| Profile of
Mavis and Ron Frye |
Ronald and Mavis were active Jehovah's Witnesses for about thirty-three years. Ron's mother and Mavis' father had been Witnesses before them and their influence played a large part in their early association. They had one child, a daughter named Jamie who remains an active Witness along with her husband and three children.
Most of Ron and Mavis' association with the Witnesses was in the state of Minnesota. They are now retired in north-central part of the state on an acreage with their dogs and cats. Mavis was baptized in 1947 and Ron in 1942. In 1950 they entered the regular pioneer service while living in St. Paul, Minnesota. This service required a minimum of 100 hours time spent in public ministry every month. To do this, Ron resigned his commercial artist position in the advertising department of a midwest wholesale grocery company. They sold their home and had a small 8-by-22-foot trailer constructed that would be their home for the next 11 years.
In 1954 they were invited into the special pioneer service which required 150 hours of public ministry for each of them every month, including at least 50 return visits to people that had been previously contacted in the work. They were assigned a "territory" to work in Alexandria, Minnesota, and the surrounding region. Jamie was eight years old when they moved to Alexandria. At the time, there were no other Jehovah's Witnesses in that area, so they had no regular association with other members. The five meetings a week that most Jehovah's Witnesses attend in Kingdom Halls, were for them (Ron, Mavis, and Jamie) held in their tiny trailer home. The monthly allowance for special pioneers at that time was $25.00 for each month that the 150 hours and 50 "backcalls" quotas were achieved. The combined allowance of $50.00 a month hardly covered the cost of maintaining their car in an area where little interest existed and was scattered over many miles of rural territory. During the thirteen months they served in this assignment, Mavis developed ovarian cysts and they were forced to leave that assignment. So, after five years of pioneer service, they found it necessary to stop for some time, and moved to Forest Lake, Minnesota, where they continued in the regular service of Jehovah's Witnesses.
In 1956 they began pioneering again, and in 1957 they accepted another special pioneer assignment in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, where they served for three years. In 1960 they were forced once again by health and financial circumstances to give up their pioneer service, so after four years they returned once again to being "regular publishers" (term for the rank-and-file Jehovah's Witnesses).
When Mavis had recovered, they reentered the pioneers service again in 1966, and in 1967 Ron was invited to serve as a circuit overseer in upstate New York. There, they served over two different circuits, each having about 20 congregations. So in that year they visited and ministered to about 40 congregations. By now, Jamie was grown and married. The circuit work proved to be too strenuous for Mavis, and they returned to Austin, Minnesota where Jamie and her husband lived. Thus ended their full-time service careers which had encompassed about a third of their lives in association with Jehovah's Witnesses. In between times, they were both very active in whatever congregation they attended, with Ron serving in various "servant" positions during all those years, including congregation overseer in five different congregations. In 1969 they moved to Owatonna, Minnesota, where they remained for the duration of their membership as Jehovah's Witnesses.
It was in the winter of 1970-71 that Ron happened to have a conversation with another long-time friend, also a Witness, regarding the growing expectations for what the year 1975 would bring. As most long-time Witnesses remember, the belief was very prevalent in the early 1970s that the year 1975 was marked to usher in the long-awaited battle of Armageddon, which Jehovah's Witnesses awaited with the anticipation of surviving into a paradise earth thereafter. Following the conversation, Ron began to delve into more research about the Watch Tower Society's past history, in particular about the published predictions of future events and end of the world. With this, Ron and Mavis gradually began to realize that the Watch Tower Society had been less than forthright about their past failed predictions, to the point of misrepresentation about it in their current publications. This editorial dishonesty resulted in deterioration of respect for the Society and resulted in loss of zeal to advance its agenda.
The year 1975 came and went. Mavis was the first to become inactive and she finally stopped attending meetings altogether by 1979. Ron lingered a while longer, but also became inactive and stopped meeting attendance in 1980. This naturally caused concern among their families and friends, who wondered about their inactivity in the service as well as the reasons behind it. Attempts to discuss the matter did little more than exacerbate the already painful situation. Then, in 1981, they were summoned before a congregation judicial committee and ultimately "disfellowshipped" from the organization. Thus, As is the practice of Jehovah's Witnesses toward expelled members, the lifetime friendships and family associations (including their daughter, Jamie) were brought to an abrupt end. Their entire social and religious structure was completely shattered in the process. Since then, they have never again been allowed to see or visit their three grandchildren. Eight close family members were lost to them. Ron's mother refused to even allow him to come and do work around her home in Austin, Minnesota-even if she was not around. Ron never saw his mother alive again.
In January, 1995, Ron's mother died. He was allowed to attend the memorial service, which was held in a Kingdom Hall in Tucson, Arizona. Arrangements were made for him to stay in a motel. He was bold beforehand that there would be absolutely no socializing either before or after that memorial service, and they were true to their word. Nevertheless, Ron was able to see, for a few fleeting moments, his grandchildren whom he had not seen since 1981, and has not seen since. Mavis did not attend.
Ron has done considerable writing since leaving the Witnesses. He associates with a nondenominational church and teaches adult Bible classes there. Mavis feels no such need and is content with her domestic activities, friends, pets, house plants, and a vegetable garden every year. After stressful living for so many years, she is content to enjoy some measure of "normalcy." They are both in good health and enjoy an active life. They are surrounded by woods and like to hike and bike. Mavis does a lot of refunding and couponing to supplement their limited retirement income, and Ron occasionally does some sign painting (a craft he acquired during his years of "pioneering"). Like many Witnesses in those years, they did not plan for old-age. Yet they are grateful for what they have, and for the most part they are happy and content.
