Frank J. Klaus

On August 7, 2025 Frank James Klaus passed away peacefully at age 80. He was born on February 16, 1945 in Cincinnati, Ohio during the battle of Iwo Jima. His mother remembered the hospital radio broadcasts.

He was a proud Elder High School graduate, was accepted into the University of Cincinnati's Aerospace Engineering program and always credited the experience gained through UC's Co-Op program with landing him a lifelong career at GE Aerospace. There he rose to the senior executive band, traveled the world, lived overseas and made many friendships. He concluded his professional career as president of Garrett Aviation and later consulted with several aerospace companies.

Frank treated retirement as a second career and set a goal to stay busy doing meaningful work.

As a volunteer, he served as Executive in Residence at Thunderbird School of International Management, taught interviewing at Cincinnati Works and the 4/7 Prison Ministry (board member), guided visitors at TinkerTank at the Pacific Science Center, helped facilitate park education tours for Friends of Olmsted Parks (board member), and was a certified Score mentor for the Small Business Administration, where he helped many start a business.

A lifelong reader, he enjoyed a certain genre of spy intrigue novels, was a fan of the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Seahawks and especially loved travel. Mostly, he was delighted by his grandchildren (both by birth and by love) and spent time with them as often as possible. We all just loved Frank because he was fun to be around. He liked being helpful, whether fixing whatever needed fixing, advising clients how to start a business, or his weekly family Costco run. He had a lively interest in other people, kept up with the news, and maintained friendships for life.

In recent years Frank and his partner, Lee made Seattle their home. They enjoyed hiking in the nearby national parks and neighborhood Olmsted trails, especially along Lake Washington, just steps from their home.

Frank is survived by his sister Carolyn (Fred), son Jeff (Colleen), daughter Jennifer (Michiel) and grandchildren Benjamin, Jordie, Tysen, Riley, Henry and Griffin. Other loved ones include Lee, Grace, Bill, Tommy and Quinn and numerous nieces and nephews.

We would like to thank everyone on the advanced cardiac team at UW's Montlake and Northwest Hospitals for their dedicated work which gave us the quality of time we had with Frank, and all the support of extended family and dear friends.

A celebration of life will be held at Epiphany Parish in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle on August 19 at 2pm. Donations in his honor can be made to Epiphany in support of its community outreach and music programs.