Frank enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy when he finished Grade 11 in 1943, and trained as a signalman in St. Hyacinth, Quebec. Before being sent overseas in September, he was given a brief leave during which he visited Mary in Montreal where she was taking her Grade 12 studies at the Convent of the Sacred Heart Sault-au-Recollet. He remembered he was allowed to take her for dinner to Murray's Restaurant after which they roamed St. Catherine St., talking about their dreams.
He joined the British Navy in the North Atlantic, first on the British ship HMS Nigeria in Greenoch, Scotland, and later HMS Jamaica. He was able to visit Uncle Jack and had a memorable evening as his guest at the Officers Mess at the Royal Irish Regiment headquarters in England, to the dismay of a British officer at the presence of a humble seaman, and a colonist at that.
In 1944, he was transferred to the newly commissioned HMCS Uganda in Charleston, N.C., and proceeded to the Pacific, South Pacific and Mediterranean . After the war, he marvelled that he always seemed to be just over the horizon from desperate battles but never in harm's way. After demobilization, he was a member of the local Naval Reserve, Ret., the Naval Officers Association, Ret., and the Royal Canadian Legion No. 102. His name is inscribed on the Honor List at the Naval Museum of Manitoba.
In September Frank, demobilized from the navy, returned home and to St. Paul's to complete his matriculation, in the course of which he met Lois Helen Kane of Calgary. Early in 1948 he worked in a lumber camp in western Ontario and in September, taking advantage of his veteran's credits, enrolled at St. Michael's College, Toronto, in the two-year Arts program. He met Lois again in Toronto during Calgary's 1949 Grey Cup invasion and victory. (John remembers being in the Winnipeg train station, recording the Calgary team's return, finding Lois so hoarse from cheering she had lost her voice.) In 1951, Frank moved to Calgary to pursue a career as landman in the oil industry – and, without doubt, Lois Kane. His early work, traveling in a battered Volkswagen ahead of a proposed oil pipeline to secure leases and rights, convinced him of his choice of career but also of the need to improve his skills: he took up a two-year course in engineering from the University of Alberta, Edmonton. He and Lois were married at Sacred Heart Church, Calgary, June 14, 1952
Frank became an active member of Sacred Heart Parish, of the Canadian Association of Landmen, and of the community. Over the years he was elected a trustee for the Calgary Roman Catholic School District No. 1, he became president of Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association, president of Calgary Centre Liberal Association, and a tireless volunteer for the Salvation Army, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Canadian Cancer Society and the Stephen Avenue Mall Authority. Frank later formed his own consulting agency 'Finjay' – a play on his initials.
Their children followed: Sean Joseph (1953), Kevin Francis (1958), twins Noel Lawrence and Brian Joseph (1960), and Mary Elizabeth (1961). Later, Lois took up the politics of the Catholic School Board, successfully ran for office and was elected a trustee, a position she holds to this day she held until her death. She went on to chair the Board and to represent it in the Senate of the University of Calgary.
Frank died peacefully at the Rockyview General Hospital on October 15, 1997, of pancreatic cancer, diagnosed a year earlier. Frank's immediate family and hundreds of friends attended his funeral October 20 at Sacred Heart Church, Calgary. Besides his loving wife, Francis is survived by his daughter Elizabeth, his four sons Sean, Kevin, Brian and Noel, a daughters-in-law Cheri and eight grandchildren.