Alice Jean Fry

Alice Jean Fry

April 17, 1931 – February 24, 2026

Paradise Valley, Arizona

She had a passion for flowers, especially roses, and a keen eye for jewelry and Western art. In her later years, Alice channeled her lifelong generosity into philanthropy, ensuring that the values she and Chuck built their life around - hard work, community, and quality would endure long after them both through The Fry Foundation, the family's private philanthropic organization focused on STEM education.

She is survived by her three sons, John, Randy, and Dave; ten grandchildren, Natalie, Joshua, Lina, Amora, Erica, Will, Jake, David, Brad, and Amy; and nine great-grandchildren, Nicole, Megan, Halley, Evan, Elise, Charlie, Nolan, Kaylee, MacKenzie, Logan and Kalvin.

Alice Jean Fry lived a full and abundant life. She was shaped by the Great Depression, tempered by hardship, and softened by love. She was the steady engine behind a remarkable American story, and the warm center of a remarkable American family.

She is reunited now with her beloved Chuck. Together again, forever a great team Alice Jean Fry, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away peacefully on February 24, 2026, at her home in Paradise Valley, Arizona - the same home she shared for so many years with the love of her life, Charles "Chuck" Lindbergh Fry.

Born Alice Jean Schroeder from Longview, Texas, Alice was a woman of spirit, strength, and boundless love. She was, in every sense of the word, a partner - the kind who makes everything possible simply by showing up with her whole heart, and no shortage of suggestions.

Blessed with both beauty and brains, as Chuck was so fond of saying, Alice Jean caught the eye and won the heart of a young Chuck Fry, and the two were married in 1951. Theirs was a love story for the ages - 68 years of building a life together, raising a family, and leaving a legacy that touched countless lives.

In the early years of their marriage, Alice and Chuck moved to Wichita, Kansas, where Alice worked at Cessna, her earnings laying the financial foundation for what would become one of the most beloved grocery chains in the American West. Fry's Food Stores, born in Richmond, California in 1955, was as much Alice's dream as it was Chuck's. She was the steady hand behind the vision, and those who knew her best understood that the phrase "Your best buys are always at Fry's" could just as easily have described Alice herself - always offering the very best of herself to everyone around her.

Even after the chain was sold to Kroger, Alice never stopped caring about the stores that bore her family's name. She continued to shop at Fry's, mentoring managers and schooling them on quality, service, and what it truly meant to stay on brand. She was, to the very end, a woman with high standards - and the warmth to inspire others to meet them.

Alice and Chuck raised three active sons - John, Randy, and Dave - on their ranch in Martinez, California. Those boys grew up and founded Fry's Electronics in 1985, inspired by the family grocery business and the booming computer industry. It was, as the family liked to say, the Silicon Valley synthesis of computer chips and potato chips. Alice must have smiled every time she heard that.

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