Frank Anderson stories about the founding of Amherst ABC

By John Sieracki

Frank Anderson speaking at ABC Walk in 2008

“Forty years?  That sounds about right.  I’m eighty now, and I was forty when we founded Amherst ABC.”  The math is clear and easy, as clear and easy as the stories that come back to Frank Anderson today, along with the reasons that he brought ABC to Amherst, back in what some might call a different era.
I don’t think anyone on the current ABC board was aware of Frank and his involvement when an article was published in a local paper in September announcing the William Pynchon Awards for community service.  The article mentioned that this retired MassMutual life insurance agent and “community ‘energizer’” had co-founded Amherst ABC, having “helped convince the Amherst community to embrace this program by accepting these children from other communities and cultures to attend Amherst High School free of tuition and provide them with a place to live.” And, that he helped “transform the Fisher House in Amherst to a hospice care center where residents can spend their last days in comfort and die with dignity,” where “he also became a trained hospice caregiver.”  And that, “shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, Frank showed up at the doors of the American Red Cross and proclaimed, ‘I’m retired, now put me to work!’”  And that “he was awarded the ‘Clara Barton Award’ in 2006—the highest honor the Red Cross bestows on a volunteer; named ‘Volunteer of the Year’ in 1983 by the Hampshire County United Way; and is the recipient of The Reminder Publication’s ‘Hometown Hero’ Award in 1995.”
He seemed like someone worth talking to, especially as we are in the midst of piecing together the history of the ABC program in Amherst.
Frank’s stories reflect humility and grace and unbridled energy.  They also serve as a window into a very different Amherst than the oasis of diversity we enjoy here today, in one of the “whitest” areas of the country.  I sat recently at the ABC House with Frank and his wife Elaine, who works at UMass Amherst to develop stronger relationships between the greater Springfield area and the university.  I wrote the following passages in Frank’s voice, and we worked together to make sure they match his memories.  Our hope is to inspire others to share their stories, learn more about ABC, and get more involved.

