Frank Joseph Mack

Frank Joseph Mack of Springfield, Virginia passed away peacefully a little after 10 p.m. on January 13, 2025 at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, from cancer, exactly a month after his 72nd birthday. There was a full, almost yellow moon that night.

Frank was born Alexander Zellner on December 13, 1952 in Oldenburg, Germany. He and his identical twin brother were adopted in April 1958 by Eileen Eagan Mack and Frank Joseph Mack, Jr., of New Jersey. In December 1959, Frank’s parents changed his name officially to Francis Joseph Mack III. Frank went to school in Redbank, New Jersey and, when the family moved for his father’s work, attended Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio (the family lived then in Miamiville).

Frank received his undergraduate degree in 1979 from Miami University of Ohio and his law degree, juris doctor, in 1982 from Antioch School of Law in Washington, DC. He was admitted to the DC Bar in 1983 and soon after began work in the General Counsel’s Office at the Library of Congress. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1990. In 2006 Frank became an employment discrimination attorney at the Personnel Appeals Board of the Government Accountability Office in Washington. Early in his career he taught paralegal courses at USDA. In the early 2000’s he volunteered as a stage manager and lighting designer for local theater productions by The Arlington Players, Little Theater of Alexandria, Potomac Theater Company, and the Silver Spring Stage.

Frank is preceded in death by his parents, his Uncle Jack Eagan, his older sister, Mary Ellen, and a younger sister, Maureen Cahill. He is survived by his brothers John (and Alice) and Joe (and Robin), sister Anne Marie, nieces and nephews Amy, Brian, Heather, Kathleen, Kelly, Sean (and Kaitlyn), grand niece and nephew Kayleen and Jace, cousins Chris and Ria Eagan, the Targetts, John Yatchisin, and many dear friends and colleagues near and far.

Frank asked to be cremated and didn’t want a funeral. If you wish to make a donation in Frank’s memory, please make it to a charity of your choice or to Save Our Seabirds in Sarasota, Florida, one of Frank’s favorite places: www.saveourseabirds.org .

Here is a tribute to Frank from me, Barbara, who loved him so:

Frank was tall, strong, brave, handsome, kind, generous, gentle, affectionate, open, direct, uninhibited, unconventional, outspoken and a little wild (especially in his youth). As an attorney, Frank wrote beautiful, concise prose, was a talented litigator, quick on his feet, but also a consummate listener and mediator. At the Library of Congress he was instrumental in creating a Dispute Resolution Office. He believed in fairness, in aspiring to attain justice, and in settling differences with compassion.

Frank loved nature and the outdoors. An artistic amateur landscaper and expert tree planter, he spent whole days working in our garden, ending each day covered head to foot in soil and sun. He rescued disabled bushes and plants from nursery back rooms, watched the seasons, collected and scattered seeds, especially for coneflowers, which the goldfinches love, and his favorite French marigolds. He loved the woods, where he often took the dogs on unleashed outings. He loved the beach and the water – first at the Jersey Shore, then southern California, the Eastern Shore, Assateague Island, the west coast of Florida.

Frank loved rock music and had an encyclopedic knowledge of its subgenres, and of myriad lesser known bands, which he happily shared with friends and family. The ring tone on his cell phone is a guitar riff from a song by Rush, whose concerts we attended multiple times. He loved Bruce Springsteen. A self-trained electronics geek, Frank would examine a device or a program and figure out how it worked, so he could fix it. He did the same with mechanical things. Without looking at a clock, he almost always knew what time it was. He was a magic man.

Frank loved animals. He adored his dogs, Frazier, Humphrey, Scout, and even Buddy. He loved my cats, Solly, Sam, Belle, Wendy, and Teddy; he admitted to being afraid of Monty. In the first part of his retirement Frank was a full-time volunteer for OPH, Operation Paws for Homes, an animal rescue group. In that capacity he worked tirelessly to match homeless dogs with adopters, sometimes driving long distances to bring a dog to someone in another city. He also loved wild birds. Once on Chincoteague Island, Frank rescued a tiny duckling that had fallen through a grate in the street into a storm drain. The mother duck had continued down the street, seemingly unaware, followed by the rest of her large brood. Frank ran to get a crowbar to lift the grate, then scooped up the duckling and ran with it down the street until he caught up with the tail end of the line of little ducks. He said later that he wondered if the mother duck hadn’t walked over the grate on purpose.

Most of all, Frank loved the people in his life, to whom he was always willing to lend a hand or a defense or a dollar. He was quick to make friends, talk to strangers, make someone laugh.

“An honest man here lies at rest, …

The friend of man, the friend of truth;

The friend of age, and guide of youth:

Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d,

Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:

If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;

If there is none, he made the best of this.” -- Robert Burns, “Epitaph on My Own Friend”

“… Did I know you?

Did I know you even then?

Before the clocks kept time

Before the world was made

From the cruel sun

You were shelter

You were my shelter and my shade.”

– U2, “Wild Honey,” from the album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”