Melvin Fringer Obituary

Melvin Carrol Fringer (age 91) passed away February 9, 2026 at Parrish Hospital, Titusville, FL.

Mel was born December 10, 1934 at home on the family farm in Guide Rock, NE, the seventh child of Clarence and Charlotte (Kellum) Fringer. After high school, Mel taught for five years in one room schools throughout Webster County, NE. Upon completion of two years military service in the Army, Mel attended the University of Northern Colorado, graduating with a B.A. teaching degree.

He then accepted a position teaching English at Collinwood High School in Cleveland, OH. He went on to earn a Masters Degree in English from Kent State University. Mel met his wife, Dorothy Jaras, a fellow teacher at Collinwood, and they were married on June 19th, 1965. A few years later, they boarded a freighter and sailed to Sydney, Australia to teach in a local high school for two years. The return trip took three months, mostly by bus with nine other travelers, across Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Europe and home by air.

Home was now Mystic CT, where for the next 20 years Mel taught English at Fitch Senior High in Groton, CT. When not teaching, Mel and Dottie traveled the U.S. and Canada by RV with their two cats. In retirement, they moved to Titusville, FL and continued to travel extensively, both domestically and internationally, as avid bird watchers and were volunteers for 10 years at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Mel will be remembered by his family and friends for his kindness, love of animals, book club leadership, prize winning wood carvings and drawings, and the students he mentored and inspired. Surviving Mel is his wife Dorothy, two nieces, Klara (Fringer) Shuman and Joy (Fringer) Lisak, and a nephew, Ken Smith. Mel's ashes will be interred in Maple Grove Cemetery, Guide Rock, NE.