Stephanie Ruth Fraker

Fulfilling a life-long dream, Stephanie Harrold Fraker finally slipped the surly bonds of Earth on March 15, 2025 at the age of 83.
Stephanie Ruth Harrold was born September 13, 1941, in Providence, Rhode Island. She was eldest of five children born to Ruth E. Harrold and Edward M. Harrold. The Harrold family relocated to Syracuse, NY in 1948.
Stephanie loved books from an early age and remained a voracious reader throughout her life. The early American experiments with space travel captured her imagination and inspired her ambitions. During family trips in the Adirondacks, Uncle Louis' old WWII canvas hammock offered hints of weightlessness as she devoured the latest science fiction paperbacks. Stephanie dreamt of adventures far beyond the horizons of humankind. At least until the mischief of her young siblings brought her crashing back down to Earth.
From early childhood, Stephanie demonstrated a keen facility with math and science. In 1954, she participated in the Salk polio vaccine trials. Unlike many of her classmates, Stephanie understood and appreciated how important the vaccine trials were. She was impressed by the rigorous
discipline of the program staff and inspired by the more esoteric scientific techniques brought to bear to bring the trials to fruition.
Stephanie thrived as a high school student at Syracuse Central HS. Her interest in the sciences deepened as quickly as her skills grew. Her fantasies of space adventure matured into aspirations of joining the nascent American space program. At the same time, Stephanie was a typical teen, going to dances and drive-in movies with friends. She also embraced her lifelong love of music, and sang in the a cappella group at school.
Stephanie worked summers at the Syracuse Public Library to earn extra cash while she attended the State University of New York at Oswego, famous for its teaching program. There, she solved a long standing physics problem, winning a scholarship from the National Science Foundation. She graduated SUNY Oswego with a Bachelor of Science in Teaching in 1961.
Now fully prepared to pursue a career, Stephanie realized that she wasn't ready to settle into a routine just yet. The call to adventure that she had heard for so long now demanded an answer. As the 1950s came to a close, Stephanie was well aware of the barriers women faced when pursuing careers in the aerospace industry. Undeterred, Stephanie would answer that call to adventure, conceding only altitude to the shortsightedness of society.
In 1961, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps, calling for talented men and women who were "scientists, physicists, teachers and engineers." Stephanie volunteered that same year. The interstellar adventure she had always imagined would now be an intercontinental voyage to parts equally unknown. The first group of 80 volunteers deployed to Ghana and Tanzania. Stephanie was in the second group. She would soon leave behind everything familiar, to seek out civilizations both strange and new (to her), on a two year mission to Ethiopia.
Stephanie loved Ethiopia. She lived just outside of Addis Ababa. During her two years of service, she was invited to attend events at the court of Emperor Haile Selassie I (known to many among the African-Carribean diaspora by his pre-coronation title and birth name, Ras Tafari). She also had the opportunity to meet Malcolm X, who had just completed his Hajj and was visiting Ethiopia as part of his tour of Africa. She enjoyed discussing politics and the issues of the day with Malcolm and they maintained a friendly correspondence for a short time.
Stephanie returned to New York from Africa in 1963, laden with gifts for her siblings. With the money she earned, she furnished the family home with a modern washing machine, freeing them from the annoying labor of the evil laundry mangle. Best of all, Stephanie was bursting at the
seams with tales of adventure.
Now that the call to adventure had been boldly answered with style and verve, Stephanie was finally ready to embark on the career promised by the teaching degree she had earned at Oswego. She accepted a position teaching math and physics in Amsterdam, NY (about and hour and a half east of Syracuse).
In 1968, Stephanie met Gerald Jim Anquoe, a local sheriff's deputy who responded to a report of theft from her car. A relationship quickly developed. Gerald often told her stories of his upbringing as a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and a culture that was just as unfamiliar as those she found in Ethiopia. A short time later, Gerald made the decision to return to his home state of Oklahoma. When he asked Stephanie to join him, she decided to answer the call to adventure once again.
