| Richard C. Franklin, a poet, newspaperman, professor and retired director of the Johns Hopkins
Evening College Division of Arts and Sciences, died on Oct. 28 at the Gilchrist Center in
Towson, Md. He was 80 and lived in Baltimore. The cause was myelodysplastic syndrome
(MDS), his family said. Bard of
Baltimore Dr. Franklin once estimated
that about 500 of his poems had been published in his own books, anthologies, magazines,
and on the editorial page of The Baltimore Sun, said his daughter, Jan
Franklin BenDor. Among his books of poems was ``Comeback City, a Baltimore
Experience'' (Chestnut Hill Press, 1982), which includes ``Ruthian Remembrance,'' a poem
reminiscing about Babe Ruth, a Baltimore native. After its publication, Dr. Franklin
became known as ``the bard of Baltimore.'' In 1989, Wyndham Hall Press published his
second book, ``Ardent Affiliations: A Collection of Poems.''
[Editor's note: That volume, which focuses on family members
and how much his family meant to him, includes the poem, "Earthly
Acquisitions," which his wife, Dr. Paula Anne Franklin, chose to read at the
Memorial Service.]
"Earthly Acquisitions"
by Richard Franklin
As I amble down
this perilous path of years,
I take possession of
a cache of wisdom fromthe campaigns lost,
the mountains mastered, |
old molds shattered,
insights spawned. More than
these, however,
mounts the riches from
my family treasury,
which makes of me a kinship Croesus* |
[*Croesus (crow-ay-sus), became, in 560 B.C., the
last king of the ancient kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor, and his name is synonymous with
great wealth because of, as one encyclopedia put it, "the vast amount of booty"
he amassed through his conquests. -- Ed.]
Unpublished works Dr. Franklin had recently completed another volume of poetry ("Locales"),
a book of short stories ("Youthful Yarns"), and a novel about
the homefront in World War II ("Once Young: A Diary"). In
recent months, the novel was being considered by both publishers and movie
producers.
Bomber pilot After receiving a bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in
1939, he became a reporter, working for The Toledo Times and The Marion Star in Ohio.
During World War II, he was a bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945.
He received a master's degree in journalism in 1948 from Ohio State University and a
doctorate in education in 1955 from Columbia University Teachers College. From 1946 to
1949, he was public relations director for Church World Service in New York City.
Fulbright to Australia After teaching at several colleges, he was on the sociology faculty
from 1955 to 1966 at Southern Illinois University, where he also served as director of the
Community Development Institute. In 1963, he received a Fulbright lectureship to teach in
Australia.
From 1966 to 1971, Dr. Franklin was a
professor of sociology and education at West Virginia University. While there, he was also
director of training for the Appalachian Center, part of the War on Poverty. Throughout
his career, he strived to apply the science of human behavior to the goals of positive
social change.
 |
Paula Anne Fowler and
Richard Franklin met in
El Paso, Texas, and on
August 28, 1950,
they were married there.
Photo: around 1975
|
In 1971, Dr. Franklin joined
the faculty at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He retired from Johns Hopkins in
1982. His first wife, the former Grace Kelly of Brooklyn, a commercial artist for Macy's,
died in 1949.
Five grandchildren Dr. Franklin is survived by his wife of 48 years, Paula Anne
Franklin; two sons, Edward, of Medford, Ore., and Tim, of Terre Haute, Ind.; a daughter,
Jan Franklin BenDor of Ypsilanti, Mich.; a sister, Dorothy Stasikewich of Princeton, N.J.,
and five grandchildren, Toby and Todd BenDor, and Trevor, Torrey,
and Madelyn Franklin. |
