Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 20, 1993 TAG: 9301200045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 NOTE: ABOVE EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DEVELOPER, CIVIC LEADER HORACE G. FRALIN DIES
Horace Grover Fralin, a major Roanoke Valley developer recognized for his leadership at Virginia Tech and Roanoke College and on the boards of corporations and local and state agencies, died of cancer at his home Tuesday. He was 66.Fralin was president of Fralin & Waldron Inc. and a partner with Fralin Elbert Waldron in a network of apartments, housing developments, office buildings and nursing homes throughout the state.
Last year, Fralin received the Ruffner Medal, Virginia Tech's highest award for distinguished service; the Community Service Award of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce; and the Brotherhood Citation of the Roanoke Valley chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Virginia Tech President James McComas said thousands of VPI students have benefitted from Fralin's "contributions and vision . . . He brought leadership, humor and service" to the university and he was "a friend to an entire region."
Fralin served as president of the Virginia Tech Foundation, resigning last year when Gov. Douglas Wilder named him to the university's Board of Visitors. Fralin also chaired the foundation's investment committee.
He was a leader of the effort to reopen Hotel Roanoke and a behind-the-scenes power broker trusted by university officials. Fralin gave more than money; he "gave his heart and soul to you," said Lawrence Hincker, chief spokesman for the university. "He was a real quiet mover and shaker."
He was a founding member of the university's Corporate Research Center; a charter member of Ut Prosim, Tech benefactors who have donated more than $50,000 to the university or its foundation; and a member of the College of Engineering Committee of 100, advisers on curriculum and programming.
Fralin was a 1948 electrical engineering graduate, and once said Tech was the fourth most important thing in his life - behind his wife, his family and his business.
A former director of Dominion Bankshares Corp., Fralin "was fiercely private in the things he did with his time and his money," said Warner Dalhouse, Dominion chairman.
Fralin & Waldron has ranked in the top 100 housing companies in the nation with a sales volume of more than $125 million.
A native of Southeast Roanoke, Fralin once lived over a Garden City grocery store operated by his father. After graduating from Jefferson High School and Virginia Tech, he worked for his father's home-building business until he joined Waldron in 1962 to develop homes in Eton Hills.
They built Penn Forest, Beverly Heights and many other housing subdivisions, apartments in Bent Tree, Bent Creek, Brookside and such commercial buildings as the Atlantic Cos. offices and the F&W office park off Virginia 419. Their Camelot Hall nursing home chain extends across the state.
Fralin, an active Republican in contrast with his Democratic partner, ran for the House of Delegates and lost by less than 200 votes in 1971.
On the state level, he served on the Highway and Transportation Commission and the Council of Higher Education.
Fralin was chairman of Carilion Health Systems and former head of the Community Hospital board, Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Roanoke Valley Homebuilders Association.
The funeral will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at South Roanoke United Methodist Church. Burial will be in Evergreen Burial Park.
Staff writers Daniel Howes and Mag Poff provided information for this story.
Keywords:
NEWS OBIT