Dr. Frenkil, whom friends described as having an "acute business sense," established a chain of Central Medical Centers. His original practice was in downtown Baltimore on West Pratt Street, and he later had satellite clinics in Eastpoint, Hunt Valley, Elkridge and Columbia. He employed nearly 100 medical staff members, and the centers treated about 450 to 600 patients a day. He was the owner and president until selling the practice in 1987. He later donated his 16 S. Eutaw St. medical building to the University of Maryland Physicians; it is named in his honor.
A donor to the Maryland medical school's alumni association, he and his wife established the James and Carolyn Frenkil Endowment Fund for "a medical student who has suffered significant medical problems" while pursuing schooling. A fund has also been established for the James Frenkil Center in Kenya for the testing, counseling and education of AIDS orphans.
He was a past chairman of the state's Occupational Disease Board and had been medical director of the Mass Transit Administration. He held similar posts with the Chessie System and Pan American World Airways. He also headed industrial medicine at the old Lutheran, North Charles and South Baltimore General hospitals, as well as Sinai Hospital.
