To Be Frank

When you meet Frank Lee, a Volunteer Solutions Star Award recipient, you can't help noticing his warm smile and outgoing personality. The people he helps, notice this, too! As a Volunteer Solutions volunteer for the past eight years, Frank has driven people to medical appointments, delivered Meals on Wheels and brought people grocery shopping.

Frank was inspired to do volunteer work from an early age by both of his parents, who taught their five sons and one daughter to always remember to "give back."

He was born in Mississippi and moved to Detroit, Michigan when he was 5 years old. He lived there until a few years after high school when his oldest brother invited him to live with his family in New Orleans. His brother also offered to pay for his college education. Frank spent one year at Xavier University and transferred to Southern University where he got a three-year scholarship and graduated with honors in 1968. He later graduated from Louisiana State University with a master's in economics in 1971.

Although he and his wife, Cynthia, overlapped as students at Southern, they didn't meet until shortly after he graduated (she was one year behind him in school). They crossed paths at a party and nine months later were married and on their way to D.C. They lived in D.C. for one year and moved to Maryland in 1973.

They had their first child, Nitara, in April 1976. In 1977, Frank was assigned to Venezuela as assistant attaché with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, within the Foreign Agricultural Service. From there, he was also charged with covering the Caribbean Islands, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. In 1980, they were reassigned to Costa Rica. Their son, Duane, was born there.

They moved to Virginia in 1984. A few years after that, they were assigned to Egypt, then, Spain and then, Mexico. Frank created an international intern program while in Spain, work he continued in Mexico. He mentored numerous young employees, did recruitment for the agency and expanded the international intern program over his career. He became the deputy administrator for the Commodity and Marketing Programs.

From his office in D.C., he also joined forces with a colleague to create a system of volunteers to work with Martha's Table. They served over 100 homeless persons each week. He did that for 10 years, recruiting numerous young employees along the way, until he retired. His legacy lives on since the agency still allows its employees to continue that volunteer work to this day.

Frank summarizes his experience with Volunteer Solutions as, "This volunteer opportunity has allowed me to work alongside other like-minded folks to not only give back, but to show our profound appreciation to those who came before us and support people in the community. I have really appreciated the opportunity to volunteer with Fairfax County in its wide-reaching programs for older adults and disabled adults. This is a great program and I love every minute of volunteering that I do."

Volunteer Solutions is thankful to count Frank Lee as one of our invaluable volunteers!