Dale Fry, 101, died Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007, at St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City.

He was born Sept. 11, 1906, in Sedgwick, to Joseph Peter and Sarah Florence Utz Fry. When he was a teenager, he began working with his family's custom combine steam engine threshing crew. He graduated from Pittsburg State Teachers College in 1932.

On Sept. 11, 1929, he married Hattie Wilson in Wichita. She died April 13, 2003. He also was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers, eight sisters and one great-granddaughter.

Mr. Fry taught and was in charge of the school buses at Dickinson County High School for five years and taught in the vocational department at Parsons Junior College for seven years before moving to Liberal to sell International Harvester equipment and then to Garden City in 1948 to work for Robinson Equipment. In 1951, he established Fry Equipment Co., when he invented a plow bearing for the Kraus plow and obtained a patent on a portable grain dryer, the Hume-Fry Dryer. Manufacturing other farm equipment continued upon purchasing land and building in the newly developed industrial park on the east side of Garden City in 1958.

Mr. Fry was one of the originators of the 3i Show and served as president of the Western Kansas Manufacturers Association in 1957-58 and 1962-63. He wrote a book, "Pioneer Threshers Joe Pete Fry and Sally Utz Fry 1884-1928," describing in detail the steam engine and his family's threshing days, which was copyrighted in 1991. Upon retiring, he and his wife traveled throughout the United States, visiting all but two states. He thrived on learning about new things.

He also belonged to First Christian Church of Garden City, where he was a Sunday school teacher and elder for many years. He was a Paul Harris Fellow of the Garden City Rotary Club and was a past president of the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce.

Survivors include a son, Melvin Dale Fry Sr. of Garden City; a daughter, Jeanette C. Parks of Garden City; eight grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and seven great-great-grandchildren.

Funeral was at First Christian Church, Garden City, with the Rev. Paul Klaus and Dr. Rev. Marion Heisey officiating. Burial was in Valley View Cemetery, Garden City.