Obituary

Mr. Freeman T. Frank of Malden, formerly of Melrose, died Wednesday morning, October 3, 2007 at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington. He was 76 years old.

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 through 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 Master’s 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.

By Tom Long, Globe Correspondent | October 6, 2007

Freeman T. Frank was a high school history teacher in Melrose, but his death is being felt by former students from coast to coast.
"He was a very inspirational man who was a fiery orator and wore his heart on his sleeve," State Representative Michael E. Festa of Melrose said of the man who inspired him to enter politics.

"He showed me the possibilities of the life of the mind and was instrumental in my choosing the law as a career," said Paul Salamanca, another former student, who was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice David Souter before becoming a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law.

Mr. Frank, who taught at Melrose High School for 32 years until his retirement in 1992, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Wednesday in the Lahey Clinic in Burlington. He was 76 and had recently lived in Malden.

Among Mr. Frank's legacies at Melrose High was his work as coach of the school's debating team, the former students said.
"The debating team was the equivalent of a sport to us, and he was our coach. But he was more than coach, he was a mentor and an inspiration," Salamanca said.

Dan Pallotta, who owns and operates a design and marketing firm in Los Angeles, recalls how Mr. Frank was giving of his time and of his attention.

"Every afternoon at 4:00, after all the other teachers had sped for home, you'd find Freeman in a classroom with a bunch of us, glasses on his nose, eyes at the top of their sockets, feverishly taking notes on each of our debate speeches, one by one," Pallotta said.
He said the fledgling debaters anxiously awaited Mr. Frank's feedback.
"Oh how it made you feel to get his notes after your speech," Pallotta said. "He knew how to inspire you. He took no pride in denigrating, or using his superior mind to intimidate you. He always used it to motivate. . . . Here was an adult who took an interest in us, and it showed every night as the clock ticked closer and close to five."
The fourth of eight children born to a paper mill worker who also worked a small farm, Mr. Frank was born in Vassalboro, Maine, and was raised in the towns of Minot and Poland.

He worked his way through high school and Boston University with a succession of jobs, including woodchopper, dishwasher, waiter, and truck driver. He served in the Army for two years during the Korean War and was a reporter briefly for the Lewiston Evening Journal in 1953.

He earned a master's degree at Bridgewater State College.

Mr. Frank taught in Medfield, Templeton and Kingston before joining the faculty at Melrose High, where he usually began the school year with his theatrical reading of William Jennings Bryant's fiery "Cross of Gold" speech from the 1896 Democratic National Convention.
"He practiced a rabid brand of left-wing politics that sometimes bled into his classes," said his son Adam, of Medford. "He wasn't afraid to teach the dark side of capitalism."

Another son, Calvin, of Malden, said, "His father worker in the paper mill, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and I think that affected him."

Festa said Mr. Frank took 14-year-olds and taught them what life is all about.
"I don't know what I would have become if I hadn't met him," said Festa, who was recently appointed secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs.

In addition to his sons, Mr. Frank leaves his wife, Sally (Wallace); two sisters Joanne Baumgartel and Sally Belisle, both of Lewiston, Maine; a brother, Royal of Hackett Mills, Maine; and three grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. today in First Congregational Church in Malden. Burial will be in Wyoming Cemetery, Melrose.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.