Focus on Melrose: Freeman Frank

Freeman Frank was a legend in Melrose High School. Who can forget his recitation of William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, singing "Do We Remember Dewey" or "What Was Your Name in the States," or his rap of the gavel to call order in the classroom. He taught and influenced generations of Melrose students. Here is Mr. Frank’s obituary from the Robinson Funeral Home:

“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 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, wood-chopper, 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 at 87 Swains Pond Ave. 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 concerning1950’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 beingdescended 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."