Joseph Franklin Innis

Joseph Franklin Innis passed away on the morning of Father’s Day, June 16, 2019 at the age of 81. With little warning, his kidneys gave out and took from us our beloved patriarch, traveler and storyteller. His voice is dearly missed but not forgotten.

Frank was born in the Philippines on August 2, 1937, one of four sons of David and Frances Prey Innis. During World War II, when he was four years old, Frank and his entire family were forced into a Japanese internment camp. They were unusually fortunate in that they all survived long enough to be liberated in 1945 by the 11th Airborne, United States Army. The Innis family returned to Manila after the war, but soon returned to the States for good. Frank could not stay in one place for long. He lived in Manila; Rochester, NY; Manila again; Stella, NE; Berkeley, CA; Kensington, CA; El Paso, TX; Kaiserslautern and Spangdahlem, Germany; Lafayette, CA; Albuquerque, NM; Fort Lewis, WA; Vietnam; Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD; Oxon Hill, MD; Carson, CA; Taichung, BOT Compound, and Peitou, Taiwan; Vietnam again; Tienmou, Taiwan; Killeen, TX; Hyattsville, MD; Norfolk, VA; Ft. Kamehameha, Kailua, and Kahalu, HI; Taipei, Taiwan; Incline Village, NV; Sedona, AZ; Rio Vista, Orinda, and Grass Valley, CA. That’s 35 homes in 81 years.

After leaving the Philippines, Frank landed in Stella, NE, on the Missouri River, where in one year, he gathered a lifetime of Huck Finn stories. The next stop was Lewiston Avenue in Berkeley, where at 14, he met the love of his life, Nancy Hickox, at Willard Junior High School. The two were inseparable, going steady through their years at Berkeley High School. They married in 1957, the day after he turned 20.

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959, Frank joined the Army. His daughter Kate was born in El Paso during his initial training as an Air Defense Artillery officer. Next stop was Germany, where son David was born. He briefly left the army and returned to the Bay Area, where daughter Betsy joined the family. He was back in the Army by 1964, now as an Ordnance officer. After nuclear weapons training in Albuquerque, he was assigned to Ft. Lewis, where one weekend in 1965 he was told he was going to Vietnam.

After a year in Vietnam, Frank became a Military Intelligence officer, focusing on Taiwan and China. He learned Mandarin and studied politics, and culture of China at the University of Southern California, earning a master’s degree and welcoming son Tom to the family. In 1969, he moved the family to Taiwan, for continued language training and a year at the Kuomingtang’s political warfare college. He returned to Vietnam as a liaison with the Republic of China forces. In 1972, he headed back to Taiwan for three more years at the Taiwan Defense Command.

Frank’s next tour was at Ft. Hood, Texas, as an intelligence officer with the Second Armored Division, followed by training at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk and tours at the Pentagon and Fort Meade, Maryland. While living in Hyattsville, he watched his first three children graduate from high school in 1978, 1979, and 1981. The Army then sent him to Hawaii, where he traveled the Pacific, carrying out Army missions in civil affairs and psychological operations. He retired from the Army in 1987, on the same day his youngest child Tom started at West Point. In 1989, he was posted to the American Institute in Taiwan as an attaché.

Frank retired for good in 1992, but didn’t stop traveling. He settled by Lake Tahoe, but soon decided that the weather would be better in Sedona. With three of his four children living in California, he moved back to the Bay Area, making stops in Rio Vista and Orinda before reaching his final home in Grass Valley. Frank continued globetrotting during his retirement, with journeys to Alaska, Europe, China, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, and even Antarctica. He also enjoyed rediscovering his Scottish roots, making trips to many gatherings of the Innes clan and to the clan’s homeland in Scotland.

No matter where he traveled, Frank connected to the world around him, taking his beloved dogs on his long explorations. He believed that people were the same all over the world, a belief that made him empathetic and readily forgiving. He gave family members great latitude. Nothing aggravated him more than unjustified certainty. One of his favorite pieces of advice was never say always or never. He was spiritual but not religious, reverent but not dogmatic.

Frank told his stories at the head of the dinner table, in the morning while drinking coffee and perusing the newspaper, and while watching the news and sports. Many of his stories came from his own sports experiences, including playing college football for Cal. He played sports as long as he could, more enthusiastic about competing than about winning. And he played whatever anyone else was playing: baseball, soccer, football, basketball, rugby, softball, golf, and tennis. The best stories were those he told one on one when you could get him all to yourself. Frank’s personal stories showed how much he cared for you, and how much he wanted you to live your life as fully as he had lived his own.

Frank is survived by his wife Nancy, four children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. He is also survived by all three of his brothers, Jim, Don, and Charlie. Frank will be buried at the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, at 32053 West McCabe Road, Santa Nella, California. He chose this place to be near the 11th Airborne Memorial, in honor of the unit that rescued his family from Los Baños internment camp in 1945. In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to the Los Baños Liberation Memorial Scholarship Foundation by contacting R. Kate Laferriere at [email protected]