Freeman Thurston Frank
September 7, 1931 — October 3, 2007
Freeman Thurston Frank
Mr. Frank was born in East Vassalboro, Maine, September 7, 1931, son of the late Leroy W. Frank and Geneva (Thurston) Frank.
Freeman Thurston Frank, the fourth of eight children, was born in 1931 in a one-room country school and raised in the towns of Minot and Poland, in the State of Maine. He worked his way though high school (Auburn's Edward Little) and Boston University, did a two-year stretch in the US Army during the Korean War and for 37 years (five of them in Medfield, Templeton, and Kingston and 32 in Melrose) taught history and coached debating in Massachusetts secondary schools.He received his Masters degree from Bridgewater State College and was the Head of the History Department at Melrose High School.
Among many summertime jobs, he was a farm-hand, janitor, woodchopper, dishwasher, waiter, truck driver (bakery, milk, beverage, ice), wallpaperer, house painter, rough carpenter, and briefly (in 1953) a reporter for the Lewiston Evening Journal.Retired since 1992, he and Sally (Wallace), his wife of 50 years, lived in Melrose for 42 years and Malden since 2004 near their two sons, Calvin and Adam and their dear grandchildren: Jeneva, Cameron and Rayna.
In his last years, he wrote essays and short stories, published in the Melrose Mirror and the Wolf Moon Press, each concerning 1950's life in small town Maine and Greater Boston?all true, with some names and places changed for the usual reasons.
He has been President of both the Massachusetts and the New England Speech Drama Debate Associations.A ranked player in the American Checker Federation, he was its District 1, New England Director since 1998.And he much enjoyed his nearly 20 year membership in the Melrose Great Books Club.He took much pride in being descended from a long line of liberals, including great-grandfathers, ''boys in blue,'' during the Civil War.While active in Melrose Democratic Party Politics, he considered himself one the last Abolitionists, whose cause ''we have just barely begun to win.''
Freeman was the beloved husband of Sally (Wallace) Frank.Devoted father of Calvin W. Frank of Malden and Adam W. Frank of Medford.Loving grandfather of Jeneva Frank, Cameron Frank and Rayna Frank all of Melrose.Dear brother of Joanne Baumgartel, Sally Belisle both of Lewiston, ME and Royal Frank of Hacketts Mills, ME, the late Hal Frank, Philip Frank, Timothy Frank and Gertrude Frank.
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