Fred Meyer (Texas politician)

Frederick Ray Meyer, known as Fred Meyer (December 20, 1927 – September 24 2012), was a businessman from Dallas, Texas, who was the state chairman of the Republican Party of Texas from 1988 to 1994. He worked in the campaigns of George Herbert Walker Bush, George W. Bush, Phil Gramm, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Rick Perry, and Jeb Hensarling.^[1]

Background

Meyer was born in Deerfield in Lake County in northeastern Illinois. His Republican family opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt and joked that the New Deal agency, the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, means, "We Pay Always." In 1934, the six-year-old Meyer passed out cards for his father, who ran for a school board seat in suburban Chicago. Meyer served in the United States Army and graduated in 1949 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[2]

A diversified businessman, Meyer sat on the boards of eighteen businesses and non-tax paying institutions, including five companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He was a chief operating officer of three firms and the chairman of the board of two others.^[1] He was treasurer of Aladdin Industries in Nashville, Tennessee, and then a senior vice president and then from 1983 to 1986 president of the Tyler Corporation in Dallas.^[2]

Meyer was involved in many avocations too: downhill skiing, marathons, professional race car driving, from the ages of sixty-three to seventy-five, mountain climbing, and a three-mile daily run. He exceeded 35,000 miles in his lifetime.^[1] He was also until the end of his life a fundraiser for the Cooper Institute and Clinic in Dallas.^[2]

Political activities

For seven years, Meyer was the Republican chairman of Dallas County; under his tenure the county became heavily Republican in orientation for two decades but reverted to Democratic majority strength in 2006. In 1972, Meyer was the campaign manager in the long-shot race waged by Alan Steelman, a young Republican who unseated Earle Cabell as U.S. representative for Texas's 3rd congressional district, a post once held by the earlier Republican Bruce Alger. Cabell was also a former mayor of Dallas. Steelman,. however, gave up the seat in 1976 in a losing bid against Democratic U.S. Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen. In 1984, Meyer as chairman of the host committee worked to bring the Republican National Convention to Dallas. He lost a nonpartisan race himself in 1987 for mayor of Dallas to the Democrat Annette Strauss but became state chairman the next year for the first of three two-year terms. He helped Vice President George Bush win the presidency over Michael Dukakis, with their old mutual rival, Lloyd Bentsen, seeking to succeed Bush as vice president but losing out to Republican nominee Dan Quayle.^[2]

Himself considered a Moderate Republican, Meyer sterred clear of primary rivalries but supported his party nominees across the spectrum in each general election.^[2] One of Meyer's successors as state chairman, Susan Weddington of San Antonio, by contrast supported conservative State Representative John Shields in his unsuccessful challenge in 2002 to incumbent Jeff Wentworth for the District 25 seat in the Texas State Senate. Weddington opposed Wentworth's support for abortion.^[3] From 1972 forward, Meyer was a delegate to all Republican state conventions held every even year. For nine months, he headed the Victory 2000 Committee in Washington, D.C.; his work paid off with the election of the second President Bush.^[2]

Former Republican state chairman Steve Munisteri, who served from 2010 to 2015, said that Meyer "had an excellent reputation for building up the party’s infrastructure and taking care of the nuts and bolts of the political operations.".^[2] Dan Branch, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives from Dallas County recalled Meyer as "a tireless fundraiser and a tireless worker."^[2] Karen Hughes, the George W. Bush political operative and counsellor, described Meyer as "a mentor for me and a key influence in my life ... Fred’s leadership was absolutely instrumental in making Texas the Republican stronghold that it is."^[2]Jeanne Johnson Phillips, an oil company executive, said that she even postponed her wedding for a week to accommodate Meyer's fund-raising goals.^[2]

Family and death

Meyer was married to the former Barbara L. Spreuer (1929-2013), a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a graduate of Indiana University in Indianapolis, who was a former personnel director for a grocery chain.^[4]The Meyers had three children, daughters Cheryl Lynn Bouldin and Amy Meyer Barrentine, and son Bradley Allen "Brad" Meyer (1959-2007). Bradley died in Dallas at the age of forty-eight, six months after he was diagnosed with metastasized melanoma cancer. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he was engaged in the entertainment industry and was the president from 1990 to 2005 of Star Tickets in Austin.^[5]

Meyer died of cancer in Dallas at the age of eighty-four. He, his wife, and son were Presbyterians and are in-urned in the columbarium of the Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in Dallas.^[1][2]

References