Francis E. (Frank) Quine, who spent 24 years working at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism after 18 years with the American Press Institute (API), died Oct. 31 at his home in Broadlands, Virginia. The cause has not been determined.
Quine was 84. He and his wife Dr. Mary Ellen Doran-Quine previously lived in Reston, Virginia, for 38 years.
After coming to Merrill in 1988, he served as the college’s development director, responsible for fundraising, alumni relations, publications and professional education programs, before adding the title of assistant dean and expanding his administrative duties. He also served as vice president of American Journalism Review (AJR), the national magazine published by the College that ceased publication in 2015.
At API — which was established by newspaper publishers in 1946 and long was considered the gold standard in media training — Quine worked with the newspaper industry’s giants: from the Sulzbergers of The New York Times and the Grahams of The Washington Post to Al Neuharth of Gannett Co., Inc. During his tenure at API he planned and conducted 92 seminars for editors, department heads and publishing executives.
Quine welcomed thousands of seminar members to API’s doors — first in its New York City home at Columbia University, then to its Marcel Breuer-designed building in Reston, Virginia. Those he welcomed came from across the United States, Canada, Singapore, Mexico, Latin America, Europe and elsewhere. All were hungry for professional development, for knowledge about best industry practices and innovations. Reporters, editors, advertising and circulation executives, publishers and other key executives considered attending an API seminar as a highpoint of their careers.
A native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Quine was a 1959 graduate of Kent State University School of Journalism, where he was editor of the campus daily newspaper in his senior year. Four Christmas-break trips to Florida during college showed him there were warmer places than the suburbs of Akron.
Upon college graduation, he went job hunting in Florida where he could play his beloved game, tennis, outdoors year round. He found a job as a sports writer with the Jacksonville Journal. Three years later he became a sports writer for the Evening Independent in St. Petersburg. He was promoted to sports editor in 1965 and then news editor in 1967.
After attending an API Sports Editors Seminar in 1967, Quine mentioned to the seminar moderator that he’d enjoy being involved in mid-career training or journalism education. That wish was fulfilled in 1969 when he joined API as an associate director. At that time, the Institute was housed at Columbia University’s Journalism Building in New York City.
Quine became API’s managing director in 1977 and its director in 1979. He left the Institute in 1987 before joining the Merrill College the following year.
At Maryland, Quine played a key role in bringing the college a grant for an endowed Knight Chair funded by the Knight Foundation in 1994 and contributed to securing the gift from Philip Merrill that led to the naming of the college in 2001. He helped coordinate the fundraising, design, construction and 2010 opening of the $30-million John S. and James L. Knight Hall, the new home of the college. He also worked diligently raising funds for AJR.
Along with his wife, he sponsored a Merrill scholarship for undergraduate students in need. Frank and Mary Ellen Quine also hosted international Humphrey fellows, a Fulbright exchange program funded by the U.S. State Department.
“Quietly, humbly and always with a smile, Frank Quine helped build the foundation of what is today one of the very best journalism schools in the country,” said Christopher Callahan, former associate dean at Merrill College and current president of the University of the Pacific.
“Frank played integral behind-the-scenes roles in building bridges to the news industry and critically important donors that helped shape the college.”
He was the 2014 recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Chapter’s Distinguished Service Award; 2013 winner of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association Distinguished Service Award for his years as the College of Journalism liaison to the organization; and an API Lifetime Service Award during the Institute’s 60th anniversary celebration in 2006. He also was the 1971 William D. Taylor Award as Kent State University’s Journalism Alumnus of the Year.
Survivors include Dr. Mary Ellen Doran-Quine, his wife of 43 years; two children from his first marriage to Beverly Champion, Laura Heinle (Thomas) of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Linda Barry (Chase) of Jacksonville, Florida; a stepson, Sean Kelleher of Winchester, Virginia; two grandsons, William and Theo Heinle of Silver Spring; and stepgrandson Ethan Barry of Jacksonville; two brothers, Thomas and John Quine, and two sisters Anne Quine and Ellen Hill, all of Ohio.
He was predeceased by son Franklin Quine, stepson Paul Kelleher, and brother William Quine.
Friends, family and colleagues are invited to share memories during a Celebration of Life, which will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30, at Clyde’s Willow Creek Farm, 42920 Broadlands Blvd., Broadlands, Virginia.
Source material: “Seminar: The Story of the American Press Institute,” by Don E. Carter and Malcolm F. Mallette; “Frank Quine, Beloved Former Merrill Assistant Dean and Development Director, Dies at 84” (Merrill College press release, Nov. 1, 2021
