By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Richard Thomas "Dick" Fraley, athletic director for the old Fenwick Club died Saturday at Hospice of Cincinnati in Blue Ash after a long illness. He was one day shy of his 78th birthday.

Mr. Fraley directed athletics for the Fenwick Club, a men's residence and athletic club, from 1958 until it closed in 1979.

The club was a mecca for handball players, according to Mr. Fraley's wife, Shirley M. Rauscher Fraley.

Newspaper accounts list Mr. Fraley as among the top 10 players in the city during the early 1960s.

Mr. Fraley organized sports programs for youths, adults, the handicapped and the underprivileged.

He also arranged tennis benefits for St. Elizabeth Medical Center that featured greats Jimmy Connors and Evonne Goolagong.

After Fenwick closed, Mr. Fraley worked for the Cincinnati Club for six years.

A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Mr. Fraley served as a gunnery mate on the submarine tender USS Clytie during World War II. In Australia near the war's end, he was on a Navy baseball team that entertained troops.

After the war, Mr. Fraley graduated from Mansfield State College in Pennsylvania, where he played football, basketball and baseball.

In addition to his wife of 53 years, survivors include three sons, Mark of Nashville, Tenn., Gregg of Chicago and Thomas of Montgomery; four daughters, Marijo O'Connell, of Pleasant Ridge, Ann Ranaghan of Mason, Patrice Ryan of Mount Lookout and Paula Tedford of Sacramento, Calif.; two sisters, Nancy O'Donnell and Jeanne Coyle, both of Wilkes-Barre; and seven grandchildren.

Services have been held. Burial was at Spring Grove Cemetery.

Memorials: Hospice of Cincinnati, 4310 Cooper Road, Cincinnati 45242; Santa Maria Community Services, 3301 Warsaw Ave., Cincinnati 45205;or Mount Notre Dame Convent, 701 E. Columbia Ave., Cincinnati 45215.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer .com