Robert H. Franke . . . Research on his mind
Biographical sketch of Robert Franke. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.The citation for this article is: "Robert H. Franke . . . Research on his mind," Pieces of Eight, September 1, 1989.
Robert H. (Bob) Franke's pet research project, funded out of his own pocket, involves locating nearly 90 far-flung Army buddies of an outfit blooded in the Battle of the Bulge and which helped liberate encircled Bastogne in World War II. As a youth who grew up "out in the country" from the village of Coon River, Minnesota, Franke enlisted for military service right out of high school in 1943. "It was sort of a family tradition and natural for me," he says. Besides there was a war going on. At age of 19 he was headed for the European Theater of Operations (ETO) as a buck private, 776th Field Artillery. "I didn't know much of anything," he says. He came through as a staff sergeant in a howitzer battery that won a unit commendation from George C. Patton's old Fourth Armoured Division.
Many years later, out of curiosity and with a knowledge of research techniques gained during 10 years of directing ECU's Office of Sponsored Programs, Franke began the quest for buddies separated for more than 40 years. He began with a yellowed list of names and addresses put together sometime in 1945, the year WWII ended.
"It's strictly on my own, a hobby of mine," he says.
A 25-Year Army Career
An outcome may be a reunion someday of survivors of Franke's old battalion that rolled across France, Belgium and into Nazi Germany in the bitter fighting of 1944-45. So far he has found and communicated with 29 of the veterans and knows the whereabouts of five more. "They're all over the country, literally," he says. "By the way, two of them on my mailing list are millionaires." After the war, Franke chose to re-enlist as a specialist in the Army's counter-intelligence unit and spent 25 years in military service. Along the way, he studied the Russian language and picked up two undergraduate degrees in the University of Maryland's extension program.
In 1949 he was assigned to the Army's foreign languages school at Ft. Bragg which brought him to North Carolina. On a blind date, he met the former Annie May of Winterville. They courted and she became his wife. They have five children, all of them ECU graduates, all grown and scattered from Florida to Texas to California. The Frankes live out in the country from Winterville in a house that was once a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse.
Starts 'A New Life'
Long before Adopt-a-Highway was organized, Franke adopted a mile of nearby paved rural roads to keep clean, and he tends a flower garden. "Everybody knows my daffodis," he says.They moved into the house once owned by her parents when Franke retired from the Army and began "building a new life" and a second career in higher education. He earned two master's degrees -- in political science and in educational administration and supervision -- at ECU and on a graduate fellowship became involved in the university's international studies program.
In 1974 on the basis of his organizational skills, he was hired as assistant director of the Office of Sponsored Programs and became acting director, then director upon the retirement of James L. White in 1979.
Sponsored Programs at ECU
During the past year, sponsored programs -- grants and awards for research and service projects -- exceeded $12 million. Franke says 438 proposals were submitted by ECU faculty and 285 were funded in 1988-89. "Basically my job involves helping the faculty by making them aware of the opportunities and in preparing proposals," Franke says. "We must be aware of and abide by the rules of the administration, the UNC system, the state of North Carolina and the funding agencies." His office also is responsible for adhering to reporting and procedural requirements and to the sponsoring agencies, both public and private.
"East Carolina can continue to advance in the areas of research and public service projects," he says. "The possibilities are expanding."
"Research in the medical school is thriving, doing very well," Franke says. "ICMR (Institute for Coastal and Marine Resources) is the only comparable unit in Academic Affairs in the sense that its main purpose is to conduct research in the ecological and biological areas," he said.
He sees a "built-in problem" in providing support and motivation for research. "The challenge is to find ways to provide support and motivation in order that Academic Affairs faculty can engage in the research that they would like to do," Franke said. But he believes that both the quantity and quality of research at ECU will increase.
Service projects and applied research, fired by awareness of human need, are especially promising, Franke says. "There is a sincere desire to do good for those who are handicapped or less fortunate. We can become well known for that. In fact, we already are," he says.
