A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Fry learned to write from Phyllis Abbott Peacock at Needham B. Broughton High School.

With his colleague Roy Peter Clark Fry systemized the techniques of coaching writers, invented at the Boston Globe by Donald Murray.

They expanded their coverage to multimedia in a second edition: Coaching Writers: Editors and Reporters Working Together across Media Platforms (Bedford-St. Martin's, 2003).

[1] Fry began his academic writing with his 1966 dissertation, Aesthetic Applications of Oral-Formulaic Theory: Judith 199-216a, which established terminology and techniques for analyzing the artistry of formulaic poetry in England before 1066.

[12][13] After his death, his former Poynter Institute colleague and co-writer Clark called him "arguably the most well-traveled and, in that respect, most influential writing coach of the last 30 years.