WRITTEN BY: BRAD ROGERS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSHUA JACOBS
The Unforgettable Frank Rasbury
If you were lucky enough to know Frank Rasbury, you know he didn’t mince words. And while he’d talk the talk, he’d walk the walk, too. Always.
Here’s an example of Rasbury’s candor and conviction. During a 2023 videotaped interview by Growing Bolder, an organization that promotes the vibrancy of older people, he was asked what it meant to him to be a good citizen.
“If you’re not serving your community, what good are you?” Rasbury said matter-of-factly. “To some, that’s off-putting – I’m a little cocky, or he’s a little arrogant. Well, I’m a take-charge kind of guy.”
Yes, you were, Frank.
Rasbury died in late July at the ripe old age of 97, leaving behind a legacy of service to country and community few could match.
As his friend Vets Helping Vets of America Executive Director Todd Belknap said, “He just always kept serving. It was always about someone else.”
Rasbury, a native of Buffalo, New York, had a distinguished 20-year career in the U.S. Army, rising from private to lieutenant colonel. Along the way, he collected a chest full of military honors, including the Bronze Star for valor.
After leaving the Army, a stretch that saw him serve in the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War and serve in Germany and Panama as well, he would go on to a career in nonprofit administration before retiring to Ocala in 1987.
Once here, he wasted no time starting to serve his community.
He was a founding member of the Appleton Museum. He was deeply involved in veterans’ groups, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vets Helping Vets and the Military Officers Association of America-Kingdom of the Sun Chapter.
“He was very proud of his military service,” said Jim Hilty, an Ocala city councilman and a Marine Corps veteran.
But his service to the community went beyond those organizations. He was also deeply involved with Rotary, the College of Central Florida, Interfaith Emergency Services, March of Dimes and Stuff the Bus Inc.
“He was special,” said Jim Henningsen, president of CF. “He offered generational knowledge. He cared for the community. He cared for your family. You just don’t see that much anymore.”
Henningsen has often recounted the time when he was hired as the CF president and Rasbury was a member of the college’s board of trustees.
“He said to me, ‘Jim, we’ve got a good thing going here. Try not to muck it up,’” Henningsen said.
But the wonder of Frank Rasbury – yes, sometimes a little cocky, sometimes a little arrogant – was that he said such things without being offensive. He delivered his messages directly but with grace and a twinkle in his eye that made you feel the sincerity of his message without taking offense.
“Whatever he did, whatever he was involved in, he was a leader,” said Belknap, a Marine Corps veteran. “He had a charismatic way about him that made people want to follow him. And he did not use a hammer (to make his point).”
Another close friend of Rasbury’s, R. Craig Ham, a retired Army colonel who taught at West Point and now runs Stuff the Bus, echoed Belknap’s sentiments.
“Frank is one of those guys who can be stern and correct you and leave you smiling,” he said.
What a powerful personal tool.
Wherever Rasbury went, he was more often than not accompanied by his wife of 53 years, Naida, who survives him. Mrs. Rasbury had a fascinating life of her own, appearing at age 7 in the original Broadway production of “Porgy and Bess,” handpicked for the role by George Gershwin himself. They were a team.
Rasbury was indefatigable. Belknap said up until almost the end Rasbury would get up every day, walk out to his front yard, raise the U.S. flag up the pole and return in the evening to take it down again.
“That flag meant something to him,” Belknap said.
More to the point, at age 96 Rasbury was named the Marion County Rotarian of the Year for his relentless service to the community. Since his passing, the Ocala Rotary Club has established the Frank M. Rasbury Memorial Scholarship in honor of his “legacy and deep commitment to youth and education.” It will be presented annually to Marion County “students who demonstrate a commitment to service and leadership.”
The Rotary’s four pillars are truth, fairness, goodwill and is it beneficial to others. Rasbury lived by those cornerstones, and his fellow Rotarians saw it time and time again.
“Frank lived 97 active years, always putting others before himself and inspiring those around him with his dedication to service, living the Rotary motto of ‘Service above Self,’” the club said in a statement.
There’s no doubt Frank Rasbury lived to serve others, and he did it with grace and charm, wit and, yes, results.
“He was a gentleman and a scholar who lived a good life,” Henningsen said. “He always wanted to do well, whatever he was undertaking. I just have so much respect for him — for both he and Naida – they were so giving to the community.
Ham said when he was a child, his parents encouraged him to read Reader’s Digest. He typically skipped over the serious articles and went to a monthly feature called “The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met,” written by readers about someone who had inspired them. For him, Rasbury is The Most Unforgettable Character he ever met.
“He touched so many organizations in this community,” Ham said. “The Military Officers Association’s motto is ‘Never Stop Serving,’ and Frank never did.”
Unforgettable, indeed.
