Sidney Frank

Sidney E. Frank (October 2, 1919 – January 10, 2006) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He became a billionaire through his promotion of Grey Goose vodka and Jägermeister.

Early life, family, education

Frank was born to a Jewish family in Montville, Connecticut. His father and mother were Abraham and Sarah Frank. He grew up in Norwich, Connecticut, and graduated from the Norwich Free Academy in 1937. He attended Brown University (class of 1942) but left because he could only afford one year of tuition. He later made enormous gifts to the university to ensure that no student would ever be forced to leave Brown because of inability to pay tuition. During World War II, Frank worked for Pratt and Whitney as a manufacturer's representative in India exploring ways to improve engine performance enabling aircraft to deal with the high altitudes encountered in the CBI theater. This was particularly important in improving the performance of transport aircraft flying supplies into China. The use of alcohol injection for aircraft engines was one of the approaches taken.

Career

Frank's first wife, Louise "Skippy" Rosenstiel, was the daughter of Lewis Rosenstiel, founder of Schenley Industries, one of the largest American distiller and spirit importers. Frank joined Schenley after his marriage and rose to the company presidency, but was forced out in a family dispute in 1970.

In 1973 his wife died and he started his own company, Sidney Frank Importing Company, where he served as chairman and chief executive officer. The company is based in New Rochelle, New York, where Frank lived (he had a home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, as well).

In 1973, he secured the importing rights to Jägermeister, a traditional German digestif.

Frank's first big success with his own company was with Jacques Cardin brandy, a brand he purchased from Seagram in 1979.

In the 1980s, Jägermeister became popular with college students In Louisiana and Frank promoted it heavily, turning a specialty brand developed to help with digestion into a mainstream success widely drunk in ice cold shots and used in Jello shooters.

In 1997, he developed Grey Goose vodka, made in France by François Thibault, and was so successful in promoting it that he sold the brand to Bacardi for $2 billion in June 2004. In the last years of his life, Frank bought the '' Travel Savvy'' and '' Business Traveler'' magazine titles for $4 million.

Philanthropy

Frank gave large bonuses to his employees and made a $12 million donation to The Norwich Free Academy and a $120 million donation to Brown University in 2005, the ninth-largest philanthropic gift in that year. ''Forbes'' magazine ranked him the 185th richest man in America in its Forbes 400 list. In October 2005, Frank donated £500,000 and a statue by sculptor Stephen Kettle to Bletchley Park Trust to fund a new Science Center dedicated to Alan Turing and, as a great supporter of the Supermarine Spitfire, commissioned a life-size statue of its designer, R. J. Mitchell, and funded a website dedicated to Mitchell's life
RJ Mitchell. A life in aviation

He gave a donation of $5 million to the New York Medical College psychiatry department, leading to the creation of the Sidney Frank fellowship which gives medical students early exposure to the field of psychiatry.

His foundation has been a supporter of the Israel Olympic Committee and has helped to offer scholarships in several Israeli sports.

In 2004, Frank gave $100 million to his alma mater Brown University, the largest contribution in Brown's history. The Sidney E. Frank Scholarship funds tuition for around 130 undergraduate students each year. In 2006, Brown University named its Life Sciences building (the largest capital project to date) after Frank, the single most generous donor in the university's history.

Personal life, death and aftermath

Frank married twice. His first wife, Louise "Skippy" Rosenstiel, was the daughter of Lewis Rosenstiel; she died in 1973, at the age of 50. They had two children: Matthew Frank and Cathy Frank Finkelstein Halstead, who was married and divorced from James A. Finkelstein, a son of Jerry Finkelstein's. In 1975, he married Marian Elinor Ombres.

Frank died January 10, 2006, on a private plane in flight between San Diego, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia, at the age of 86 from heart failure. He was declared dead in San Francisco, California. On his plane were several nurses and medical doctors as well as a defibrillator, but he could not be revived. Services were held at Riverside Memorial Chapel

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