Franklin Clark Fry was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on August 30, 1900. Fry's childhood and youth were spent in Rochester, New York, where he decided to become a pastor. He took classes in Greek for three years at East High School and after graduating from Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1921 with an A.B. degree, he spent one year of post-graduate work at the American School for Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. Upon graduating from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1925 with a B.D. degree he was ordained by the New York-New England Synod of the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA) on June 10, 1925, at Ithaca, New York.

In 1929 he received a call from Trinity Lutheran Church, Akron, Ohio, where he served as a pastor for 15 years until 1944. While there, membership increased from 1200 to 2700 members, in spite of the Great Depression. In 1930 he was elected Secretary of the ULCA Committee on Evangelism, a position he held for eight years. In addition he was elected to the ULCA Board of American Missions. In 1942 he was elected to the Executive Board of the ULCA. Then at the age of 44 he was elected President of the ULCA at its 1944 Biennial Convention. By wide majority he was consistently re-elected President of the ULCA at its 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, and 1960 conventions. During that time he served in various national and international capacities, including President of Lutheran World Relief, a founder of the World Council of Churches, and a member of the Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity. Fry then served as the first president of the newly formed Lutheran Church in America from 1962 until his death in 1968.

Description:
Files include correspondence, articles, clippings, news releases and photographs. Dr. Fry's presidential papers from ULCA and LCA are not included in this collection. This collection is also available on microfilm.