Proctor, Frank

29 Apr Proctor, Frank

Montgomery County, Maryland resident Frank Baker Proctor Jr., widow of Ruth Alice Carson Proctor, died April 17, 2020 at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, Maryland. Frank Proctor is survived by his three daughters: Gail Healy (Stephen Healy), Jennifer Tolson (Rick Tolson) and Suzanne Proctor. He was a loving grandfather of nine grandchildren: Eric Healy (Daniela); Jacqueline Healy; Justin Tolson (Megan); Danielle Verderame (AJ); Zach Gorman; Jake Tolson; Hannah Tolson; Devon Gorman; and Hunter Tolson and a great grandfather to Ava Grace Verderame. 

Born in Takoma Park, MD on February 11, 1930, Frank Proctor was raised in Silver Spring, MD and a resident of Montgomery and Howard counties. He was employed for 36 years at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) from November 1955 to June 1991. Posts included senior information officer and laboratory news writer and senior editor for the APL news. He produced APL’s first photo history, “The First Forty Years”, organized employee blood drives, coordinated the APL speaker’s bureau, and arranged student tours among many other important duties. Frank served during the Korean war as a telemetry instructor and later as an atomic weapons and TV/microwave specialist. He was also a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; APL Council for Advancement and Support of Education; and president of the APL Toastmasters Club. He also received several awards and recognition for his work with the United Way and the APL news. Having volunteered as a Democratic precinct Chairman and Vice Chairman in Wheaton Maryland for 15 years, Frank was also elected as a Montgomery County delegate to the Democratic State Convention of Maryland during the Kennedy campaign. He also served on several election committees of the Democratic State Central Committee of Montgomery County in addition to serving as an officer of several Democratic political clubs. 

More recently, Frank was a member of Lisbon United Methodist Church in Lisbon, MD and a previous member of Marvin Memorial Methodist Church in Silver Spring, MD where he was involved with mission, outreach and the social concerns commission and a lay delegate to the parliament for Methodist Baltimore Annual Conference. He was a member and volunteer organizer of the Silver Spring Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. After graduating from Montgomery Blair High School in 1948, Frank went to college at the University of Maryland and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business followed by earning his Master’s Degree in Public Relations from American University in the District of Columbia and finally a Juris Doctor law degree from the University of Baltimore.