J. Frank Polma

Polma, J. Frank J. Frank Polma, 81, died August 29, 2012, from a series of complications following hip replacement surgery. Services will be held 2:00 pm, Sunday, September 2 at Williams Funeral Directors, 1600 South Garland Avenue , Garland, Texas 75040, interment to follow at Garland Memorial Park, adjacent to the funeral home. Visitation is Saturday, September 1, 6 pm - 8 pm at the funeral home. Frank's family requests that any desired memorial contributions be made to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Garland, 1110 Main Street Garland, Texas 75040, www.garlandhfh.org. Frank supported this organization for many years and firmly believed in the tangible difference it makes in the community. Frank is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marion, his three children Melissa, Frank, and Geoff and their respective spouses David, Paula, and Gerda, and his six grandchildren Alexandra, Sophie, Maxine, Beckett, Julian, and Marlowe. As all who knew him can attest, Frank lived a rich and full life of accomplishment. Frank was born in Nitra, Czechoslovakia on April 2, 1931, to Jaroslav and Adriana Polma. After a happy childhood in the Tatra mountains, Frank was drawn into World War II when he voluntarily joined the Czech partisans at age 13 as a guerrilla fighter against the invading Germans, surviving several military engagements before being captured by an enemy patrol. Frank passed through the horrors of Dachau before becoming a forced laborer at a Nazi camp in Bavaria, where he was eventually liberated by the United States Seventh Army. Frank was so impressed with the conduct and kindness of the U.S. soldiers that he resolved to become an American. He volunteered for service in the United States Air Force, through which he earned the right of United States immigration and eventual citizenship. He arrived in the United States on August 23, 1950. In the best tradition of immigrants to our shores, he gained admittance to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he worked his way through school and gained a degree in civil engineering, cum laude. He also met and married in Pittsburgh in 1959 the love of his life, Marion. Frank spent the next part of his life working for several large engineering firms, during which he travelled the globe designing and constructing major radio telescope and tracking antenna installations. Frank brought his young family to Texas, where he decided to chart his own path and on April 22, 1975 he and Marion founded R-Delta Engineers, a thriving multidisciplinary firm now employing 25 persons and run by his son Frank Jr. In addition to his successful professional career, Frank found time for civic endeavours, being active in local politics and with his wife instrumental in founding the Garland Symphony Orchestra. A talented linguist, he spoke 9 languages including Chinese, which he began studying at age 60. Frank somehow always found time to be a loving and participatory father to his children, coaching their youth sports and managing never to miss a school or other event. In his later years, Frank and Marion were active world travellers, visiting, among other places, Antarctica, the Arctic, China, Africa, the Galapagos Islands and Tahiti. Frank's keen intellect and diverse interests were always on display, ranging from his beloved discussions of history and politics and his extensive writings to his thoughts on the latest Rangers, Mavs, or Cowboys' performances. While his family will miss him terribly, we take solace in a life well lived and the knowledge that his family has always been his greatest source of love, pride and accomplishment.