 1947 to 1956, helped win state support crucial to University expansion in the late 1940s and early 1950s, according to former Washington Gov. Dan Evans. Friends and family members say that Frayn’s concern for the UW was the primary mason he entered politics. A former speaker of the house and chairman of this state’s Republican party, Frayn was western states coordinator for Richard Nixon’s 1960 presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy. Frayn ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Seattle in 1969.
A member of the Board of Regents from 1968 to 1980, he also served on the University Hospital Board of Trustees and was a steering committee member for the University Hospital/School of Medicine Campaign. He was president of the UWAA Board of Trustees in the mid-1940s. In 1988 the University honored him with its Recognition Award and he received the UWAA’s Distinguished Service Award in 1974.
Frayn was born in South Dakota in 1906 and moved to Seattle in 1909. He graduated from Broadway High School and received a bachelor’s degree in history from the UW in 1929. He joined Frayn Printing Co., established by his father in 1919 and, in 1946, became sole owner of the company.