[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 142 (Monday, September 24, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN MEMORY OF PHIL FRANK

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 24, 2007

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise 
today to recognize the passing of one of our notable journalists, 
cartoonist Phil Frank. Phil died of brain cancer this month, but not 
before leaving an enduring legacy to the people of Marin County, where 
he lived, and to those of the San Francisco Bay Area and across North 
America.
  Admired by other cartoonists, loved by his family and fans, and 
appreciated by local historians, Phil was the creator of a host of 
cartoon characters, the most famous being Farley, a San Francisco 
reporter on a newspaper named The Daily Requirement. Farley's world was 
peopled by an assortment of politicians and animals, including Bruce, 
the raven; Orwell T. Catt, feral feline; a collection of bears that ran 
the Fog City Dumpster and avidly supported the San Francisco Giants; 
and of course, the high-class band of feral pigs in dark glasses, who 
traveled Marin County in BMWs, led by their guru, De Pork Chopra.
  With these characters and others, Phil targeted daily events in the 
Bay Area, including the actions of every San Francisco mayor from 
Dianne Feinstein to Gavin Newson. Phil's co-worker Carl Nolte, a staff 
writer at the Chronicle, where the Farley comic ran almost every day 
for 32 years, remembers a good example. When Mayor Frank Jordan once 
appointed a lowly politician to a high office in his administration, 
Phil's comic strip showed the cartoon mayor appointing one of the feral 
cats to run the municipal aquarium.
  ``But he was never mean-spirited,'' said Nolte. ``He was humorous in 
the best sense of political humor.''
  Fellow cartoonist Kathryn Lemieux of Tomales agreed. ``He could poke 
fun at someone without being cruel,'' she said. According to Lemieux, 
Phil was also a generous mentor to other artists, always willing to 
share his support.
  He also shared his talent with innumerable organizations all over the 
Bay Area, drawing a t-shirt design, adding a cartoon to a city mailing, 
or illustrating a California park system notice. Suzanne Dunwell, who 
lived for a while on a Sausalito houseboat not far from Phil's floating 
studio in the pilot house of the ferry City of Seattle, recalls the 
first annual Humming Toadfish Festival, which she started. Phil 
designed the t-shirt, and after the first ones were printed, Dunwell 
gifted one to Phil. He graciously thanked her, then placed the shirt in 
a drawer brimming with Phil Frank-designed t-shirts from other 
charitable groups.
  Phil was generous not only with his talent, but with his time. A 
self-educated historian, he was an important figure in the Sausalito 
Historical Society, and acted as exhibitions coordinator for the 
Bolinas Museums' History Collection. ``He knew the history of places 
from the human side,'' explained Nolte.
  One of his most popular cartoons, published in Sausalito's weekly 
newspaper, exposes the persona of his hometown with well-intended 
humor. It shows the Sausalito Fire and Rescue squad being called to the 
downtown park to assist a 90-year-old resident who had fallen off her 
platform shoes and couldn't get up by herself because her jeans were 
too tight.
  Phil could make us laugh at ourselves. He was one of those genuinely 
nice guys. He lived with enthusiasm. He made us smile. He is already 
missed.

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