Frank Gannett

People Buried Here

Epitaph

Description

When Frank Gannett died, the Unitarian Register published the following report in February 1958.

FRANK GANNETT DIES

Frank Gannett, 81, Rochester, N.Y., publisher and one of the nation’s most eminent Unitarian laymen, died December 3, 1957, of complications resulting from a fall suffered the preceding April.

Funeral services were conducted in the First Unitarian Church of Rochester by Dr. David Rhys Williams, who had been Mr. Gannett's minister for nearly 30 years.

Mr. Gannett was noted for the development of his publishing group of 22 newspapers in 18 cities. The Gannett Company also owns four radio and three television stations.

Mr. Gannett's other achievements and activities were numerous, and he was the recipient of many honors.

A Republican, he campaigned as an avowed presidential candidate in 1939 and 1940, and his name went before the convention at which Wendell Wilikie was nominated. He urged 25 years ago the inclusion of a Secretary of Peace in the President's cabinet.

Mr. Gannett also was noted for his philanthropic support of research, especially in the newspaper and aviation industries and in the fields of health and medicine. One of the projects he supported produced the Teletypesetter, a typesetting device which can be operated at long distances by electrical impulses. Another was a $500,000 grant by the Gannett Newspaper Foundation to build a student health clinic at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. He also was keenly interested in the development of public recreation facilities.

Honors conferred upon Mr. Gannett included the Civic Medal of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, received jointly with his wife; honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa; the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award; an honorary degree of doctor of journalism from Bradley University and a long list of other honorary doctor's and master's degrees.

Mr. Gannett's newspaper ventures began with his purchase in 1906 of a half-interest in the Elmira, N. Y., Gazette. The Gazette absorbed competition in the Ithaca-Elmira area, and he bought in 1918 two Rochester newspapers, merging them into the Times-Union, and moved to Rochester.

There he looked up a distant cousin, Rev. William Gannett, who was minister of the Unitarian church. Mr. Gannett shortly became a Unitarian and remained throughout the ensuing years a leader in the church.

Noting that most of the persons attending the funeral were familiar with the story of Mr. Gannett's life, Dr. Williams said that “there is one phase of that story about which I may be presumed to speak with some measure of authority. I refer to his religious life.

"Frank Gannett took his religious duties seriously. He made a conscientious effort to be present in the church of his choice on as many Sunday mornings in the year as his health and other obligations would permit.

"I have many reasons to cherish the memory of this man, but I shall cherish it most of all because be faithfully supported not only the freedom of the press over the years, but also the freedom of this pulpit during a 30-year ministry which must often have tried his faith in such a freedom. He was one who could disagree completely with the content of any specific sermon and still find inspiration in the sincerity of its utterance.

"lt has been a rare privilege and a challenging responsibility to serve as his minister, for his religion was bound by no narrow creed. It was to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God."