I had an office in Amherst, doing sales for MassMutual.  I was not a member of the First Congregational Church, but they asked me to chair their outreach committee anyway.  I realized that the money the church was donating was going to charities outside the town, even to places far out west.  It was my idea that the church should have a mission in its own community, and out of that came two projects, an affordable housing project in North Amherst, and Amherst ABC, which I took the lead on.  John Callahan, who was then in charge of fundraising at Amherst College, suggested it because he knew of the first ABC Community School Program associated with Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, where he had gone to school.
We held a meeting at the church one evening to discuss ABC.  People were excited.  We had spread the word throughout the town and at Amherst College and UMass.  Tom Mikula, who I believe taught math at an independent school before running the ABC House in Hanover, brought ABC Scholars from the Hanover program.   (Tom later became a leader of the ABC National Community Schools Program (CSP), and he sent me on the road as far as California to help start CSPs.)  About sixty people showed up, and on that one evening we set up the board of directors, diagrammed the organizational structure, and made committee assignments: buying the food, fundraising, etc.  In this way, the Town of Amherst, Amherst College, and UMass all had a hand in building Amherst ABC—a remarkable town and gown partnership, the likes of which I have never seen before, or since.
You have to understand the demographics and mindset of the area at that time.  What many referred to as the “black problem” was on the front burner.  I think there were only about twenty non-white families living in the town, most of whom seemed to make their livings as domestic help.  That is a tiny percentage, and so you generally just didn’t see them.  In fact, I credit the ABC program with opening my own eyes in many ways.  Starting at about the same time, a major force for bringing African Americans to the town was the UMass School of Education Dean Dwight Allen.  Dwight hustled social change.  He proactively hired with the goal of bringing diversity to education.
At that meeting I was made treasurer, and Bob Ward, dean of students at Amherst College, was made board president.  After that first year, I was elected president of the board and I served in that capacity for five out of the first eight years, with a lapse due to board term rules.  John Callahan, who was in charge of fundraising for Amherst College, taught me everything I know on that subject.  He had us brainstorm about possible sources for funding and assigned us to the tasks.  I took on the churches.  I would bring two or three of our Scholars and deliver a sermon at each church, and we managed to collect $1,000 from each, which was a lot more than I expected.
While I was president, I ran the business—that is, fundraising mostly—while others ran the house.  I would start every day with a call from board secretary Amelie Merzbach, updating me on what was going on at the ABC House.  Just like today, the resident directors were compensated with room and board, and the only paid staff was the cook.  We had twelve Scholars, and of course we did not have the additional space that is now used as rooms for the Scholars.  Some of them resided in the top floor, which is now not usable due to the fire code.
We saw the house advertised for rent and the deal was made with the owner, a woman who lived in Goshen, in the kitchen over a bottle of gin—to the chagrin of some of my more straight-laced colleagues who were there, Nat Reed and Bob Ward.  A couple of years later she decided to sell, and so with the help of Harold Elder we assembled a group of about twenty bankers, lawyers, and town officials at the Lord Jeffrey Inn to discuss what to do.  There was a federal law at that time having to do with banks using 2% of their profits to help 501(c)(3) organizations.  Bob McCarter, who was president of Amherst Savings Bank, announced that he was interested in having the bank buy the house for Amherst ABC—and also that he happened to have a quorum of the bank’s board right there in the room.  So they voted favorably for the idea, on the spot.  Later, I sat with the owner to make the deal so that she wouldn’t know that it was actually the bank buying the house, in case she would then in turn raise the asking price (same brand of gin).
While the house was on the market, we were looking into other alternatives. Down the street was another house for sale and I expressed interest in it for ABC.  The owner of the house next to it had his wife call me to say he would like us to relocate out in the country, away from town.  In fact, she said, he would buy bicycles for each of the Scholars if we would do that.  In response, I took the Scholars and some board members for an extended viewing of the house and grounds, right under this guy’s window.  Of course, nothing further came of that after the bank bought ABC the house we had been using.
The first Scholars spent the summer at Dartmouth to help them prepare.  Bob Ward and I took two Amherst College vans up there to bring them to Amherst at the end of the summer.  Bob brought the tutors and I brought the Scholars.  I remember driving down I-91 and asking one of them why he had a comb stuck in his hair.  “My name is Terry Medley,” he replied,” and I’m wearing this comb so you will never forget my name.” I never did.  We had a great resident director back then, Len Smith.  During the lapse in my service on the board they had fired him, for reasons that I didn’t agree with.  Len then took a job at the Bank Street School in New York.  When I returned as president the replacement RDs weren’t working out, so I called Len, and to my amazement he came back to run the House.  After Len, I think that’s when Barry and Judy Brooks took over as RDs.  They did a brilliant job for many years.  I can’t say enough how grateful I was to have Len and then Barry and Judy in that role—and just how crucial is the relationship between the RDs and the Scholars.
I remember going to the school board to request a waiver of ABC Scholar tuition at the high school.  There were seven members: three from Amherst, who I knew would agree to it; three from other towns, who I knew would not; and the chair.  Before the meeting of the vote I visited the chair, who owned a farm in Amherst, to see where he fell, and I was sorely disappointed in his response.  At the meeting I made the pitch, resulting in applause and hoorahs from the attendants, mostly teachers.  The vote went as I expected among the six board members, and then the chair spoke.  He said that the high school had a basketball game the other day with a very close score to the end.  One of the ABC Scholars threw far for the winning basket—and therefore, he said, he voted for the waiver.  From that point on the school system has covered the tuition of ABC Scholars.
Looking back, I think of the dozens of people who helped establish ABC as a beacon for equity, community service, philanthropy, and indeed democracy, justice, and liberation.  Then my thoughts turn to the hundreds of people who I don’t know personally, but with whom I share this commitment, who volunteered for our Scholars over the past four decades, and my mind boggles.  To the people and institutions of Amherst, the professors and teachers and students and town officials and lawyers and doctors and activists and administrators and social workers—all who have contributed their time, talent, hard work, and money: you have a great deal to be proud of, and I am both proud and humbled to count myself among you.  We are on the brink of a new era with the first black U.S. President taking office, and yet we have far to go to level the playing field for people of color.  There is a tremendous amount for us to do, so keep the beacon lit—we know it is working.....