Talk:Ken Frank

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Death

According to a blog post, Ken Frank died in 1999:

William Bublitz said... Ken Frank died in 1999, at age 75. The Greyhawk art work was at the end of his of his life, but he was very proud of that work.
Prior to that e worked for Boing, and led the team that designed the interior of the 747. After that, he worked in the art department of the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinal, before going on to head the art department for Mercury-Marine in Fon Du Lac, WI.
It was upon retiring from there that he became a freelance artist, and became involved with TSR. He lived in West Bend, WI from 1970 or 1971 till is death.
I know this as I am his nephew.
February 5, 2015 at 3:54 PM

http://greyhawkery.blogspot.com/2010/12/greyhawk-art-ken-frank.html?showComment=1423180449837#c8181746797817976324

This is useful information, but I think an obituary is required before updated the Wiki page.

Karl gregory jones (talk) 13:47, 31 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for presenting this here! Yes, an obit or some other form of verifiable source... the blog post is good, but I doubt it would be accepted as a reliable source for WP standards. If the above is correct, then this is Ken C. Frank (12/25/1924 – 3/19/1999) in the SSDI: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J16F-CJH and there is a memorial for him on Findagrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/155602620 208.47.202.254 (talk) 16:16, 31 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I also notice that if says above that he worked for the MJS... my local library has copies of that newspaper on microfilm, so today I will go there and check for an obit for him! 208.47.202.254 (talk) 16:18, 31 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I did indeed find an obit for Kenneth C. Frank Sr published on 3/22/1999 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that shows he was living in West Bend, died 3/19/1999 at the age of 74, wife's maiden name was Ellen Brown, children were Charles Frank and Kenneth Frank Jr., both of West Bend. He had several siblings, including a sister named Helen Bublitz, and he was buried in Washington County Memorial Park. It also confirms that he was a former illustrator for the Milwaukee Journal, Mercury Marine, and different ad agencies including ownership of Draw Partners agency. It does not mention Boeing, nor TSR.

This text archive mentions an illustration that Ken Frank did for the MJS in 1978: https://archive.org/stream/TwoCenturies/Two-Centuries_djvu.txt although I did not see any MJS illustrations of his online to compare to his D&D art.

This is a link to the blog you were talking about: http://greyhawkery.blogspot.com/2010/12/greyhawk-art-ken-frank.html 208.47.202.254 (talk) 14:05, 1 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This post has a couple of the Ken Frank illustrations from the MJS: [1] 208.47.202.254 (talk) 19:42, 13 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Cunard, do you see any sources that would connect the Kenneth C. Frank who illustrated for Milwaukee newspapers, Mercury Marine, and ad agencies and died in 1999, with the Ken Frank who did freelance Greyhawk illustrations for TSR later? His nephew said he worked for Boeing so that could be what connects them together. I'm sure by looking over everything that he is probably the same guy, but of course WP:V is the standard we go by. BOZ (talk) 14:31, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi BOZ (talk · contribs). I was unable to find anything in my searches for sources connecting the two. Cunard (talk) 09:37, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Cunard, thanks for checking. Maybe one day! :) BOZ (talk) 09:38, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive both do not have access to the Milwaukee Journal and Mercury Marine archives. Maybe there is something there that an editor can find in the future. :) Cunard (talk) 09:44, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]