OUR FRANK 1960 - 2006 (Founder of Happy Frog & DCbikers)
Frank was born in Liverpool and lived all of his life, until 1999, in or very near to the city. In 1998 he decided to have a holiday in Cornwall at an activities holiday centre near Truro. There they gave him a taster of paragliding. He loved it and continued to come down to Cornwall to fly. Another interest was computers and whilst on AOL he started chatting to Jane. At Easter 1999 he had booked a paragliding weekend and said that if the weather was bad he would pop in and see her. Guess what – the weather was awful. Two weeks later he arrived at her house again but this time in his car with his clothes, his computer, his CD player and boxes of CDs and his life in Cornwall began.
He packed a lot into those years and those of you that knew him, will know that he did all that he chose to do with a passion. He would fly at every opportunity and managed not only to qualify as a pilot and coach but as an instructor which was his first job here. Before he came to Cornwall he had only been out of the UK once, which was a week with the TA in Germany, but paragliding took him to Italy, France and South Africa. He loved to tell the story of flying over Lake Annecy at 3000 ft when he looked down and there was a plane flying beneath him!
He hated being bored and enjoyed nothing more than having a challenge. The next challenge was to be to get a degree. He first did an access course at Saltash College and was accepted into Plymouth Uni to do Computing Infomatics. He joined in whole heartedly with student life and did so well. During his work experience year he also worked at the Uni, helping students sort out problems with the computers. He would have graduated in July 2006.
He had an enduring passion for music of all sorts – although he would tell you that the music of the 70s was the best! Those of you who wondered if you would ever get away when he decided to share his enthusiasm with you, will know just what an amazing amount he knew about the music he enjoyed!
Living near a golf course, he took up golf again and also fishing and photography. He then learned archery; in fact, you never quite knew what he was going to get up to next!
Frank was killed in a biking accident very near his home on January 4th 2006, he was the founder of the happyfrog website and forums and is sadly missed.
