My Friend and Colleague, Frank Draper

Frank and I met while working for the small McIntyre School Board on the outskirts of Thunder Bay (Port Arthur, at the time) . Small, meaning about 5 or 6 schools with a total teaching population of 35 teachers. It didn't take long for us to hit it off, because we were so interested in education and were enthusiastic about teaching. Frank impressed me from the start. He really was more than a “teacher”, he was an educator. Frank was so full of ideas that he couldn't wait to get into the school in the morning so that he could get up and running. Frank loved his students and he would do anything to motivate them, so he was always generating ideas to make learning a “fun” experience for them. When I said that Frank was truly an educator I meant that passing on knowledge and motivating people consumed him. You can see that through his chosen career but also you can see that through his involvement in the community. He spent countless years in the Scouting movement, passing on knowledge to the boys under his charge. It can be seen as he put on innumerable workshops for the Red Cross teaching lifesaving skills. Other groups he influenced were in the area of genealogy, teaching night courses for them. I was so impressed with his boundless enthusiasm and his willing-ness to help anyone anywhere who wanted to learn more. He actually wanted me to be on his staff, thinking that we could do wonderful things together, but I wasn't sure I wanted to be on his staff, because I didn't know if I could keep up with him! Probably the best example I can give of his boundless determination to learn is how he got his university degree. Because he wanted to learn about education itself (pedagogy) , he really had to go to the United States to get those kinds of courses near Thunder Bay, so he would jump into his car at 4:00 after class, drive to Duluth, Minnesota, 330 kilometres south, take a night course in his chosen field, go to bed at 10:00 in the apartment he had rented, get up at 4:00 in the morning and drive home in order to be in the school at 8:00! He did this twice a week and he did this for years! Incredible dedication. So, I have very fond memories of Frank in those days. We attend many meetings over the years, many great staff parties together, and we always enjoyed the wonderful discussions that we had about education. He was a gem. A one-of-kind. He certainly made an impact in this world, right up to his dying days, as I read of his establishing a library in the long term care facility in which he resided. How typical that was of Frank Draper!

Larry Warwick, friend and valued colleague
February 26, 2017, Thunder Bay Ontario

Sorry to hear of Frank's passing. A great man has Gone Home.