WILMINGTON, Del. -- Newspaper columnist and radio commentator Bill Frank, whose career began before the Great Depression, has died. He was 83.
Frank died Monday of emphysema, The Wilmington News Journal reported Tuesday.
'Mr. Frank had the ear of generations of Delaware governors, bishops, business leaders and others in positions of power. Yet he was principally concerned with the problems of average people battling an unyielding bureaucracy,' staff reporter Harry Themal wrote.
Frank was born in New York City Oct. 16, 1905, but was sent to an orphanage at age 4 after his father died and his mother was unable to support him and his older brother and sister.
Two years later, his mother married David Lurge, a Wilmington jeweler, and raised her son in their Orthodox Jewish household.
Frank maintained his ties to the Jewish community all his life. He helped found the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware. For many years he wrote a column for the Jewish Voice of Delaware.
His first job with the News Journal was as a $10-a-week copy boy while still in high school. A year later, in 1923, he was promoted to reporter.
Frank's coverage of a Ku Klux Klan rally earned him his first byline. He also covered three hangings and a number of whippings at the whipping post.
Frank eventually became a city editor but an argument with the managing editor led him to quit in March 1946. He went to work on the copy desk of the New York World Telegram but returned to Delaware a year later to become news director of radio station WILM.
In 1949, he was invited to return to the paper as a reporter and columnist.
Frank reported from Vietnam twice and once from the Middle East. He was a commentator for WILM. His last report, aired Friday, ended with his familiar sign-off, 'See you Monday at 5:25,' said News Director Orla Reese.
Early this year Frank retired officially, but continued to contribute occasional columns under the title of columnist emeritus.
Frank is survived by his wife, Edith, of Wilmington. No services are planned.
