[Updated 19 June 2003 with addition of Ken Bowie's letter to Frank's family]
It was quite sad to hear of Frank's passing. He was a true professional and a real gentleman.
(Not always, see below ~ <Grin>. But he was a lot of fun to work with.) I remember well working with him on Wake Island on PACSCAT in 1963 and 1964.
Later had a chance to work with him on several other projects including a visit with him in Panama on a USN O&M effort.
It seems as if the old PAGENEERS are thinning out -- at least in numbers.
Regards to all from Cairo,
John D. von Bergen
John,
You are slipping on your dates or you maybe thinking about the PacScat Upgrade program, where we converted the "Piggy Back" low band curtains for hi band transmission. The reason I say this is, I remember working with Frank on Midway Island in 1959 and 1960, when he was the tower erection supervisor and Vic Spezio (sp?) was the Site manager. I remember an incident one day with Frank, when Frank was attempting to determine proper screen wire tensioning and clearing broken screen wires from the arrays. I was a young site tech and had complied with Frank's direction to tune the SP-600 receiver to our receive frequency and feed the audio out to a speaker jack at the base of the towers, so he and his riggers could hear what screen wires were producing noise in the antenna array. Apparently I hadn't tuned the SP-600 properly, because Frank came roaring into the building, mad as a wet Italian hen. He yelled at me shaking a finger in my face and told me if I couldn't get that damn receiver tuned properly, he was going to kick my butt, until I had more bumps on it than the antenna CJMU ~ LMAO. (Common Junction Matching Unit, for you guys that have forgotten <Grin>.) Frank was one hard worker, but he had a great sense of humor. It was always fun to watch Vic Spezio and Frank go at it together, like two wild Italians. It was certainly my pleasure and privilege to have worked with Frank so many years ago. May he rest in peace and God provide strength to his loved ones.
Sam Eardley (PS.....good to hear from you John).
This is very sad, especially with three ex-Pageneers gone in the past month (Frank plus Bill Manning and Bob Hunter). The last time I saw Frank was in Nassau, around 1962.
Dottie and her sister and I were there on vacation and Frank loaned us his car, a nice little convertible. Walt Mitchell and the Bahamas tropo crew were also there. On Sunday we water-ski'd near Paradise Island and had a picnic there (it was was undeveloped in those days). I remember that Frank had family in Worcester MA where he hailed from. He will be missed.
My condolences to Penny and his family.
Joe Mitchell