Our People: Tom Fries, Sponsor of Founding Legislation

Tom Fries was on hand at the Ohio Statehouse in April 2016 when the Heritage College celebrated 40 years of service to the state.

"How lucky I was to be asked to have a part"

Tom Fries, a Democrat from Dayton, was serving his third term in the Ohio House of Representatives when he became lead sponsor of the 1975 legislation that created what is now the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. The former Major League Baseball player served six terms in the Ohio House and was appointed to fill a vacant Ohio Senate seat in 1982. Rather than seek election to a full term in the senate, Fries retired from the legislature and founded his own consulting firm.

Favorite memory: “Walking into the renovated Grosvenor Hall with George Dunigan [now the college’s director of governmental relations].” Fries had seen the building previously: “It was still a dormitory ready to become a medical college.” After the renovation, “the cafeteria had been transformed into an anatomy lab complete with 16 cadavers in the walk-in cooler! We commoners don’t see that every day.”

On changing attitudes: “In the beginning, barriers existed among the established disciplines of medicine. I believe [the Heritage College] was the driving force in Ohio to help completely destroy the roadblocks and biases that existed. Today, osteopathic medicine is totally integrated in all disciplines of health care and has been the leader in a more holistic … approach in treatment to the patient.”

Making the grade: “I go back to the original criteria for entering students, which was, ‘Would this young man or woman be the kind of practitioner [the college] wanted to produce?’ By that I think they always wanted to graduate a doctor with personality, compassion, common sense … and of course the ability to succeed academically. But grades were not always the determining factor. And that’s the way it should always be.”

Point of pride: “Having a small part in creating such a vibrant, progressive institution that’s made a difference in millions of lives for 40 years now. Every once in a while I stop and think how lucky I was to be asked to have a part in the creation of [the Heritage College]. Not to mention the wonderful people I’ve met along the way.”

Parting thought: “Whatever you all are doin’, keep on doin’ it!”