Frank Putnam's Obituary
Frank Arthur Putnam III passed away on July 3, 2023 after a brief illness. He is remembered by
his wife of 47 years, Lola Marie (Brill) Putnam, and their children, Jana (Erik) Sayler, Alita (Knud) Hermansen, and Isaac (Corie) Putnam. Grumps, as he styled himself, and his wonderful stories will be desperately missed by his nine grandchildren: Eleanor, Kirk, Archer, and Virginia Sayler; Knud Peter, Trygve, and Ansgar Hermansen; and Kaelan and Mason Putnam. Although his sister Mary Lee predeceased him, he is survived by his sister, Jeanne Watts and his brother Paul Putnam, and mourned by seven decades of friends, neighbors, nephews, nieces, and all those who found themselves caught up in one of his stories.
And stories he had! Born in Abilene, Texas in 1951, and a forester by trade, Frank and his college-sweetheart bride moved to rural Southeast Alaska in 1977. They spent a summer living in a one-room log cabin with a newborn and toddler while he designed and built their house in Haines. An Alaskan jack of all trades, he crafted fine furniture, managed a sporting goods store, and drove a school bus before settling into commercial gillnetting. Summers were for salmon, autumns for hunting bear and moose to fill the freezer, cold quiet winters were for reading Lord of the Rings aloud to his children.
By the early 1990s, his back permanently damaged after a construction accident at the Alaska Bald Eagle Foundation, he left Alaska and returned to university in Wyoming, where he struck up friendships with his graduate professors in finance and economics. The deep green of the Northwest called, however, and they moved again to Washington State in 1997, where he built a home with sweeping views of Mt. Rainier and rhododendrons and worked as a CPA and financial advisor. They moved to Crawfordville, Florida in 2021. Frank served in leadership at each church they joined: the college 4:30 prayer group where he first met Lola, the Alaskan Presbyterians, the Washington Lutherans, the Florida Anglicans. He loved God and left room for the mysteries of faith.
A consummate reader and autodidact, Frank knew the best way to do anything, from fixing a washing machine to coaxing beehives through a Florida summer. And each thing he did, he did to his own exacting standards of both function and beauty. Frank had a professor’s heart and an artisan’s eye: he collected medieval coins and carved hunting rifles for his grandsons. He explored his roots in Scotland with Clan Donald, hunted big game in South Africa, sipped rough apple moonshine in Romania, grew teak wood in Panama, and scuba dived in the Caribbean. He embraced his grumpy, Santa Claus persona, but his grins were luminescent and his generosity boundless.
Together with Lola, they were perfect hosts, opening their homes for a holiday, a long weekend, and occasionally months-long stints. Wherever they lived, and despite the loud chaos of children, grandchildren, dogs, and occasionally chickens, theirs was always a home of welcome and refuge. To escape the noise, Frank would slip away to the back porch with his cigar and peaty sippin’ Scotch, and yet, inevitably, he’d end up holding court there, as folks would in turn seek out his wisdom and well-considered opinions, and soon, a kid would crawl up in his lap, tug his bristly beard, and demand a story. And the gruff voice would begin, “Well, did I ever tell you….” and the kid would shiver with glee, and the adults would settle in for a fantastic yarn.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, July 7th , 2023 at 1:00 pm at Christ Church Anglican, 3383 Coastal Hwy, Crawfordville, FL 32327.
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