Nicholas A. Frank

Jan 20, 1943 - Jan 10 2021

Nicholas Andrew Frank passed away on January 10, 2021, just ten days shy of his 78th birthday. Nick was a freethinker; altruistic, highly intelligent, and thoughtfully opinionated. Throughout his life, Nick’s positive personality and openness to challenge charged the atmosphere around him and brought entertainment and insight to many. Nick was talented at math and could converse with all kinds of people from all walks of life and make them feel special.

Nick was born on January 20, 1943 in Yokohama, Japan. With his parents Lou and Irene and his sister Katherine, Nick survived near starvation in Karuizawa during WWII. On July 14, 1947, Nick disembarked in Honolulu as a stateless immigrant, speaking Japanese and English. He rapidly forgot the former and employed the latter to his advantage.

Nick worked hard to succeed. He built up an enormous paper route as a boy, corrected his teachers’ mathematics lessons in school, became a star Air Force F-4 Phantom technician in Utrecht, Holland, and graduated as an electrical engineer from San Jose State University. In 1971, Nick married Donna Frank, nee Cudaback, fair of hair, Bohemian in spirit, and artist by life. They were blessed in January 1973 with Vanessa and with Heather in December 1974.

Nick loved his daughters dearly. When Heather took an interest in art, he bought her an easel, paints and paper. Every night he read to them from books such as, “Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” or Ray Bradbury’s “Halloween Tree.” That Vanessa came to teach English probably had nothing to do with that life-experience.

Nick lived life as an adventure. After a successful career in Silicon Valley, he became a globe-traveling entrepreneur whose interests turned East after the collapse of Communism. He rebuilt Chalice Winery in the Republic of Georgia, propitiated the local Georgian mafia with flats of wine, negotiated tours through secret Russian military installations, and was in Sofia, Bulgaria with his brother Mike, where they walked in a demonstration for democracy. Nick’s life-stories were the stuff of movies.

After buying and renovating a house on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, where his street festivities transformed lives with conversation, music, painters, and repasts, all beneath an arch of wisteria, Nick jumped north to Trinidad California. There, living on a spectacular cliff overlooking the Pacific, Nick found the love of his life in Nina Groth and his happiness in marriage with her. Together they loved and supported the Eureka Symphony, the Eureka Chamber Music Series, and the Trinidad Music Festival, finding joy in them all.

Nick has now departed us all: Nina, Vanessa and Heather, and his sister and five brothers, friends as much as siblings.

Nick took his health for granted. His life, he lived in vigorous fulfillment. Nick was a life-anchor. His personal magic and strong presence improved lives wherever he went. He will so be missed.