Frank Duran, Jr.

Frank Duran was born on June 11,1934 is San Francisco. He spent most of his early years there where he met his best friend Dominic who he kept in touch with as adults. Then in his teens his family moved to Manteca CA where he helped his father build a mom-and-pop grocery store and he was issued an early driver license to pick-up the daily produce from the farms.

His wife Joan met Frank at Manteca High School shortly after he moved to town when his locker was above hers. Joan was dating another fella, so his flirting and advances were not reciprocated but we became friends.

In 1952 we both graduated from High School and Frank was about to be drafted into the US Army, so he decided to join the US Navy instead. During the Navy Admissions test given to all recruits to determine where they would be best to serve, he did so well on the test score he was assigned to Naval Air on a Naval flight crew that searched the water looking for foreign submarines. He loved his job and spent most of his career in the Naval Air Unit where he became great friends with the pilot and fellow navigator. He said it was the best job, and they had special benefits. During this time, he wrote to Joan expressing his feelings for her while she was going through the nursing program. They ended up writing back and forth for over two years.

When he finished his time with the US Navy he was honorably discharged, and I was finishing up my nursing program. We were an item for six months and we had a great time together. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. Things were happening fast a furious with our lives and our careers. We married on June 7,1959 with 300 guests at our wedding and reception and Dominic was his best man.  

Frank got a job at Pacific Bell where he started from the bottom and worked his way up to a Regional District Manager which included California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona that installed large Telephone Systems. He retired from AT&T after 35 years and started a small business with three other fellow retirees to install and repair small phone systems within Contra Costa, Solano, Alameda and Santa Clara Counties. After nine years of success and they were not getting any younger they all decided they would retire. 

During our 65 years together, we purchased our home in Walnut Creek where we were going to grow our family. As it turns out Lisa was going to be our only child. We always made time to travel where we met lifelong friends who we spent vacations and birthdays together. Frank went fishing annually with a group of buddies in Mexico and traveled with a buddy to several NASCAR Raceways cheering on his favorite driver Dale Earnhardt. When he bought his Porsche 911 Carrera in the early 80’s we joined the Diablo Valley Porsche Club, we both became active members, made lifelong friends and went on so many adventures with the club.  When I retired a couple of years after him, we traveled all over the world till we were in our early 80’s. We went to Paris for our 50th Wedding Anniversary as a gift to ourselves to see the place we wanted to go for our honeymoon. We had a wonderful happy marriage till Frank died on October 26, 2024.