Diane Dailey Frey, former assistant dean and director of academic services in the College of Arts & Sciences, died on January 24, 2026. She was 81. 

Born in Boston and raised in Norwell, Massachusetts, Dr. Frey graduated from Norwell High School in 1962, then went on to attend Keuka College, where she graduated in 1966. Dr. Frey earned her doctorate in Eastern European history from the University of Washington in 1977, which included a year (1974) spent in Krakow, Poland on a Fulbright fellowship. 

In 1979, Dr. Frey joined Penn’s faculty as assistant dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. In 1982, she took a role directing undergraduate advising in the College, helping students find faculty advisors and mentors on campus, and in 1989, she became director of advising. While at Penn, Dr. Frey served on several committees, task forces, and working groups, often in support of improving the quality of faculty/student mentorship and the share of Penn’s faculty involved. These included the Task Force on Conduct and Misconduct on Campus; the University Council Committee on Student Affairs; the advisory board of the then-new Penn Women’s Center; the Subcommittee on Advising and Retention (part of the late-1980s strategic initiative, Choosing Penn’s Future); the Provost’s Council on Undergraduate Education Subcommittees; and the Electronic Degree Planning and Audit Working Group (which launched course registration system Penn InTouch in 2000). Dr. Frey won a Models of Excellence Award in 2006 as part of a project that allowed Philadelphia-area students who had been attending New Orleans-area universities and had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina to apply to be guest students at Penn. She retired from Penn in 2009. 

“Diane was an avid reader, a lover of the arts, and a dedicated volunteer,” said Dr. Frey’s family. “After retirement, she tutored elementary students in reading, assisted formerly incarcerated people, and served in myriad areas for the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. She was a friend to many, a brilliant, supportive, loving listener with a teasing side that loved a pun.” 

She is survived by her daughter, Julia Patterson Frey; her son-in-law, Jeb Kreager; her brother, William Stewart Dailey; and her grandchildren, William and Llewyn Frey Kreager.

A memorial service for Diane and her husband, Richard Frey, who died three days after she did, will be held this spring. 

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Doctors Without Borders, Planned Parenthood, or the American Civil Liberties Union.