Franklin D. Reeve ’50

Frank died June 28, 2013, in a New Hampshire hospital from complications of diabetes.

He graduated from Exeter. At Princeton, he majored in English. He was active in Theatre Intime, editor of the Nassau Lit, and a member of the track team and Ivy. At Princeton a class taught by R.P. Blackmur inspired him to write poetry.

Frank distanced himself from Princeton some time in the 1950s, so what follows has been gleaned from obituaries. He earned a doctorate from Columbia, where he taught Slavic languages from 1952 to 1961. He acted professionally for a brief time but left the stage to concentrate on writing poetry. In 1962, he moved to Wesleyan, where he was tenured as a professor of Russian language and literature.

As he approached 40, he gave up his Wesleyan professorship to devote himself to full-time writing. He published more than 30 works, including a book about a 1962 goodwill visit to the Soviet Union with Robert Frost. He had resided in Vermont since the 1980s.

The late actor Christopher Reeve was Frank’s son from his first marriage. He went on to marry three more times. Among his survivors is his son Benjamin ’76.