MONROEVILLE, Ohio -- Fred Deering, 86, an Ohio legislator for 20 years who represented parts of Lucas and Wood counties and Erie and Ottawa counties in the state House of Representatives, died Monday.

Most recently, Mr. Deering was a commissioner of the Erie MetroParks district.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, while a state representative, he was dubbed "Freeway Fred" because of his efforts -- ultimately unsuccessful -- to remove tolls from the Ohio Turnpike. He represented eastern Lucas County in the late 1980s when work on Maumee Bay State Park got underway.

He also had been an Erie County commissioner and a member of the Perkins board of education.

Arrangements are by the Groff Funeral Home, Sandusky.

First Published March 16, 2010, 10:41 p.m.