WOLFGANG E. FRANKE

FRANKE, WOLFGANG E.
BA MSC EDUCATOR AND WRITER 1915-2007 Peacefully at home of natural causes on November 13, at the age of 92. With a lifetime spanning a remarkable time in history for Europe and Canada, he was born in Lünen-Horstmar, Germany on April 14, 1915 during the First World War, and grew up on the Baltic Sea in the city of Kiel during the years of the German Revolution of 1918 and the hyper-inflation of the 1920's. His early education was in Kiel where he sold his first short story to the Kieler Zeitung at the age of fifteen. After teaching elementary school in Duisburg in the Rhineland, he served in the Navy and by the end of the war was a Lieutenant Commander, in charge of radio communications in Trieste, Italy. After the war he survived four years of hardship in a concentration camp in former communist Yugoslavia, living proof of his oft quoted adage from Nietzsche 'That which does not kill us makes us stronger'. Upon his return to Germany in 1949 he resumed his doctoral studies in biology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, but decided to emigrate with his first family to Canada in 1951. Part of a large wave of immigrants willing to work hard at any job available, his first employment was as an illustrator in the Botany department of the University of Toronto. He obtained his BA at the U of T, and later an MSc in genetics at the University of Ottawa, and worked for a period in plant pathology prior to his career as an inspiring teacher of Biology. He became principal in high schools in Morrisburg and then in Essex where he established an innovative co-op 'Occupations Program' in 1963, which liaised between education and industry, providing high school students with valuable work experience. In 1966 he pioneered in Ontario's fledgling community college system when he became founding president of Lambton College of Applied Arts and Technology in Sarnia. There he developed an innovative curriculum, hired faculty and interviewed students. Similarly, he was then founding president of the College of New Caledonia in Prince George, B.C in 1969. Toward the end of his career he was founding principal of a private high school in Toronto. A naturally talented amateur sculptor, artist and musician, he passionately promoted the Arts in all his educational endeavours. In retirement from formal education, he returned to his love of writing, producing numerous stories and essays published in many newspapers and periodicals, as well as nine novels in English and German. Always a man of conviction, he held himself and others to a high personal standard. A tireless social critic in his writings, he was nevertheless totally committed to his adopted country and recalled the glow of pride upon the induction of the Canadian flag in 1965. His description of the character Hans in his fifth novel, Over the Threshold, can be aptly applied to the author: '...a Jack of all trades, a biologist by training, but with a technical bent, a portraitist with leanings to the caricature, a teacher and perpetual student, a music lover and dreamer.' He is survived by his loving wife of 51 years, Rose (née Valenti), also a teacher, who tirelessly dedicated herself to his publishing efforts and provided devoted personal care in his final years. He was also very proud of daughter Sylvia (Andrew), sons Dean (Susan) and Norman (Carolyn), grand- children Laura, Xavier, Dix, Egan, Natalie and Nina, and from a previous marriage his daughter Regina and son Ingo. Predeceased by his sister Lotti. Interment will be at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. The family will welcome relatives and friends to a private reception at a future date.