Frank and I became friends in fall of 1975, when we were both students at Wickliffe Senior High School in Wickliffe, Ohio. I was in my senior year and Frank was a junior. We were both in a class where we were supposed to learn how to write classroom notes better and faster (kind of like "Shorthand for Dummies"). We ended up sitting across from each other and struck up a friendship.

Frank was a teenage man with a plan. When I asked him what he wanted to do in life he said, "My aunt is an accountant, my uncle is an accountant, and my cousin is an accountant. I'm going to be an accountant." He stuck to his plan, because after high school he spent the next four years at Cleveland State University studying accounting and becoming a CPA.

Besides accounting, Frank was into cars and maintaining them. He did so many oil changes for cars other than his own that he was Lube Stop before there was a Lube Stop. Frank's car at the time was a blue 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle with a 307 V8 in it. It was a pretty quick car. Frank was proud of how well it ran, and he had a lot of fun driving it.

The only time Frank's beloved Chevelle let him down was after he had gotten done bragging to a friend of ours, Howard, about what a great car it was, and calling out Howard for driving a humble six cylinder Dodge Dart. Frank was sitting in his Chevelle, with the engine running, and was giving Howard the business about the sad shape of Howard's Dart. Right on cue, when Frank put his car in reverse to drive away, his engine died. Frank's face instantly had that "where-do-I-hide?" look. From then on Howard could always remind Frank, "your car looks nice, but at least mine runs."

Besides cars, Frank's other hobbies were hunting and fishing . He used to talk about deer hunting on his uncle's property in Pennsylvania, fishing around northeast Ohio, and a yearly fly-in fishing trip to Canada that he made with his dad and uncles.

That yearly fishing trip to Canada was a reflection of the fact that family was a big part of Frank's life. Even as a teenager and young adult, he enjoyed working on a garden with his parents or spending time with his extended family just shooting the breeze late into the evening at his folk's house. I think because of those family ties, he had a tendency to be a homebody. Sometimes you would practically need a stick of dynamite to pry him out of the house. Once you finally got him out, he was a lot of fun, because he had an easy sense of humor and a hearty laugh. In the mid to late 1990's as the internet and email use mushroomed, Frank took it upon himself to email as many jokes as possible to as many people as possible. For a while we had a “best of” collection of his jokes on a "Frank's Jokes" page of this site.

It is that sense of humor and hearty laugh that will be missed by a group of us on Memorial Day. That's because every Memorial Day weekend, since 1984, a group of us guys have gotten together at Salt Fork State Park for a weekend of fishing, golf, food, beer, car talk and generally doing nothing for a weekend but catching up with each other's lives. Frank missed the first two camp-outs, but had attended every one since 1986 with his trusty collapsible fishing rod and reel at his side. Just about every afternoon at the camp-out you could count on Frank being at the shore of the lake casting away, not caring whether he caught anything or not, just enjoying the time spent fishing. At the end of the camp-out, his yearly departing remarks were usually what a good time the weekend had been and "God willing, I'll see you you all here next year."

In 2006, when Frank attended our annual Memorial Day gathering, he was a relatively new father. The previous summer, he and his wife Lisa welcomed three boys, Frank, Paul, and Vincent, into the world. The boys truly resemble Frank. So much so that you would think Frank had been conducting cloning experiments in his basement. He was excited about being a dad, and I'm sure he was looking forward to passing on his interests in cars, the outdoors and love of family to his sons. For some reason, it wasn't to be.

Frank was diagnosed with cancer in August 2006, and passed away a few months later on November 28. I knew him for 31 years. There's no way to sum up a person and what they meant to you in just a few paragraphs. To try doing it in couple of sentences is even more foolish, but here goes anyway: Frank was a friend blessed with a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh. He was always ready to lend a helping hand, and loved his family, friends, and the outdoors.

He is missed.

Kenn - May 2007

You can add your own memories, anecdotes, or stories about Frank to this site via the guest book feature. I didn't even scratch the surface in my text above, so please feel free to add your own.