Timeless Values: ‘Mobility is Freedom’

In a world of constant change, the enduring principles of The Northwood Idea remain steadfast. Personal freedom, individual responsibility and the rule of law are not relics of another era — they are the permanent foundations of a free and flourishing society. It is therefore fitting to revisit the voices and lessons that have most powerfully articulated these truths across generations. We call them Timeless Values.

Few leaders embodied The Northwood Idea more fully than former Northwood University President Dr. David E. Fry. A teacher at heart, Dr. Fry never stopped educating — whether in the classroom, at the Northwood International Auto Show, during a Freedom Seminar, or in a simple conversation that left listeners thinking long after it ended. He possessed a rare ability to connect principle to practice, to take abstract ideas about liberty and make them tangible, memorable and real.

Years after adopting the automotive industry as a curricular niche for Northwood, Dr. Fry explained why the program was tailor-made for the university’s mission. Reasoning that “vehicles are mobility; mobility is freedom,” he observed that the automotive industry is “the most freedom-creating industry on earth.” In that simple but profound insight, he linked mechanical innovation to human aspiration — connecting the automobile not merely to commerce, but to opportunity, dignity and the American Dream.

For Dr. Fry, the automobile was never just a product. It was a symbol — and a tool — of self-determination. Mobility expands choices. It enables families to pursue work, education, service and adventure. It allows individuals to respond to opportunity and to care for those they love. In societies where freedom is restricted, mobility is constrained. Where liberty flourishes, so too does movement — of people, of ideas, of enterprise.

In the following reflection, two important Northwood figures, Dr. Timothy G. Nash and Dr. Robert W. Serum, revisit one of Dr. Fry’s most memorable lessons: the powerful relationship between automobiles and freedom. Drawing on personal experiences and historic moments, they illuminate how Dr. Fry brought this principle to life — and why it remains as relevant today as ever.

His words continue to travel across time, reminding us that industries matter not only for what they produce, but for the freedom they make possible.

Fry’s ‘Mobility is Freedom’ Lesson Still Moves Us Today
By Dr. Timothy G. Nash and Dr. Robert W. Serum

We never had the privilege of taking a formal class with David Fry, but we experienced his lectures at faculty meetings, meal-time discussions in his office to discuss results, strategy, family, or a number of other subjects. There always seemed to be a lesson in great learning that was experienced by the time the interaction with David was over.

David Fry was a great leader who always taught as he led with something that stuck with you, something transformational that made you and/or Northwood University better. He was a leader who believed in freedom, free enterprise, the rule of law, and the American Dream — and he was revered by his thousands of Northwood students from across the country and around the world, in addition to his many colleagues. He worked with leading economics thinker and chair, Dr. V. Orval Watts, and Northwood founders Arthur and Johann Turner and Gary and Willa Stauffer in creating The Northwood Idea. As the cornerstone of a wonderful organization and educational product, it entices students from all over this country and the globe to travel to Midland to earn a coveted Northwood degree. Dr. Fry also had the foresight and insight to open international program centers in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, England, and Malaysia, among many others. He collaborated and led in the creation of the Northwood University International Auto Show, Stafford Dinner, Northwood University Fashion Showcase, NUCARS, and other enduring programs that have illuminated the American Dream. We were both honored to work with David on many of these ventures.

We remember clearly one of David’s beautiful lessons. It was the Northwood Christmas dinner, 1989, just after the Berlin Wall had collapsed around Thanksgiving of that year and East and West Germans were freely traveling back and forth through the Brandenburg Gate within the starkly contrasting regions of their newly united nation.

David talked about how in prior years, he and his wife, Claudia, would visit some of her family, friends and/or relatives in East Germany, and felt the deafening lack of sound in totalitarian East Germany as they left West Germany at night. Behind them was the darkness and lack of night life in East Germany, and ahead was the celebration of life — open theatres, night clubs, outdoor cafes, all functioning with people moving freely, with music and laughter abounding.

The East German government knew when the Berlin Wall physically came down; there was freedom on both sides of the Wall, for the Wall was not built to constrain the freedoms of West Germans but rather to keep East Germans in and West Germans out. West Germans had little desire or incentive to move to East Germany and stay — rather the East German government knew they would have very few citizens left if they allowed just six months of East German migration to the West.

David shared news clippings where an East German proudly drove his East German Trabant from the East to the West through the Brandenburg Gate, only to discover how misplaced his pride was, as West Germany’s vehicles were far superior to his poor and narrow option. East Germans discovered it was the freedom in the West that produced higher standards of living, including better apartments, technologies, clothing, and more opportunities to apply their East German engineering. They discovered a greater variety of needs were fulfilled, a wider range of education was provided, and life was simply better in the West. And this was a lesson they learned after driving their notably inferior automobiles in from the East (after they were permitted to do so).

David gave many wonderful Christmas speeches over the years, and we remember much of this one clearly, 37 years later. We remember his assertion that automobiles represent one of the important ways people actualize freedom, including that of the von Trapp family’s escape, highlighted in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. David noted many other examples of people using the automobile to escape tyranny around the globe, including the Killing Fields of Cambodia, as well as the old Soviet Union, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Uganda, and many others.

It was inspiring to hear David recount America’s privilege, even compared to many freedom-loving countries in the West, because we had such a high percentage of automobile ownership in America. With more automobiles per household in America than drivers’ licenses, our cars gave us flexibility. For example, we could choose to get up two hours early to travel to our office to finish a project, or we could visit a sick child, a parent or grandparent in need, or get to a vacation spot early. In many countries, these options were limited to the hours of public transportation in those years — and many remain so today.

Freedom meant a great deal to David Fry — but it wasn’t just economic freedom, as evidenced by his lesson that stays with Northwood today: Vehicles are mobility and mobility is freedom.

About the Authors
Dr. Timothy G. Nash is Senior Vice President Emeritus and Director of the Northwood University Center for the Advancement for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. Dr. Robert W. Serum, a retired long-time academic leader and innovator of international programs at Northwood, is credited with navigating significant educational innovations for over two decades, starting in the late 1980s. This piece originally was published in the March 2026 edition of When Free to Choose, Northwood University’s signature publication dedicated to exploring the importance of free enterprise. Click here to receive When Free to Choose in your inbox!