Mother, Wife, Sister, Doctor, Director – Francine Arlene, Fran Fettman – Chana Fraydl bas Pincha in Hebrew - was all of these. A lifelong learner and teacher, she touched everyone around her with her candour, empathy, willingness to listen and always, always some of the best advice and wisdom of her vast experience.
Born in the Bronx in 1937, Fran was a whip smart child, teaching her younger brother to play handball on the concrete slab walls in the nearby playground and going to Yankee games whenever she could.
Graduating high school at 16 she got her bachelor’s degree at Queen’s College and pursued her M.A. in speech and drama at Cornell. Marrying her husband of almost 60 years, Irwin, in 1959 she taught speech and theatre in New York running the high school theatre company.
Upon her move to Pittsburgh in 1970 she embraced her love of the theatre, running a children’s theatre company, directing the regional North Star Players and directing the St Sebastian’s CYO Easter plays; a role she lovingly held for over 20 years; mentoring and shaping future actors and many generations of young people, a passion that carried through her entire life.
An avid supporter of her faith she held various positions including President and Principal of the Sunday school teaching comparative religion and supporting the local Jewish community at Temple Ohav Shalom. Her lifelong passion for the woman’s Jewish organisation of Hadassah and Israel led her to global roles on their senior leadership committees where she developed multiple leadership training programs for the organisation while helping to direct various parts of the organisation in the areas of education and overall support for Zionist causes globally.
Never to rest, she obtained a PhD in Psychology and spent over 40 years as a therapist in her local area where she helped 1000’s of people to find inner peace and work through their personal challenges, only recently considering retirement.
Her love of cooking may be how she’s most remembered by close friends and family. Her dinner parties were legendary, and her children have held some of her secret recipes close to their hearts. If you’ve ever had her latkes, blintzes or apple cake, you’ll know just how incredible she was in the kitchen.
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