Frank Willingham Obituary

FRANK F. WILLINGHAM, JR. PhD

06/03/1942 - 06/22/2025
The world has lost a wonderful woodsman, adventurer, entrepreneur, scientist, and educator, with the passing of Francis Fries Willingham, Jr., PhD, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. From his earliest days in North Carolina, he took to the mountains and woods like a native. While attending Camp Sequoyah, he was chosen to be a "Tsali Boy," the best of the best at woodcraft. He used those skills to build a log cabin in the woods of Roaring Gap at age 14.
Frank was a proud graduate of The Asheville School in 1961, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1965. While there, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta. He continued his education at Wake Forest University, earning a Master of Arts in Botany in 1967. He followed that by beginning his long teaching career at the Pine Crest Preparatory School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, for two years. While there, he picked up the nickname "Frankie Baby," a testament to his joie de vivre!
In 1969 Frank moved back to Winston-Salem to begin teaching biology at Salem College. There he met the love of his life, Christine Wheeldon, to whom he was happily married in August of 1970. During this time, he also taught Philosophy of Science at the Governor's School of North Carolina. The scientist in him led Frank back to Wake Forest to pursue his PhD in Botany. His skills in the woods again proved helpful, as he trekked the high ridges of the western North Carolina mountains, especially the Nantahala area, delineating the range of Rhododendron calendulaceum (flame azalea) as part of his thesis.
Degree in hand, he and Christine moved to Pine Mountain, Georgia, where he was the Director of Greenhouse Operations at the world-famous Callaway Gardens. Five years later, he was hired away to be the General Manager of Research Farms, an ornamental plant nursery with 250,000 square feet of greenhouse production area in Houston. In 1987 the entrepreneurial bug bit Frank, and he launched Turtle Pond Nursery in Spring, Texas. This facility, dedicated to producing blooming decorative azaleas year-round, had four acres of greenhouse and nursery areas.
During this time Frank kept his hat in the teaching arena as an Adjunct Instructor in Biology for North Harris College (now Lone Star College), and helped develop the anatomy curriculum for what is now The American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. In 1996 the nursery was sold and Frank, once more, answered the call of the wild. He was recruited to Ilisagvik College in Barrow, Alaska (northern-most city in the United States), where, as an Assistant Professor of Natural Sciences, then Chair of General Education Division, he taught science courses ranging from biology to botany to natural history. His six-year stay in Alaska included many adventures - floating the Aichilik River, photographing polar bears for calendars, documenting plant species, working with Christine on the Yukon Quest dog sled race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, to participating in the harvesting of a whale for the Inupiat people (muktuk - whale blubber and skin is an acquired taste!)
In 2002 Frank returned to Texas and joined the faculty at Lone Star College, Tomball, as Dean of Sciences, where he remained until his retirement in 2018. He was an active member of the Tomball community through the Tomball Rotary, for which he served as President in 2012-2013. He was a Paul Harris Fellow as well.
He was a member of the Native Plant Society of Texas and state President in 1994-1995. He was a Certified Environmental Assessment Consultant with the National Society of Environmental Consultants. He published fourteen scientific papers.
Frank leaves behind a loving wife of 54 years, Christine Willingham, a treasure trove of happy memories of camping, hiking, and trout fishing from North Carolina, to Wyoming, to Alaska, and an extended family who will sorely miss him. God speed, Frankie Baby! For those wishing to commemorate his life, may we suggest a
donation to the Fries Willingham Fund at the Winston-Salem Foundation, 751 W. 4th Street, Suite 200, Winston-Salem, NC 27101.