BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Illinois Wesleyan University mourns the death of Dr. Forrest J. Frank, who died on Thursday, Feb. 9 in Bloomington. Dr. Frank was a member of the IWU faculty for 34 years.
“I am sorry to report the passing of our colleague Forrest Frank, associate professor of chemistry until his retirement in 1999,” said President Richard F. Wilson. “Even then, after 34 years of teaching, Dr. Frank continued to teach part-time for another five years. Dr. Frank was well known for his popular “Chemistry and Crime” forensic science course and was one of four IWU professors who wrote two textbooks for a new undergraduate chemistry curriculum in 1999. Our sincere sympathies go to Dottie and his family.”
A Chicago native, Dr. Frank studied chemistry at Grinnell College in Iowa, where he met his wife, Dottie, in a freshman general chemistry course.
Following his undergraduate studies, Dr. Frank pursued a doctorate in chemistry from Purdue University in Indiana. Prior to joining the Illinois Wesleyan faculty in 1965, he was employed as a research chemist at Rayonier, Inc., of Whippany, N.J.
Dr. Frank, who found working with students to be one of the great benefits to teaching, once estimated that he taught between 4,000 and 5,000 IWU students. He began teaching an innovative course, “Crime and Chemistry,” in 1985. In developing the course, Dr. Frank worked with the Illinois State Police Laboratory in Morton and other professional colleagues. The course provided non-science majors with an introduction to basic chemistry principles and techniques by studying scientific aspects of evidence.