Eugene Maxwell Frank

Eugene Maxwell Frank was an American Bishop of the Methodist and United Methodist Churches, elected in 1956. He was notable for his passion for racial equality in the Church and beyond. He also distinguished himself as a pastor, as both the youngest Methodist bishop and as the most senior United Mehtodist bishop, and as the one person more than any other responsible for the establishment of the Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, MO.

Early ministry, education and ordination

Born 11 December 1907 in Cherryvale, Kansas, Frank earned a bachelor's degree from Kansas State Teachers College of Pittsburg in 1930. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1932 from the Garrett Bible Institute, Evanston, Illinois. He was ordained a Deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1932, and an Elder in 1933.

As a pastor, Rev. Frank served congregations throughout eastern Kansas. He served the First Methodist Church of Topeka for the eight years previous to his episcopal election. While at Topeka, his sermons were broadcast each Sunday and he wrote a weekly column for the Topeka Daily Capital newspaper. He was also a featured preacher on the nationally broadcast, Peabody Award winning The Protestant Hour radio program.

Saint Paul School of Theology

As a delegate to the 1956 General Conference of the Methodist Church, Frank led efforts to gain approval to establish a new seminary in Kansas City. Due to a shortage of Methodist clergy in the Midwest and Plains states, this location was selected. When classes began in 1959, Frank was chair of the School's Board of Trustees, continuing in that role until 1972. Former St. Paul President, the Rev. Lovett H. Weems, Jr., said "More than any one person, Bishop Frank is responsible for both the establishment of Saint Paul and setting its direction as a place for all God's people to prepare to lead." Frank was still listed as a Trustee of the school at the time of his death.

Episcopal election and ministry

The Rev. Eugene M. Frank was elected to the episcopacy at the 1956 General Conference of the Methodist Church. He was at the time the youngest bishop in the denomination. Following the death of Bishop Ralph Edward Dodge in 2008, Bishop Frank became the oldest bishop in the United Methodist Church. Bishop Frank was also the last Bishop to die of those elected in 1956 or before.

Upon his election, Frank served as Resident Bishop of the Missouri Episcopal Area (1956-72) and of the Arkansas Area from 1972 until his retirement in 1976. Following retirement, he spent threee years on the faculty of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1980 he returned to Kansas to serve as Bishop-in-Residence at the Central United Methodist Church (until 1988). Bishop Frank also held the distinction of the first President of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Frank served 12 years on the Executive Committee of the World Methodist Council. He led the Commission on Public Relations and Methodist Information (a predecessor of the present United Methodist Communications).

Racial equality

Bishop Frank was renown for his passion for racial equality. During his tenure as Bishop in Missouri, he oversaw the merger of the former African-American Southwest Missouri Annual Conference with the two predominantly white annual (regional) conferences in the State. He also witnessed the dissolution of the former African-American Central Jurisdiction, which accompanied the 1968 uniting of the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist Churches. He saw this as evidence of a new Church that was forming. Emphases on race relations, increasing ministry in urban settings, and youth ministry, he said, indicated the new church had turned to encounter the realities of her mission.

His family recalled at his Memorial Service has hard Frank worked for racial justice. he formed the Metropolitan Planning Commission in Kansas City to address racial equality, human rights and needs. As a result, an urban ministry program was developed that crossed all racial lines.

Indeed, even late in retirement, Bishop Frank continued to speak on social issues. In November 2005, for example, he was among 96 U.M. Bishops who signed "A Call to Repentance and Peace with Justice" opposing the war in Iraq. In his final column in the Missouri Methodist newspaper (June 1972), he wrote, "War will never again be a way to settle arguments between nations."

Retired Bishop Fritz Mutti described Bishop Frank as "always unassuming, displaying great humility... He always worked to 'hold the church together.' I value his sense that, as he would put it, 'effective leadership came from the way you related.'"