Archives West Finding Aid

Andrew J. Frank was born in Chicago in 1925 and attended the University of Illinois--Urbana, earning bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in Chemistry. He taught briefly at Tulane University and worked in corporate and governmental research before serving as Chairman of the Chemistry Department at Western Washington State College from 1962-1970, during which time he participated in in the Summer Institute for Indian College Science Teachers. Andy's career shifted in 1971 and took many turns, through public health, law, and government (including the U.S. Census and IRS).

Cecile E. Frank, born in Elyria, Ohio, graduated from the University Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago in 1948. She specialized in pediatrics at her nursing jobs in Chicago and New Orleans; later, in Bellingham, Cece practiced nursing at two city hospitals and the Western Washington University campus clinic, and in Seattle she was one of the first employees of the Pike Place Market Community Clinic, becoming known as the "nurse on the streets" to the poor and elderly residents of the downtown area. Cecile worked at Seattle's Senior Day Care Center until 1991.

The Franks were actively involved in their communities. In Bellingham, they were involved with the foreign students, and later began to host visitors to Seattle from its sister city of Kobe, Japan; for a time, Andy served as chair of the Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association. Their visitors from and visits to Japan led them to move there after retirement in 1991; until then, the Franks lived in Queen Anne and were also active in the Temple Beth Am.

In Kobe, Andrew Frank studied Japanese Gardens and taught English. Both Andrew and Cecile continued to be involved in the relationship between sister cities, becoming acquainted with Kobe officials as well as those in Akashi, a neighboring city connected to Vallejo, California. The Franks lived and traveled in Japan over the next fourteen years and returned to Seattle in 2005. Cecile died at the age of 83 on May 30, 2009.