DBA Congratulates
The Honorable Jeffrey E. Froelich Retires T The Starfish Story originally written by Loren Eiseley in 1969 and adapted many times since then, typically goes like this:
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a young boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The youth replied, “I am throwing the starfish back in the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out, if I don’t throw them back, they will die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize that there are hundreds of miles of beach and thousands of starfish? You can’t possibly make a difference.”
he Honorable Jeffrey E. Froelich tells that story every time that he speaks (even carrying a copy of it with him on a laminated card in his pocket) and its moral, that every individual is important, has shaped his legal and judicial philosophy throughout his career. A graduate of Miami University (Ohio) and the University of Michigan Law School, Judge Froelich spent a total of 42 years on the bench in various courts throughout the Miami Valley. The first sixteen were with the Western Division of the County Court of Montgomery County (now known as the Montgomery County Municipal Court), where, two days a week, Judge Froelich handled cases arising out of Trotwood and the unincorporated areas northwest of Dayton. During that time Judge Froelich also served as the original Director of the law clinic at the University of Dayton School of Law—a position he held with Assistant Director (and later Judge) Alice McCollum—before returning to private practice with his brother’s firm, Louis & Froelich. In 1994, Judge Froelich moved on to the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court—filling the seat left open by the Hon. William W. MacMillan Jr. Fourteen years later, in 2008, he transitioned to Ohio’s Second District Court of Appeals where he filled the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. William H. Wolff Jr., and where he remained until his own retirement earlier this year. Throughout all of that time on the bench, Judge Froelich has applied the lesson of The Starfish Story to each case that passes through his courtroom. “You’ll get a speeding ticket, in the court of appeals. And then you pick up the next case and it’s a post-conviction relief for
continued on page 15
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf, then, smiling at the man, he said, “It made a difference to that one.”
14
Dayton Bar Briefs April 2021
937.222.7902
