John Fronk

1943 - 2015

(News article) John R. Fronk, who owned restaurants across northwest Ohio for 35 years, most notably the Whitehouse Inn, died Sunday at home in Swanton. He was 71.

He was in ill health the last 1½ years and lived with friends Doug and Judy Parker in Swanton, his son Tony said.

He sold his interest in the Whitehouse Inn in 2008 to son Tony, to his son's initial surprise. One day Mr. Fronk told his son that they were going to the bank, which was not an unusual outing. His son asked what they'd be doing.

"'You're buying me out,'" Mr. Fronk said, his son recalled. The paperwork had already been drawn up.

Mr. Fronk focused on food and hospitality and, in short order, removed draft beer, jukebox, pool tables, and stage after he bought a business.

"He wanted to be a restaurant. He didn't want to be a bar," said his son, who worked with Mr. Fronk since receiving an accounting degree in the mid-1990s.

"He taught us to take care of people. He explained it to us, 'It's like putting a party on every night, and you're the host,'" his son said. "When you walked in, he knew your name, or he knew where you were from. If he didn't recognize you, you would be the first person he would talk to."

Mr. Fronk's biggest lesson, his son said: "Never worry about the money. Just worry about the people. Take care of the people."

For many years, Mr. Fronk also cooked for patrons. He bought his first place, the Okolona Tavern in Henry County's Okolona with a former mentor for whom he tended bar while in college. He later owned the Liberty Inn in Liberty Center; the Gathering Place in Delta, the Jewell Bar & Grill in Jewell, Ohio, and with his son Daniel, Daniel's Lyons Den in Fulton County's Lyons. He and son Daniel and Tony owned the Pioneer Mill in Tiffin. He later was an owner of the Oregon Inn in Oregon and the Whistle Stop Inn in North Baltimore.

"He was a great teacher," said son Tony, whose first duty after receiving an accounting degree was to wash dishes. "He was very particular about the way he did things, but he led by example, and he worked hard. He worked seven days a week and very seldom complained."

He was born Oct. 27, 1943, to Ethyl and Lester Fronk and grew up in Florida, Ohio, a Henry County village where his father was mayor for a time. He graduated from high school there and went to what was then Findlay College, intending to become a history teacher. Instead, before he owned restaurants, he was a salesman for Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. and then for a firm that sold high school jackets.

He didn't travel much. "He could never get too far away from his restaurant," son Tony said. He eventually left cooking to others "and decided to start enjoying life a little more," son Tony said. He was a regular at the Stranahan Theater's Broadway series and held Mud Hens season tickets.

He was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Maumee.

Surviving are his daughter, Kathleen Fronk; sons, Daniel, Anthony, and Peter Fronk; sister, Carol Adams, and nine grandchildren.

Visitation is 3-8 p.m. today in Peinert-Dunn Funeral Home in Whitehouse, where services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday. The family suggests tributes to Sunshine Communities on Maumee Western Road in Monclova Township.

This story was written by Blade Staff Writer Mark Zaborney. Contact him at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.