Frances Louise Reese

Fran was born on December 10, 1940 in Norfolk, Virginia to parents Clyde William Griffin of Norfolk, and Anna Elizabeth Wood of Blanch, North Carolina. As a child growing up in the segregated Navy town of Norfolk, she learned from an early age to recognize and challenge racism and sexism wherever she encountered it. After graduating from Norview High School, she met her first husband and gave birth to her daughter, Theresa.

In 1968, while studying for a degree in wildlife biology at North Carolina State University, she met Malcolm Reese, to whom she was married for the next fifty-two years. Following her passion for both animals and public health, Fran held a number of fascinating positions in her career, often opening doors to the women that followed behind her. She was the first woman to serve as a mammalogy technician at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and trained German shepherds to find tripwire during the Vietnam War. Fran was also an assistant producer for WRAL’s first cystic fibrosis telethon.

In addition to her diverse career, Fran was also an active volunteer for various organizations in Raleigh, giving her time to the Wake County Women’s Center, the Wake County SPCA, Rex Hospital’s Emergency Room, and the Meals on Wheels program. She was also a co-founder of the North Carolina Returning Catholics Program established at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Raleigh, where she offered personal support to those, like her, who wished to come back to the Catholic Church after time spent away.

In her retirement, Fran was a very involved grandmother in lives of her two grandsons, Joshua McCrain, now of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Eli McCrain of Glen Echo, Maryland. Fran believed deeply in racial justice and civic equality, and carried her determination to see a better world for all people into all that she did.

A graveside service will be held at Historic Oakwood Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family ask for memorial donations to be made to Wake County SPCA.