Honoring His Family’s Legacy, Assumption’s School of Nursing Named by Christopher Froelich
Christopher Froelich ’77 is the product of five generations of medical professionals. To honor his family’s commitment to providing unsurpassed and compassionate care by supporting the education of future nurses, Froelich has made a generous seven-figure gift to Assumption University to name the School of Nursing. The Froelich School of Nursing is the third of Assumption’s five schools to be named, joining the D’Amour College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Grenon School of Business.
“Given our family’s long history and five generations of dedication to the medical profession, I wanted to acknowledge and celebrate that unique and wonderful family tradition,” said Froelich, whose daughter, Erin, is a neonatal intensive care unit nurse. “I am incredibly pleased, proud, and humbled that the Froelich School of Nursing, a lasting tribute to all of those in our family who have gone before us and those currently dedicated to medicine, will form generations of future nurses who choose Assumption for its transformative education. Graduates of the Froelich School of Nursing will be provided with the tools they need to not only succeed, but excel in the field of nursing, augmenting the Froelich family legacy.”
Assumption’s Froelich School of Nursing prepares students to be ethical, professional, and compassionate medical care providers who treat the patient, not just an illness, focused on the dignity of each human person. With a strong foundation in the liberal arts, Catholic health care principles, and the Catholic intellectual tradition, the contemporary nursing curriculum combines high-quality classroom instruction and clinical placements. Assumption nurses are trained to be patient-centric, effective communicators, collaborators, and make clinical decisions on evidenced-based and scientific knowledge, but also what is moral, ethical, and appropriate for each unique patient.
“The Assumption University community is grateful to Chris for his generous gift, and to his family for their selfless commitment to providing service for those in need of quality medical care,” said Francesco C. Cesareo, Ph.D., president of Assumption University. “Chris’ success and entrepreneurial spirit are evidence of the intrinsic value of an Assumption education. He, and by extension, his family, are examples of those graduates the University strives to form: individuals who apply their Catholic liberal education to serve and better their communities. Chris and his family will continue their legacy of service for generations to come through this generous gift to empower to the University and its students’ to pursue careers as ethical and caring nurses, formed by a distinctively Catholic program.”
A successful entrepreneur, Froelich began his career as a partner in BPF Travel, a start-up that developed into the fourth-largest travel agency in the U.S. in five years and transformed the landscape of corporate travel by creating customized travel and expense management systems for Fortune 500 companies. After American Express acquired BPF Travel in 1984, Froelich held various roles there for the next 15 years, including Director of Business Travel Operations, VP/GM of Platinum & Gold Card Travel Services, VP/GM of the Public Sector, and VP of Supplier Relations for Europe, during which he served as the architect of a pan-European supplier strategy. Based in Paris for three and a half years, Froelich served as a member of the American Express European Executive Committee and is a two-time American Express President’s Award winner.
Froelich then served as CEO of Happy Vacations and Wall Street Journal Travel Center, two leisure-oriented national travel brands. He acquired the Somerset School of Massage Therapy in 1999, and served as a board member of the American Massage Therapy Association Council of Schools. Using the Somerset School as the base, Froelich helped create and expand the Cortiva Institute, a massage therapy school network, acquiring 12 of the top massage schools across the USA.
In 2010, Froelich acquired part of Dinova, a corporate restaurant loyalty program, and assumed responsibility for Dinova’s corporate sales and business development. Dinova grew from a start-up to a network of over 350 Fortune 1,000 companies and 20,000 restaurant locations nationwide. Froelich retired from Dinova in 2018, but continues to invest in real estate and consult for a number of travel and restaurant marketing related businesses.
Froelich, a resident of Spring Lake, NJ, holds a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in Education from Assumption and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
The Froelich family spans five generations of medical professionals including Froelich’s grandfather Joseph C. Froelich M.D.; his father Jerome J. Froelich M.D.; his sisters Maryellen Froelich Matthews, RN, and Catherine Froelich Kirsner M.D.; his brother-in-law Robert Kirsner, M.D., Ph.D.; his former wife Patti Brown Froelich, RT; his daughter Erin Rose Froelich, RN, and her husband Chris Ofeldt, DPM; his niece Courtney Hill Froelich, RN; and soon will include his nephew William Kirsner, who is pursuing a PharmD degree. Two of Froelich’s grandnieces, Anna Froelich and Samantha Kratochvil, are also pursing medical-related careers.