Frank was born on October 20th 1939 in Washington DC and passed away on December 29th 2020 at home in Parkland, FL. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Susan, and his daughter Amy along with her husband, Jonathan and their daughters, Carly, Lindsay and Ashley and son, Frank Jr., and his daughter Rylee.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the family does not feel that he would have wanted to risk anyone’s health to have a service.
Instead we are asking for donations in his name with Broward Education Foundation. The link below:
https://browardedfoundation.org/frankcampanamemorialfund/
My Dad,
Frank was born in Washington DC in 1939 to Alfonso and Carla Campana who were born in Switzerland. He was an only child. They raised him to be proud, happy, and kind and gave him his faith in God that he carried with throughout his life. He worked hard at everything he did. He excelled as an athlete in high school and received a full scholarship to play quarterback in football as well as pitch in baseball at George Washington University. He was drafted by 3 MLB teams to pitch while he was at GW but wisely chose to stay in college and finish his education. A back injury ended his baseball career and led him to a Masters Degree from American University in Washington DC.
My dad moved to South Florida and began his long and distinguished career in education with the Broward County School System. He enjoyed a 42 year career. He was an extraordinary educator and had tremendous passion for his job. For many years I thought it was going to be impossible for us to get him to retire. If it was not for his love for my mom and his four beautiful granddaughters I am sure he would have kept working for several more years.
Some career highlights:
He was the Principal of Hollywood Hills HS for 4 years
He was the Principal of Driftwood Middle School for 25 years
1988 – Named Middle School Principal of the Year
1991 – Enrolled in the Principals Hall of Fame in Tallahassee, FL
May 17th, 2003 was declared Frank Campana Appreciation Day
I have gone over what I wanted to say here about my dad and what will be the best way to say it. I guess, simply put, he is the best man I have ever met. I have been so overwhelmingly blessed to be able to have had him as my father and to also have him as my best friend throughout adulthood.
I have never seen anyone else as good at making people happy or feel special as my dad. He made friends with everyone. If you spoke to him for more than 5 minutes you were his friend. He remembered everyone. People would walk up to him that somehow looked years older him and say hello to him at some random place and he would say hello to them by name and later tell me they were students from decades ago. He was so good at treating everyone from the people that were truly his good friends to those he barely knows with such respect and kindness. One summer, for 3 weeks, I worked for the school board at the KC Wright Building and each day I was there, 2 or 3 people stopped me when they read my name tag and saw it said Frank Campana to tell me a nice story about my father. He was genuinely the nicest person that you could ever hope to meet.
I am so happy that he worked in a profession that allowed him to do so much good. He was able to touch the lives of so many students and parents as well as fellow professionals. I know that we were so thankful for many of the long friendships that he had formed over the years with many of his colleagues. My dad was a unique man. Five years ago he was told that he had a very rare form of cancer that remained “undiagnosed” even until the end. He told no one because he did not want his close friends and family to spend their time worrying about him.
My father was blessed with a very happy and loving life. He and my mom enjoyed a beautiful 55 years of marriage. She was the love of his life and they were inseparable. My sister and I could not have been luckier to grow up with the two of them as our parents. We managed to say thank you by giving them four wonderful grand daughters who my father cherished like nothing I have ever seen. We were all so blessed to have been able to be together one last time this Christmas afternoon. That evening my sister was able to ask him if there was anything we could do for him and one of the final things he was able to was “Be Happy.”
I don’t think there is a better way to wrap this up than with a message from him to anyone who loved my dad enough to be reading this. No one was better at making people happy than he was. So, please, take his words and simply just go and “Be Happy!!”
My family and I thank you all for everyone’s love and support.
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