Jack Fry enjoyed retirement so much that after a few months after leaving the Midwest City Fire Department in June, he decided to run for mayor of the city. March 2 he won the election.

Fry, 58, had been planning his retirement for the last five years. Fry spent 26 years with the fire department, retiring as assistant chief, along with a career with OG&E prior to that.

In addition to his work putting out fires, he also started a custom homebuilding business and an electrical contracting business. Five years ago, eyeing a restful future filled with endless golf greens, Fry built his last custom home.

This one was special; it would be one for him and his wife, Gail.

At this point, the Frys could have spent their time at Jimmy's Egg each morning, arriving like clockwork as they have for years, then spending their days doing things at a leisurely pace, like many retired people do. Instead, Jack Fry will slip out of his golf shoes in May and back into a suit and tie to take office as the 21st mayor of Midwest City.

The Frys are high school sweethearts who have been married for 39 years. They had two children, one of whom passed away in a car accident while a teenager. Today, with their son posted at Tinker Air Force Base, they often enjoy time with their four grandchildren.

Jack and Gail Fry met as students at Carl Albert High School when it was a combined junior high and high school. He was a junior and walked into the library one day and was smitten when he spotted an attractive eighth grader.

"I can remember the day I walked in the library and saw her for the first time," Jack Fry said.

The two began dating the next year and married during Gail Fry's, then Bennett, junior year of high school. Jack Fry got a job with OG&E and the couple had two children, Shane and Jamie. By that time, Jack Fry had a good job, was a member of the Air Force Reserve and the family settled into a comfortable life in their hometown.

As the 1980s set in, Jack Fry began looking for new opportunities. He liked his job at OG&E, but his need to do something new and an entrepreneurial spirit led him to leave a $50,000 a year job at the utility company and take an $8,000 a year job with the Midwest City Fire Department.

While the move might not have made financial sense to most men with a wife and two children, Jack Fry had a plan. He decided that a career move to the MWCFD would also allow him time to start a custom homebuilding and electrical business.

"It was probably, without a doubt, one of the best career moves I ever made," he said.

In addition to his 3,000 hours a year with the fire department, Jack Fry spent nearly every other waking minute growing Custom Homes by Jack Fry and Fry Electric.

"Fortunately, we were successful with both businesses," Jack Fry said.

Then, in 1991, tragedy struck.

Jamie Fry was beginning her sophomore year at Carl Albert High School when she was in a fatal accident. The car in which she as a passenger veered off the road and crashed, killing her and two classmates.

As the Frys worked through their grief, the community rallied around the family to help them through the tragedy. Even now, after nearly two decades, the couple still hears from Jamie's old friends, including several they hadn't spoken to in years who made contact and offered words of support during Jack Fry's mayoral bid.

"Those kids will never know what that meant to us," he said.

JACK, MEET JACK
Unfortunately, it was the death of two children that connected the couple with Jack Fry's hero, Jack Nicklaus, professional golf's Golden Bear. Gail Fry decided in 2004 to surprise her husband with a faceto- face meeting with Nicklaus. The problem was she didn't know the legendary golfer and had no idea where to even send a letter. She recruited her son to find an address and sent Nicklaus a handwritten letter telling him about her husband, the loss of their daughter and her desire to get the men together as a birthday surprise.

The letter indeed made it to Nicklaus's office in Florida, along with a copy of Gail Fry's book about coping with the loss of her daughter, "My Journey to Jamie," which she penned in 2003. Gail Fry had no idea that the letter and book had made it to Nicklaus " and that his wife, Barbara Nicklaus, read the book and was moved by the story " until she noticed a missed call on her cell phone one day and realized it was from the golfer's office in Florida.

In August 2004, the Frys were invited to visit Aurora, Colo. and met Nicklaus at the dedication of a golf course he designed. The next year, Nicklaus lost his grandson. The Frys were immediately on the phone to offer any support possible. As thanks for their efforts, and the shared experience of losing children, Nicklaus provided a blurb that graced the cover of Gail Fry's next book, "Thinking Out Loud," published in 2005.

Five years ago, Jack Fry completed the couple's retirement home near SE 15th Street and Douglas Boulevard. As an added bonus, Shane and his wife, Brittney, ended up stationed at Tinker. Now Jack and Gail Fry have their four grandchildren nearby.

When Jack Fry began considering a run for mayor, he had to think of himself, his wife and having less time to bounce grandchildren on his knee. Gail Fry knew it would be an adjustment if her husband entered public office. It was, however, familiar territory, as they had been through campaigning before. Both of their fathers sat on the Midwest City Council. Gail Fry left the final decision up to her husband.

"I was just a little hesitant at first," she said. "We prayed about it and talked about it."

In the end, the couple decided if the community would have them, they would like to help make it a better place, and in some small way repay all of those whose thoughts and prayers were with them in their hour of need.

"Over the years, so many people have helped and encouraged us," Gail Fry said. Now Jack Fry is ready to get to work and face the challenges ahead. He feels in some ways that everything he has done and everything that has happened to him and his family has led him to this next chapter in his life.

"I really am content right now to give 100 percent to the mayor's job," he said. "I truly want to give my efforts to being the public servant the citizens deserve."

photo The Frys have been married 39 years and have lived their entire lives in Midwest City.