Stanley Frank

Stanley Milton Frank’s first job was at the age of 17, when most of today’s teens are just entering college.  In less than two years he was out of work as a result of the financial crises of the Great Depression.  Despite this setback, he was not daunted.

The kid from Staten Island moved South in the mid-1930s and, with undying persistence and an entrepreneurial spirit, became a business and civic leader. As we remember his life this week, we recognize that he has helped improve this community by offering his time, wisdom and resources for 70 years.

Stanley loved his adopted city of Greensboro, as well as the Triad region, and his contributions to the development of the airport, various colleges and universities and a variety of non-profit organizations are legendary.  He summed up his legacy in this statement from his biography, Frankly Speaking:  “I think it’s important to give something back as a way of showing appreciation for the good fortune we have had.”

Stanley funded the Frank Fellows Program at Guilford College in 1983 as one means of putting more emphasis on innovative ways of teaching students with interests in business.  In the past 22 years, 150 students have benefited from Stanley’s inspiration and the practical experience of internships and professional mentoring. 

In his biography, Stanley stated that he created the Fellows Program because he felt most college campuses offered little in the way of real business experience or training, and because of the importance of risk-taking and entrepreneurship in his own career.  “I wouldn’t be where I am today without that approach to business,” he said.

I have mentored two students in the program: Bryant Garnes of North Carolina, who graduated in 2004, and Jake Lubel of Maryland, who is a senior this year.  These exceptionally intelligent and ambitious students wanted careers in commercial finance.  Bryant joined Wachovia Bank in Charlotte upon his graduation and I am delighted that Jake will also become a Wachovia banker when he graduates this spring. Both of them remember the admonition from Stanley to help others as they received help from me and earlier Guilford graduates to find a job and make a difference.

Another of our current Frank Fellows is Maisa Zeedani, who is a junior this year and one of two Palestinians in the program.  She is majoring in psychology and hopes to use her education and experience to help build business in her native land.  Stanley, a Jew, helped select Maisa for his Fellows Program.  In this way I think he has contributed to the mending of Middle East relations.

As part of its current strategic, long-range plan, passed by Stanley and the rest of the trustee board in October 2004, Guilford will concentrate on preparing students to engage in principled problem solving as a means to contribute not only to the practical education of students but as a way to contribute creative solutions to existing and emerging problems in our community, our state, our nation and our world.

In reflecting on the passing this week of this great businessman, entrepreneur and compassionate leader, I believe there could be no greater tribute than for the college he loved so dearly to have committed its future to such a practical approach to liberal arts education.

When I met Stanley for the first time in March 2002 as a candidate for the position of president at Guilford, I had just lost my dad.  For the next four years, Stanley supported and guided me just like his own son.  Every phone conversation we ever had ended with him asking, no matter how sick or busy he was, “What can I do for you today?”         

It seems to me this question would be an appropriate epitaph. For this was Stanley Frank’s spirit, which impacted so many people and will live on for generations to come.

This opinion-editorial was originally published in January 2006 in the News & Record..