F. Ronald Fraley

F. Ronald Fraley, longtime Tampa attorney and trial lawyer, passed away on Sunday, August 16, 2026, at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida, with his family by his side. He was 94.

Floyd Ronald Fraley was born on December 16, 1931, in Steubenville, Ohio, to Floyd E. “Jake” Fraley and Anna Margaret Roth Fraley.

Ron attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, on a football scholarship and graduated in 1953. A gifted and fiercely competitive athlete, he competed in football, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse at Kenyon and was later inducted into the Kenyon College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. While at Kenyon, he also took to the stage, playing the title role in a college production of Billy Budd.

Following his graduation from Kenyon, Ron served for two years in the United States Marine Corps. He trained at Parris Island and was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he continued playing football as a member of the Marine football team.

After completing his military service, Ron attended the University of Michigan Law School, receiving his law degree in 1958. That same year, he moved to Tampa and was admitted to The Florida Bar, beginning a career as a trial lawyer that would span more than five decades.

Ron joined the Tampa law firm of Shackleford, Farrior, Stallings & Evans, where he practiced for 33 years. In 1991, he left the firm to establish Fraley & Fraley, P.A. His accomplishments as a trial lawyer included election as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He also received Martindale-Hubbell's AV Preeminent peer rating for professional ability and ethical standards.

Ron approached much of life with the same competitive spirit he brought to football. Some who knew him called him “Fearless.” He loved playing sports with his children and their friends and continued doing so long after most men would have moved to the sidelines. Even into his 50s, he might look through the back door of his Tampa home, see his sons and their friends playing basketball on the backyard court, put on his black high-top sneakers and head outside to join the game, sometimes competing against players young enough to be his sons.