[2] At times besieged by autograph seekers for his role with the Mustang,[1] Frey, a third generation engineer,[3] was "one of the few auto executives with experience in all three of the industry's essential areas: design, manufacture and sales.
"[2] He had nonetheless been most proud of assisting Ford in introducing safety improvements to their lineup, including disc brakes and radial tires.
[1] Frey went on to a successful career as an innovator in manufacturing and information systems and as chairman and CEO Bell & Howell.
His father, a metallurgist, designed the 1923 John Deere Model D tractor, and would later work for the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company.
[9] Frey married four times, to Margaret (mother of his six children), Mary Cameron, Arvelene Gore, and last wife Kay Eberley, from whom he was separated.
[1][10] He died March 5, 2010, in Evanston, Illinois, at age 86,[11] survived by three daughters, Margaret Walton, Catherine McNair, and Elizabeth Sullivan and two sons, Christopher and Donald Jr.[1] Frey was trilingual (speaking English, Russian, and French),[2] was an avid follower of opera and archaeology,[2] and while at Ford, read "the London Times Literary Supplement as avidly as Ward's Automotive Reports.
Frey pursued the Mustang after Henry Ford II had rejected it four times, in no small part because of the Edsel's spectacular failure.
[1] Without formal approval, Frey met clandestinely with Lee Iacocca and other engineers and designers- notably lead stylists Philip T. Clark and John Najjar[13][14] to continue developing the car.
Consequently, when Henry Ford II did approve the project, he put Frey in charge and told him he would be fired if the Mustang was not successful.
He was very concerned that the United States was losing the "global race" for automobile improvements in technology because there was little interest in investments for innovation and thus an increasing "gap" between the U.S. with Japan and Germany.
[3] In 1971, he was appointed chairman and CEO of Bell & Howell, replacing Peter G. Peterson who left to join the Nixon Administration,[18] making "a sweeping transformation of a company still known for film, microfiche and microfilm, as the video era dawned.
[3] After Bell & Howell, he became a professor and researcher at Northwestern University,[12] in the Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences (IE/MS) Department.