Notes for Frank Wesley Burns

Descendants of
Captain Robert Brown
1809 – 1894

Notes for Frank Wesley Burns

Notes for Frank W. Burns 3rd (by self). For those interested I have written a memoir - so far it goes through W.W.II.

I was born on July 16, 1923 in the old Lihue hospital on the Island of Kauai, Territory of Hawaii. My family lived on Kauai at the Kealia plantation till I was about four years old.
When my father, who was the Assistant Manager, quit the plantation after being passed over on promotion (I have heard), we moved to Honolulu. In Honolulu we stayed at the Donna Hotel that was owned by my grandparents on my mothers side (McCarthy). They were both still alive. My grandfather who had been Governor of Hawaii was quite sick with what they called elephantiasis. He sat on the big lanai of his home on the grounds of the Donna Hotel watching his grandchildren play.

When I was between four and six years old I had diphtheria, scarlet fever and what they called worms (that was the worst, I was in the hospital for at about a month). I attended Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson grade schools and then 7th through 9th grades at Roosevelt High - all ÒEnglish Standard SchoolsÓ.

Both of my parents died within three months of each other in 1938 when I was 14. My brother, Robert Bruce (Bruce), and I were then raised by our motherÕs sister Mary Louise McCarthy Rothwell and her husband Guy. Bruce and I were transferred from Roosevelt High School to Saint Louis ÒCollegeÓ (it went from 1st grade to 12th & has since been renamed to ÒschoolÓ). I graduated from St. Louis in 1942. School was interrupted for a month or two in my senior year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I worked as part of the Honolulu Harbor Patrol immediately after the attack and then at a PX at Schofield Barracks until school started again. Then on weekends I took supplies to the Leper Settlement on Molokai on my UncleÕs boat. This lasted until I left the Islands to go to the University of Washington in September of 1942.

I completed two years of Mechanical Engineering at the U of W before I was drafted. And I became engaged Dorothy Jean Ayres. I was inducted into the army on March 27, 1944. My Army Serial Number was 39 472 568. I was assigned to the Transportation Corps and sent to basic training at Camp Plauche on the Mississippi river just up stream of the Huey P. Long bridge in New Orleans. After basic training our outfit was shipped out immediately to Europe. We left New York on August 11th, 1944 in a large convoy and arrived in Liverpool, England, on August 25th. Then to France. After the Battle of the Bulge I was transferred to the Infantry and finished the war as a rifleman in the 42nd (Rainbow), Infantry Division, 242 Regiment, ÒIÓ Company. After the war ended the Division was part of the Army of Occupation in Austria. I was with the Division until being sent back to the US and discharged at Fort Lewis, Washington, on April 2, 1946.

Dorothy and I were married on May 11, 1946 at the Assumption Catholic Church in Seattle. I completed my BS in Mechanical Engineering degree in June 1948 on the GI Bill. After graduating we looked for work in the Islands but couldnÕt find anything we both liked and accepted an offer from The Boeing Company in Seattle. During this time we contributed two babies to the front end of the ÒBaby BoomÓ - James Allan and Catherine Jean. We also contributed a baby to the end of the Baby Boom in 1962 - Gail Eileen. I also went back to the University of Washington in the evenings, taking one course per quarter (on the GI Bill) and received an MS in Mechanical Engineering in 1955.

I worked at Boeing for 38 years. I worked as a mechanical design engineer on the Stratocruiser and the Bomarc missile system until 1957. Then as a Systems Engineering analyst and supervisor until retiring in 1987. Projects that I worked on included the Bomarc missile system, many space systems, several automated ground transit systems, and the Mobile Launcher System for the Small Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system. After retiring I went back to work at Boeing for about two years on three occasions. This work was developing manuals to be used as guidelines in designing large military systems.

We have lived in the north end of Seattle since we were married. Our present address is: 3516NE 98th St., Seattle WA 98115.

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