‘A man of character’: Beloved Lowcountry doctor, 76, dies in Key West motorcycle crash
By all accounts, Dr. Peter Frank was the epitome of a “weekend warrior.”
On weekdays, Frank, who lived in Bluffton for 35 years before moving to Ridgeland in 2015, would tend to the people of Bluffton and Hardeeville as a general practitioner. On his off days, he’d take a boat to Daufuskie Island to treat the people there, former office receptionist Gina Scott told The Island Packet.
“They would line up to see him,” said Scott, a “semi-retired” real estate agent in Rincon. “He never refused anyone because of payment. He never refused a patient at all.”
He’d return to the mainland with collard greens and eggs from Daufuskie, and the weekly routine would begin again. In his free time, Frank rode motorcycles and competed in road races. In 1973, seven years before arriving in the Lowcountry, he and his wife co-founded Western Eastern Roadracers Association (WERA), a national sanctioning group for the sport.
On Feb. 26, Frank, 76, was in a motorcycle accident in Key West, Fla. He died March 4 of his injuries, with his wife, Patty O’Brien Frank, and son, A.J. Frank, by his side. In addition to his wife and son, he leaves behind his daughter-in-law and granddaughter.
Friends said they believed Frank would have wanted to die doing what he loved — riding.
“He liked fast cars, fast motorcycles — It was something he’d done all his life,” said John Carroll, a Hardeeville council member and friend of the Franks.
Evelyne Clark, current owner of WERA, has known the Franks since 1976. She said many motorcyclists have the mindset Frank exhibited.
“They don’t sit and let life pass them by,” Clarke, of Atlanta, said. “This is something that they do because it’s their biggest stress reliever.”
Frank, his obituary says, was born in Vineland, N.J., in 1944, the son of German immigrants. He graduated from Temple University and then went to the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine for his medical degree.
He served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971, then moved to North Philadelphia to care for underserved communities.
In 1980, Frank moved with his wife and son to the Lowcountry, where Frank opened physician’s offices in Hardeeville, Bluffton, Ridgeland and Daufuskie. For several years, he was the only general practitioner in Hardeeville, which Thomas Carroll, the city’s long-time doctor and John Carroll’s father, had served for 40 years before passing away in 1980.
“It was a patient-doctor relationship, but it was also a friendship,” John Carroll said of Frank.
Frank served for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2018. He responded to house calls, worked for EMS and gave his time to clinics, including Volunteers in Medicine. Hardeeville City Council proclaimed Sept. 20, 2018, Dr. Peter Frank Day.
Scott said his patients would not “dare” go elsewhere to see another doctor.
“He was a very highly trained and skilled physician,” Scott said. “He treated people from the inside. He tried to find the source of the problem instead of just treating the symptom. ... His patients loved him.”
They had good reason, she said.
“No way you could touch his character,” she said. “He was what you saw. He never, ever deviated from what he believed in his heart. He was a man of character.”
According to his obituary, Frank had recently finished his memoir. In it, he wrote:
“Racing to me, is a metaphor of life. You and your team have finite amount of time to complete the race, it will be filled with challenges, some of them seemingly overwhelming, some of them potentially fatal, and you must reach down and grab everything within you to go for the win.”
A celebration of life for Frank will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 20, at Sauls Funeral Home Pavilion in Bluffton. Instead of flowers, guests are asked to consider donating to St. Judes Children’s Hospital. The family also asks guests to wear colorful clothing rather than black.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 4:25 AM.
