James H. Frank

Dr. James Howard Frank, 86, of Murray, KY and longtime Murray State professor and booster, died Thursday leaving his wife of 63 years, Norma Jean Davidson Frank.

Frank, who earned his doctorate at Peabody College in 1965, taught Health, Physical Education and Human Sexuality at Murray State University for 27 years until his retirement in 1991.
He met Norma at Lakeshore (TN) Methodist Camp, where he was counselor and she was a lifeguard. They were sweethearts in college where Jim played basketball for MSU from 1946 to 1950 and Norma was a cheerleader. He is a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. They were married in 1951 in Camden, TN.
The Franks are longstanding members of the First United Methodist Church of Murray, where a funeral service is set for Monday morning. Jim will be buried in Barlow, KY, where he grew up and graduated high school in 1946. He was born in St. Louis, MO, on February 1, 1929 to Howard Baldwin Frank and Julia Howle Frank.
Jim's service in the Korean War as a Staff Sergeant in the USAF was predictive of a lifetime of service, from coaching High School basketball and teaching at Benton, KY, Morehouse, MO, and Ballard County, KY, to coming out of retirement for a stint as MSU Athletic Director.
Over the years, he served as President of the American Cancer Society's Kentucky Chapter, President of the Kentucky Retired Teachers Association, and was a member of the Murray Chamber of Commerce among numerous other civic and academic organizations. He is a recipient of MSU's Golden Horseshoe Award and a Kentucky Colonel.
Dr. Frank and Norma were avid Racer fans and they frequently attended MSU football, baseball, men's and women's basketball games, and other athletic contests, both at home and on the road.
A jazz aficionado, Dr. Frank was talented on his Gibson hollow-bodied guitar and a member of the Sinfonia fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha, who often entertained at community gatherings. He also had a penchant for writing poems and often read them too much amusement.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Frank is survived by two children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Daughter Jamie Frank Bittel and her husband Joe Bittel, of Utica, KY; and their two daughters, Lauren Bittel Payne and her husband Chris Payne of Owensboro, KY, parents of Carly Grace Payne and Laken Ellis Payne, and Lynnsie Bittel Fulkerson and her husband Jeremy Fulkerson, of Calhoun, KY, parents of daughter Shelby Lynn Fulkerson and son David Frank and his wife Marjorie Anders of Tarrytown, NY, and their daughter Charlotte Grace Frank.