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Marion Frank Meador was
born in Clayton County, GA to Albert Bush and Keren Hollinshead
Meador on November 27, 1930. Frank grew up in DeKalb County, GA
where he attended Avondale Estates schools and graduated from
Avondale High School in 1947. He was the youngest of five children.
All of his siblings preceded him in death. Although he later
excelled at school, he ran home from his first day of first grade
and never wanted to go to school again.
After one year at Georgia Tech, Frank joined the Air
Force. He followed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB)
with radio mechanics school at Scott AFB. He served at the latter as
an instructor. Soon, he learned of his appointment to West Point by
Senator Russell. With little knowledge of West Point other than the
football exploits of Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis and what he read
in Red Reeder books, Frank welcomed the appointment. Subsequent
attendance at the West Point Preparatory School at Stewart Field
preceded his entering West Point with the Class of 1954.
While on home leave prior to joining the Corps, Frank
met 16-year-old Nancy Carolyn Morton. It was love at first sight.
Nancy eventually moved to New Jersey to be close to Frank, and they
were married on June 18, 1954 in the First Baptist Church of
Avondale Estates.
Frank was an incredible success at West Point.
Graduating first in his Class, he was also selected as a cadet
captain and battalion commander during his First Class Year.
Academics alone did not define him. He served as a spotter for the
varsity football team his Third Class and Second Class years and was
senior manager of the team his First Class year. In his yearling
year he chose boxing as his main intramural sport and won the
brigade boxing title in his weight class. He also played on the
baseball team all four years and won his major “A.”
Frank chose the Corps of Engineers as his branch and
went to Fort Belvoir, VA after graduation for the Engineer Officer
Basic Course and then to Fort Benning, GA for Airborne School. He
was assigned to the 26th Engineer Battalion, which provided school
support to the Infantry School. While at Benning, Frank and Nancy’s
only child, Catherine Alison Meador, was born. After Benning, the
young family moved across Europe with Frank serving as platoon
leader in an engineer combat battalion in Salzburg, Austria, as CO
of a battalion headquarters company in Stuttgart, Germany, and as
aide-de-camp for the Chief of Staff of VII Corps.
In June 1958, the family returned to the United
States so that Frank could study for two years at MIT. He graduated
with master’s degrees in civil engineering and nuclear engineering.
Frank held numerous engineering assignments including teaching at
West Point as an assistant professor of mechanics and commanding the
46th Engineer Construction Battalion in Vietnam (1969-70). His last
assignment was as Assistant Professor of Military Science at Georgia
Tech from which he retired in July 1974.
Frank felt the call to ministry while working as
County Engineer in DeKalb County, GA. He and Nancy then moved to
Fort Worth, TX where Frank attended Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary. While working on his doctoral degree in theology, Frank
pastored two churches and taught fellowship classes about the Old
Testament at Southwestern Seminary. He also did contract work for
Albert Halff & Associates in Fort Worth.
In 1977, their daughter Catherine married Michael
Shaw and moved to Texas. They were blessed with a son, Michael Shaw
Jr., in 1978 and a daughter, Alison Shaw, three years later.
After receiving his doctorate, Frank felt compelled
to bivocational work in engineering and the ministry. In 1986, he
accepted a job with an engineering firm in Atlanta and concurrently
taught at the North Georgia Center for New Orleans Baptist
Theological Seminary.
In 1993, Frank and Nancy returned to Texas to be near
Cathy, Mike and the grandkids. They located a house in Hurst, TX in
which they could all live together. Frank found a job on the
founding faculty of a small Christian school, Grace Preparatory
Academy, where he taught until he retired in 2005. Molding and
shaping the lives of his students, academically and more importantly
personally, was one of the highlights of his life. Students and
faculty from Grace Prep have come forward to talk about the
influence and impact he had, and still has, on their lives.
Nancy died in September 2007 and was buried in Dallas
Fort Worth (DFW) National Cemetery. Frank succumbed in a Fort Worth
hospital ICU ward on September 22, 2014 from complications resulting
from head/neck surgery and was buried with full military honors in
the DFW National Cemetery alongside his beloved Nancy.
Frank and Nancy are survived by their daughter, Cathy
Shaw; her husband, Mike; grandchildren Michael Shaw Jr., and his
wife Jennifer; Alison Sheffield and her husband Cratin;
great-grandchildren Anthony and Aaron Shaw and Zane and Asher
Sheffield; and several nieces and nephews.
Frank felt that the major lessons that he learned at
West Point were self-discipline, teamwork, and finally, “If it’s
worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” He set an incredible example
for all of us with his life, his character and his devotion to his
family and the Lord. He wanted to be remembered as a loving husband,
father, grandfather and great-grandfather and the best anyone can do
is the following: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”
Micah 3:5. |
