1. Dmitriy Orlov - 2007-05-09 16:40:01 Add your anecdotes here.

2. Baird Straughan - 2007-05-11 19:08:51 So here’s one that Henry Stern told me, about Frank’s penchant for holding a grudge, of which he said;

No grudge too heavy to bear, No nit too small to pick.

I know there are many others out there. Frank is a man who can’t hold back a well-turned phrase, consequences or not.

4. Molly Knight - 2007-05-12 06:52:04 "Gruess Gott, y’all!" Never ceases to amuse me. And Dr. Borchardt, you’re one of the few I’ve met who *really* appreciates Franken. I’ll always think of you in Wuerzburg (and every Neumann church).

5. bob reddington - 2007-05-13 11:40:20 will always remember Frank’s great Shakesperean performance at about age 15, when a classmate [ big jim murray] lighted a huge flame in the balcony from a gigarette lighter. Afterwards as we imbibed in the "Rainbow" Frank then about age 15 but looking & sounding about 40, expounded as to how & why this juvenile display deleteriously impacted his performance. God bless you Fank. you added much to those who crossed your path.

Bob R.

6. Paul T. Lennon - 2007-05-14 17:48:53 Frank and I were classmates at Regis High School in New York City in the 1950’s, and he was a bear of a man even then. Frank and I "co-starred" (he was the star, and I had the bit-part) in Macbeth in junior year, where he played a memorable version of MacDuff - imagine him wielding a broadsword on stage against a much more athletic Macbeth!!! He was honored with the second prize for his performance, but only because Jack Stapleton made a fabulous villainous Macbeth. In senior year Frank took the "oscar" for a brilliant performance as King Lear. (Again I co-starred - as Edmund, bastard son of Gloucester, only to be slain by my Edgar, the legitimate son...never forgave him for that) I have forwarded to Helga two pages from the yearbook featuring several shots on Frank in his glory. I hope you enjoy the photos, as I enjoy the memories more than 50 years later.

7. Sr. .Carmella Stapleton - 2007-05-14 19:09:59 I first saw, but did not meet, Frank Borchardt in the Regis performance of MacBeth. Jack Stapleton was my brother. I met Frank about 10 years ago when Jack’s son Paul and his wife Karen moved to Raleigh, and have seen him 2 or 3 times a year since then. He was a great conversationalist, good humored, liked to hear a good story and was always good for a laugh. He was very fond of my late grand niece Angela and kept her supplied with stuffed animals which she thoroughly enjoyed. One year when he had left us after Thanksgiving dinner one of Angela’s little friends asked us if he was Santa Claus.We will miss Frank for all his wonderful qualities but especially because he was our good friend. Sr. M. Carmella Stapleton (Bernice)

8. Paul Stapleton - 2007-05-14 23:36:04 Frank died this evening at 10;44 pm. My wife Karen and I had the great privilege of being with Frank as he passed from this earth. He will be deeply, deeply missed.

9. Greg Leiher - 2007-05-15 05:11:35 From the Regis years in NYC .... I will never forget some of those all-night discussions-drinking parties at Frank’s apartment on Morningside Drive, in our sophomore or junior year. First time listening to opera and to Frank expounding on politics and the arts. It was always fascinating and eye-opening to hear of his family’s odyssey from Germany to the US. ... He’s the only one I ever knew with six given names (from his Jewish, Lutheran & Catholic traditions). ... And I recall his mother’s openhanded hospitality. ... Does anyone else remember the concerts at Lewisohn Stadium? ... A larger-than-life presence. .... Good-night, sweet prince, and flights of angles sing thee to thy rest!

10. Helen Cooper - 2007-05-15 09:19:42 Duke’s Center for Living exercise area and pool will always be just a bit emptier without Frank’s ever-smiling, out-going being. From a fellow exerciser.

11. Patricia Stapleton - 2007-05-21 18:09:09 Frank Borchardt - the man in black. At one of the holiday dinners a few years ago, one of the children kept staring and staring at Frank, and finally asked, "Is he Santa Claus?" An apt description of the man in black, who nevertheless was always the epitome of joviality!

12. Jack Raha - 2007-05-26 20:53:35 I was not a very close friend of Frank at Regis HS, but I can see the large persona that I knew becoming der Große described in his biography!

13. Chuck Wertalik - 2007-05-27 16:47:19 Here’s a note from the post-Regis days at Saint Peter’s College. Frank and I (both German majors) used to have some fun in freshman Scientific German class, confounding the upperclassmen with our ability to translate 40-word-long sentences (standard German fare) with the verb at the end, of course - no sweat! Frank enlivened all classes in which he was involved. Ich kann kaum glauben, er ist gegangen.

14. kathy harding kling - 2007-06-22 15:02:21 winning an ample sized pair of lederhosen at an octoberfest on the island of Sumatra, I passed them on to Frank for Christmas- I wonder if he ever wore them?

15. Joseph S. Cooper, T’50 - 2007-06-22 23:13:17 I met Frank Borchardt in the mid-1990s when my late wife, Elaine R. Cooper was the Administrator of the Duke Medieval and Renaissance Center. He was one of her favorite professors, one she truly enjoyed working with in the Center’s work. I had opportunities to chat with him at Department and private functions where we discussed the present and past of Germany. Several years ago I took up his invitation to attend his class on Dr. Faust where he made that great epic come alive. Frank Borchardt will be missed by his students, friends and Duke University.

16. Tom Dosch - 2007-09-17 21:26:01 I was surprised and shocked to read of Frank’s death. I met Frank in the fall of 1958, on my first trip to NYC, from what Frank always called the “Provinces” (Minnesota). We kept in contact until Frank had returned from Germany and was at John Hopkins University, in the spring of 1962. During those years I spent 2 and a half months in NYC, much of the time with Frank. Yesterday I was going through a storage box and I came across several dozen letters from Frank. As I read through a few of them I was reminded of this wit and charm. He always made me feel like I was doing him a favor my responding to his letters. My first contact with Frank was at the NYC Information Center in Time Square. I stopped in to ask for recommendations on plays I might see. I came to the right place. Frank’s love of the arts, particularly the performing arts was palpable. From reading his letter, I was quite sure he would have gravitated toward the stage in one capacity or another. When I Googled Frank it was with the intent to offer to send him the packet of letters he had sent me. I thought he might find it amusing to again see himself as the ever confident, ever unsure and ever hesitant young man. I was shocked to read of his death and disappointed that I had not uncovered those letters months ago. Frank’s influence on me was long lasting. I came from a family of working class people, first generation off the farm. Although Frank did not convince me to go to college he left no doubt that college was the only way to go, but it was his love of the theater and all the art forms that was infectious and left me with a life long love.

I am writing now to emphasis the lasting influence Frank had on the lives of people like myself, strangers from the provinces!

Sorrowfully, Tom Dosch tpdosch@comcast.net