Frank Trowbridge

Cameo of a Faithful Member -- Recently Sue Hill interviewed long-time member Frank Trowbridge (that deep bass voice in the choir) and found out many intriguing things that she decided to share with the rest of us.Frank has served St. Paul's Church as a member of the choir since 1950 (for those who are counting, that's 52 years!).In fact, he was singing in the choir, at the urging of organist Herbert Herrington for two years before he actually became a member.Not only has he shared his beautiful voice with the parish, he has always looked for and found additional ways to serve the church.Starting under the ministry of the Rev. T. Stewart Matthews, he served for many years as acolyte master, a discipline that entails training and directing acolytes in all their duties.

When the Rev. Frank Allan became rector, Frank served on the vestry and saw ways he could serve by using his God-given skills with his hands.His first job was to remove a partition between two classrooms to accommodate a larger class.Then, while the Rev. Mark Rutenbar was rector, he built a case to cover the unsightly electrical panel in the Walter Harris Room of the parish house.

In the interim prior to the arrival of the Rev. Tom Wilson, Frank replaced the tops of six large folding tables, and then turned his attention to the needs of the church office.In the supply room he installed shelves and fabricated risers for the large mail table to raise the height to 36 inches, so that workers would not have to stoop.All that being done, he took on work at the church building.In the sacristy he remodeled cabinetry, installed a cover to hide the air conditioning ducts, and replaced a decorative panel over the door between the sacristy and St. Faith's Chapel.

After his retirement, Frank has been busy as a bee.He helped solve some of the noise problem in the Walter Harris Room by fitting folding doors to separate it from the kitchen.Moving on to the church building, he created removable shelves for all the windows in the nave, so that holiday decorations would have a safe base upon which to stand.He also built four stands for banners and repaired (and still repairs as needed) the kneelers.

All of the above tasks have been for remodeling and maintenance, but an artistic side of Frank has created the following: a wooden processional cross that was dedicated to the acolytes; a complete wooden communion set for penitential services, consisting of two chalices, a paten, a bread box and a wine flagon; and two portable communion sets, complete with carrying boxes, to be used to take communion to the homebound.He also makes the wooden crosses each year that are awarded to first-year acolytes.

Rather than telling himself that he does his share, he looks for other ways to serve.He is a lay reader and has served as chair of the Worship Committee.

Frank, who retired after 40 years with the J. M. Huber Corporation, is married to the former Josephine (Jo) Walker and they have three children: Becky, Frank and Howard.He and Jo live very active lives in retirement.After our nagging request for a list of things he had done for the church he submitted it with a note at the bottom.It read: