Collection is open for research.
Gift of Gerry Frank, July 1989 (Lib. Acc. 19495).
Aaron Meier Frank was born in 1891 in Portland, Oregon. His grandfather Aaron Meier had founded the Portland department store Meier & Frank, and his father, Sigmund Frank, had become Meier's business partner and married Meier's daughter Fanny. Frank graduated from the University of Oregon Law School in 1913, and in 1914 began working for Meier & Frank. In 1930, when Aaron Meier's son Julius Meier was elected governor of Oregon, Frank assumed managerial responsibilities for the store; upon Julius Meier's death in 1937, Frank became the store's president. He retired in September 1964.
Frank married Ruth Rosenfeld (1893-1942) in 1916; the couple had three children, including Gerald W. "Gerry" Frank (1923-2022). Frank died in 1968.
Sources: Articles in the Oregonian, September 14, 1942, and November 30, 1968; vital records on Ancestry.com.
Gerald "Gerry" Wendell Frank was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1923. He attended Stanford University, where he enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps. He was called to active duty in the U.S. Army in 1943, and served in the European theater during World War II. During his Army training in California, he studied engineering at Loyola University. After his discharge in 1945, he remained in England and attended Cambridge University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in politics.
After graduating, he returned to Portland and worked at the family business, the Meier & Frank department store. He opened and managed the Meier & Frank store in Salem, Oregon, in 1955. After the sale of Meier & Frank in 1965, Frank became involved with Mark Hatfield's political career, eventually becoming the senator's chief of staff. In 1981, he opened a dessert shop in Salem called Gerry Frank's Konditorei. He was a longtime contributor to the Oregonian newspaper and also authored a guidebook to Oregon, entitled "Gerry Frank's Oregon."
Frank died in March 2022.
Sources: Obituary in the Oregonian, March 14, 2022; oral history interviews with Gerry Frank, SR 1002 and SR 1324, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The Jay W. Stevens Disaster Service Unit was a vehicle that Meier & Frank president Aaron M. Frank donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, in March 1939. The vehicle, named in honor of Portland Fire Marshal Jay W. Stevens, included over 1,200 pieces of equipment for use in emergencies, including bandages, resuscitators, portable generators, flood lights, and gas masks. It was used for relief operations for the Vanport Flood in 1948 and the Columbus Day Storm in 1962. The Jay W. Stevens Disaster Service Unit was officially retired in January 1972.
Sources: Articles in the Oregonian, 1939-1972.
Aaron M. and Gerry Frank family papers, Coll 924, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection initially processed prior to 2011, and reprocessed in 2022. Reprocessing included the addition of the oversize scrapbook and foldering of Meier & Frank ledger sheets. Collection was titled "Gerald W. Frank papers" prior to 2022.
Western Governors' Conference materials and Jay W. Stevens Disaster Service Unit materials were compiled in scrapbooks at the time of their donation to the Oregon Historical Society Research Library; these scrapbooks were disassembled prior to 2011.
Additional materials of or relating to the Frank family at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library include: Gerry Frank scrapbooks and memorabilia, Coll 855; oral history interviews with Gerry Frank, SR 1002 and SR 1324, which are available online in OHS Digital Collections at
The bulk of Meier & Frank records at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library are designated Mss 2866.
The collection consists of papers of or relating to Portland, Oregon, businessman Aaron M. Frank, his son Gerry Frank, and the department store Meier & Frank. Aaron M. Frank's papers in the collection relate to the Jay W. Stevens Disaster Service Unit, a specialized emergency response vehicle that he donated to the City of Portland in 1939. Gerry Frank's papers in the collection include programs, correspondence, and ephemera relating to the Western Governors' Conference for 1965, which he helped organize and which was held in Portland; a program and menu for the 1966 Western Governors' Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada; a postcard from his mother; and an oversize scrapbook of photographs, clippings, and ephemera relating to his being named First Citizen of Salem, Oregon, in 1964. Other family papers include a property deed for Aaron Meier (Aaron M. Frank's grandfather), a diploma for Ruth M. Rosenfeld (Aaron M. Frank's wife and Gerry Frank's mother), and an auto insurance policy for Sigmund Frank (Aaron M. Frank's father). Other papers are a land claim certificate for Louis La Bouté and Margaret La Bouté, whose connection to the Frank family is unknown; and a plat map of the Market Street Addition in Portland.
The collection also contains ledger sheets for the department store Meier & Frank. These sheets list revenue and expenses for various years by department, and include data from the store's Salem branch.
Photographs, an audio recording, and periodicals were separated to other collection areas at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library. Photographs were separated to the Aaron Frank family photographs collection, Org. Lot 657. Address by Aaron Frank to Meier & Frank employees was separated to sound collections and designated SR 294, which is available online in OHS Digital Collections at
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.