Grampa, or Papa Frazee in simple terms was a workaholic, and was a "care-aholic" in not so simple terms. He could relax when he cared to do so, but he would relax the right way by leading a tour of his well-kept yard checking the progress of this bush or that peach tree on the way, or by traveling to exciting places with nice cameras with which to record the visits. I don't remember ever fishing with him: your feet up, watching the pole bend slightly up and down because the weighted line is held loosely by the water as the boat sways in each wave, seldom catching anything except for the hook in your finger while trying to bait it. I got the feeling that very little of his life was ever so meaningless - by design.
You know the advice to live every day as if it were to be your last? Grampa took that advice as best as anyone could.
Flower industry icon Edwin Frazee dies at 87
By: TIM MAYER - Staff Writer
CARLSBAD ---- Edwin Harley Frazee, whose family helped found the flower industry of San Diego County and was described as a quiet, hardworking farmer, died at the age of 87 on July 22 [2004] at a local retirement home.
Frazee, whose health had declined after a stroke several years ago, was born in Carlsbad on May 12, 1917, and was a longtime resident of Oceanside and Rancho Santa Fe.
He is credited with developing hybridized gladiolus and ranunculus and helping to turn the flower business into a thriving local industry.
Youngest brother and former state legislator Robert "Bob" Frazee of Carlsbad said Wednesday his brother was the eldest of five children and had quit high school after the 10th grade to work in the family business with their father, Frank.
"Our father had been a farmer all his life and started growing flowers in 1928," Robert said.
Robert Frazee said he always felt closer to Edwin Frazee than any other member of the family, and it was he who gave him his chance to get back into the family business in the 1950s after serving in the Marine Corps.
Edwin Frazee, who headed up Edwin Frazee Inc., had expanded it to include the wholesale marketing and distributing business Frazee Flowers and brought Robert Frazee in to run it ---- which he did for the next 18 years.
"The thing I really have to thank him for was the opportunity to get back into the family business and the flower business where I kind of had grown up," said Robert Frazee. "That was kind of an opportunity of a lifetime."
That also led to a career in politics, said Robert Frazee, who served as mayor of Carlsbad before being elected to the state Assembly, serving there from 1978 to 1994.
"He was always supportive of my efforts, even though it took time away from my job with the family business," Robert Frazee said.
Robert Frazee described his brother as a quiet, "hardworking, out-in-the-field, hands-on type of guy."
That was echoed Wednesday by Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
Edwin Frazee "was a real, quiet guy," Larson said. "He was kind of a throwback to another era. They use the word pioneer, but he was just a hardworking farmer.
"He just loved to produce crops," Larson said. "That's what he wanted to do and that's what he did all day long. I'm not sure he ever retired. He continued to stay involved in the (Carlsbad) Flower Fields even long after his family wasn't actually running it."
Larson credited the Frazee family with putting San Diego County on the map for commercial floral and nursery crops, now a $900 million-a-year business. "That's the vast majority of what we do here in agriculture."
Edwin and Robert Frazee were named the bureau's Farmers of the Year for 1997, Edwin for his work in the industry and Robert for his work on behalf of agriculture in the Legislature, Larson said.
Edwin Frazee was preceded in death by his daughter, Dorislee Frazee, in 1998.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mabel, of Oceanside; sons and daughters-in-law John and Dianne Frazee of Carlsbad; James and Jan Frazee of Oceanside; Harley and Marylou Frazee of San Jose; and brothers and sisters-in-law Ernest and Ellie Frazee of Carlsbad; Elmer Frazee of Oceanside; and Robert and Dolores Frazee of Carlsbad; six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
A celebration of life in his honor is set for 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Heritage Park in Oceanside.
Contact staff writer Tim Mayer at (760) 901-4043 or tmayer@nctimes.com.
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