Description: This is part 1 of 2 of an interview with Frank Cunningham. This is a film of Frank rowing w Charlie McIntyre on Lake Washington.
Frank Cunningham (1922-2013) was a fixture in the Seattle rowing scene. Cunningham grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts and attended Harvard and was part of the varsity rowing team. He interrupted his college education to serve in the Marine Corps during World War II. Following the war he moved to Seattle where he began working at Boeing and met his wife, Jane. He earned his graduate degree in teaching from the University of Washington and began a career in education. He also coached the rowing team at Lakeside school where he was also a humanities teacher. Several of his students later became Olympian rowers. He received the medal of honor from the U.S. Rowing Association in 2010 and was included in their Hall of Fame. In 2012, he was honored by the Washington State Senate for his teaching and coaching career.
During the interview Cunningham talks about his early memories as well as his rowing and teaching career. The first part features footage of him rowing and the second part includes the bulk of his interview.
This interview is part of the Donald Schmechel Oral History Collection. Don Schmechel, who was a member of the Seattle Public Library Foundation board, began this project with Seattle Public Library in 1984, with the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) brought on board as a partner in early 1985. Schmechel himself worked to raise the funding for the project, and volunteered his time to manage the project, and to conduct interviews along with a crew of volunteers. Originally titled the Videotaping Historic Figures (VHF) Program, the project interviewed 91 people, with a portion of the interviews entering the collections of the Seattle Public Library and a portion of them going to MOHAI.The interviews conducted with these Seattle civic, business and cultural leaders in 1985 are valuable first-hand accounts that provide insight into developments taking place in the mid-twentieth century.
Digitization of this videotape material has been made possible in part by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
20 окт 2024
