Ouida Fritschi
Ouida J. Fritschi (born January 23, 1945 in Toledo, Ohio; died July 23, 2020 in the Birmingham area) was a community activist, best known locally through the Homewood Citizens Association.
After growing up in Ohio and graduating from Maumee High School in Maumee, OH in 1963, Fritschi met her husband, Bruno, at Colorado State University. The couple moved to Homewood in 1969. Fritschi earned her B.S. in psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 1975. She later worked for the Drug Abuse Program at UAB and as a medical psychologist with the Child and Youth Program. The couple had three children: two daughters and a son.
In writing the newsletter for the Homewood Citizens Association (HCA), founded in 1979, Fritschi asked a Homewood city councilor about an issue and was given the wrong information, which she later discovered by doing more research. At that point, she decided that to get correct information about what was going on in city government, she would have to personally attend the City Council and committee meetings. She did so for about 30 years, letting others in Homewood know what was going on through the HCA newsletter.
In 1988, Fritschi ran for City Council, advancing to a runoff which she lost.
On December 6, 1998, Fritschi began hosting a show called "On the Hot Seat" on WEDA-FM that discussed issues affecting Homewood residents. Fritschi was a partner in Homewood Radio, which started the station. In 1999 Homewood Media sold the station to Cox Media, which switched it over to an active rock format.
Fritschi was involved in many organizations, including presidency of the Alabama Environmental Council in the 2000s. She served as Homewood's representative on the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority from 2002 to 2005 and she also served as the chairman of the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization's Transportation Citizens Committee for some period of time starting by at least 2005. She also served as a citizen representative of the Progress 280 Task Force and was involved in the Black Warrior Riverkeeper organization.
In February 2010, Fritschi sent out the final HCA newsletter. The group's founders had moved on and she was planning to spend summers in Vermont each year. With no one stepping up to take her place, she decided to sign off.
Fritschi died in July 2020. She was survived by her husband, son, two daughters, and possibly others.
References
- "Metro Briefs". (December 16, 1998). The Birmingham News, page 2-S .
- Scales, Tom. (May 5, 1999). "Homewood's Ouida Fritschi airs local issues Sundays on WEDA". The Birmingham News, page 1-S.
- Haden, Courtney. (March 3, 2010). "About 31 years, as the gad flies". Birmingham Weekly.
External links
- Ouida Fritschi at the Alabama Environmental Council