Lou Frey was born in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1934. After he graduated from Colgate University in 1955 with honors in English, he served in the US Navy in Airborne Early Warning Squadron 14 in the Pacific until 1958 and continued to serve in the US Naval Reserve. He married Marcia Turner in 1956; they eventually had five children. After receiving his law degree from Michigan Law School in 1961, Frey moved to Central Florida. He served as Assistant County Solicitor until 1963, and from 1966-1967 he was General Counsel to the Florida State Turnpike Authority.
Frey's political life began when he joined the Orange County Young Republicans . He served the organization in several capacities and finally as its President. Frey became General Counsel of the Florida Federation of Young Republicans and Treasurer of the Republican Party in Florida. Within the Republican Party, he founded the Teen-age Republican Movement and a School of Politics and Government. He was elected to Congress in 1968 and served on the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, House Science and Technology Committee, the Republican Committee on Committees and the Republican Research Committee. His interests included Mobile Home Safety legislation, Noxious Weeds legislation, veterans affairs, youth development, environmental protection, and drug misuse prevention. The Watergate scandal dictated that he also interest himself in the activities of President Richard M. Nixon. In 1974, Time magazine listed Frey as one of the two-hundred rising leaders in the country.
Lou Frey did not run for re-election in 1978; instead, he decided to run for Governor of Florida. Although he did not win the primary election, he ran again for Governor in 1986 and for senator in 1980. Frey continued to support the Republican Party; he chaired the committee to elect Gerald R. Ford in Florida in the 1976 election and cochaired the 1996 Robert J. Dole campaign in Florida. In 2001, he continued to serve the state and the nation on the Florida Energy Commission and the Millennial Housing Commission . As an active member of the Association of Former Members of Congress, he has travelled the world on fact-finding missions and visited colleges to educate students about Congress. To aid this endeavour, he published Inside the House: Former Members Reveal How Congress Really Works . He founded the Lou Frey Institute of Politics at the University of Central Florida, and he is a regular political pundit on the local National Public Radio affiliate, WMFE.
In business, Frey cofounded Private TransAtlantic Telecommunication System Inc ., a company that laid a transatlantic fiber optic cable. He has practised law with several firms; currently he is a partner with Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor and Reed in Orlando.
From the guide to the Lou Frey, Papers, 1947-2006, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida Libraries, )