In 1971, Gerald and Stephanie Anquoe were married at their new home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1972, they welcomed their son Mark. Years later, she would still proudly recall having been the first "natural childbirth" delivery at the Indian Health Service hospital in Claremore, Oklahoma.
Sadly, their partnership between Gerald and Stephanie wasn't meant to be. The marriage between Gerald and Stephanie Anquoe ended in divorce in 1977.
Heartbroken, Stephanie now faced a heavy choice: pack her bags and return to New England; to the family and familiarity of New York with her new child, OR She could continue the adventure into the unknown. While the image of adventure was now more Buck Taylor than Buck Rogers, the call to adventure hadn't lost its allure. When she also considered the idea that her son could potentially lose his connection to his father's culture, her decision became clear. She chose to stay in Oklahoma and forge her own path.
By 1977, society had begun inching toward its own promise of egalitarianism. There were more opportunities for a scientifically-minded woman. Rather than return to teaching, Stephanie went back to school herself, enrolling in the engineering program at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. It was during those four years in Stillwater that she met Bruce Charles Fraker. After spending time with Bruce, Stephanie recognized the call to one last, grand adventure into the undiscovered countries of trust, loyalty and security. How could she resist?
In 1981, Stephanie graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Later that year, she moved to Oklahoma City with her son (now 10) and accepted a engineering position with AT&T. Bruce followed a few months later, transferring to a
position with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT). In 1984 they married, and
Stephanie Harrold Fraker finally settled on a name that suited her.
Happily, AT&T turned out to be the employer that genuinely appreciated Stephanie's endlessscientific curiosity. She was delighted to work on projects that, more often than not, led her backinto the realms of science fiction. One project involved the creation of a new substance whose strange, rubbery surfaces somehow produced a frictionless state when rubbed together.
In 1986, Stephanie again caused a stir amongst the local obstetrics community when, at the age of 44, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Sarah Helen Fraker. Stephanie had wanted a daughter for many years. When asked why she was pursuing parenthood again during mid-life, she insisted that only by raising a daughter in addition to a boy, would she feel that she had experienced the full adventure of parenthood.
When Sarah was in grade school, Stephanie enrolled her in Camp Fire (then called Camp Fire Girls & Boys) and participated as a parent volunteer. She even co-wrote a cookbook that was sold within the organization.
Stephanie retired from AT&T in 1999. Through her work on experimental, often exotic projects, she found her window seat to the cosmos. The dreams and ambitions of that young girl in the weightless hammock had finally found expression; its restlessness satisfied.
Although Stephanie enjoyed the relief from the 40 hour work week, she wasn't quite ready to walk the syrupy path of the full-time hedonist retiree. Furthermore, Bruce was still seven years from retirement, and she wasn't one to hit the dance floor without her partner. She had always enjoyed teaching, but a teacher's salary was woefully inadequate for an adult raising a child. Now that her children were old enough to care for themselves and she was protected against the pitfalls of living paycheck to paycheck, Stephanie wondered if she might yet have her professorial cake and eat it too (only with better grammar).
Stephanie renewed her teaching credentials and went back to the classroom as a substitute teacher of math and science. She particularly enjoyed teaching in Putnam City and Yukon.
Stephanie and Bruce had always enjoyed camping, but it wasn't until Bruce retired in 2006 that travel became a lifestyle. They spent weeks living the RV life on the highway before returning to their home outside of Yukon to recuperate and resupply.
It was during some of those non-traveling months in 2010 that Stephanie became the Democratic representative for the Canadian County election board. She served until 2020.
During the early hours of Saturday, March 15th of 2025, Stephanie Harrold Fraker left to explore the infinite in earnest.
Stephanie is survived by her husband Bruce, her children Mark and Sarah, her sisters Lesley (Pawel Czechowicz), Jennifer Litwak and Martha (Victor Sears). She is also survived by her sister-in-law, Bette Stark-Harrold and a healthy array of nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in adventure by her brother, Eddie and her previous husband Gerald.
A memorial will be held at 2pm, Saturday, April 12th at Yanda and Son Funeral Home in Yukon, Oklahoma.