From Cameron Sanders
I first met Frank when he had just succeeded Harry Blaney (who I believe had hand picked him) as State’s FSO secondee to staff Russell Train, then Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality and subsequently Administrator of EPA, who had succeeded White House Counselor Pat Moynihan as US Representative to the NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS). Pat, with Harry at his side, had launched CCMS, an initiative intended to fulfill a Nixon campaign pledge to “revitalize” NATO - in giving the Alliance a new dimension in the area of civil cooperation on a ever widening range of societal problems which were to include highway safety, air pollution, ocean oil spills, emergency medical services, urban transportation, and solid waste management, to name a few. Despite Allied misgivings at this new departure for NATO, Pat with Harry had gotten it off to a strong start - with liberal use of White House clout ( CCMS was referred to “the President’s program”). When Pat Moynihan moved elsewhere, Harry was to stay on in the CCMS job with Russ Train and to keep the ball rolling in style (as did Tex Harris, another hand pick, who in turn succeeded Frank in the job when Frank moved on). I was the CCMS inside man and dogsbody in the NATO Affairs office at State and then on the delegation at USNATO in Brussels., and I worked closely at both ends with all three of these CCMS secondee All Stars.
From our first meeting I found Frank characteristically brimming with energy, ideas, and as always boundless cordiality. He was full of plans to make a great success of Russ Train’s first CCMS Plenary at NATO. He said he was preparing a Hollywood style “shooting script “ for the event, which would “block out” the action scene by scene for every individual meeting Russ would have with senior Allied colleagues, highlighting the key issues, objectives, pitfalls and points to be made, providing a detailed road map just as for a major motion picture. This sounded a bit like California talking, but it soon became clear to me that Frank had the requisite imagination, drive and confidence to get the job done and would carry it off – as he did brilliantly. Russ counted on him, and together they made a great team . No wonder Jim Baker was subsequently to choose Frank to work with him, first at Commerce and later in higher reaches as Baker spread his wings, and the rest is history.