Starting with her college years, Patricia Anna Collier was the first woman accepted to Georgetown University School of law. She attended in the summer of 1951 and after she got accepted, seven more women were accepted for the fall. A History of the Women at Georgetown University was a magazine article written with a mention of Pat. Once I found out this information I was able to do some more research.
I found another article "She's no one's patsy, but serves as one man's right arm" that said that Pat had met her husband, Richard Frank, of more than 50 years at Georgetown. Richard had married Patsy, that’s what he calls her, and they had three daughters. One is Attorney Stacy Frank, a former Hillsborough County phosphate mining zoning hearing master.
Pat Frank has received two degree’s a “B.S./B.A. degree, finance and taxation
Georgetown University School of Law and a B.S./B.A. degree, finance and taxation from the University of Florida”, according to a Web-site which has 466 online sources, which is called http://www.zoominfo.com.
Being a wife and a mother, and…a woman of politics, sometimes you wish some things were not public. But in 1993, her husband had a confrontation with the media and his job. Richard Frank became a Judge and tried not to apply his knowledge of a Judge to his daughter’s life. But that was really hard for Judge Richard as he was not well.
Pat’s husband Judge Richard Frank was brought to trial because of his daughter Stacey Frank. This hearing is interesting because Judge Frank had given an interview with the St. Pete Times and because of that interview he got into some deep trouble. This document is a copy of that hearing. http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/sc92630/92630d.pdf
Here is just a little bit of this document:
“Judge Frank is presently 72 years of age and will formally leave judicial office at the beginning of 1999. In 1992, he had heart by-pass surgery and resulting cerebral anoxia. (T.158). He states that he believes he has lost significant memory as a result. (T.158). Due to his retirement, he is no longer receiving new case assignments from the Clerk of the Second District Court of Appeal.”
“Shortly before September 6, 1993, you were interviewed by a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times concerning a marital dissolution proceeding which had been pending in the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, between your daughter Stacy Frank and Mark Straley. In the course of that interview, you were questioned regarding the retention in that matter by Stacy Frank of George Vaka, Esq., a former partner of Judge Chris Altenbernd, a member of your court, to represent her in appellate proceedings in her case before the Supreme Court of Florida.”
Almost tens years later, Pat became Clerk of Court of Hillsborough County in 2004. On the Web-site it says this about Pat Frank:
“Pat Collier Frank has had a distinguished career in public service and elective office, commencing with her election to the Hillsborough County School Board in 1972. In 1976, she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives; in 1978, she was elected to the Florida Senate, where she served to 1988. During her legislative career, Mrs. Frank accomplished a number of firsts; she was the first woman elected "Most Effective First-Term Member" by the House and also the first woman nominated "Most Respected Senator" by her Senate colleagues.
Mrs. Frank has also been a member of the Tampa Hospital Authority and numerous other boards and agencies, where she was in a fiduciary position.
Elected to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) in 1998, she was elected Chairman by the BOCC for three consecutive years by her colleagues. She was re-elected to the BOCC in 2002. In 2004, Mrs. Frank was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court/Comptroller for Hillsborough County.
She has received over 50 awards for her public service and volunteer activities. In her present position, she was the recipient of the Chief Judge’s Award for the 13th Judicial Circuit in 2006; in 2007, she was chosen Executive Woman of the Year by the Network of Executive Women.
Pat Frank has been married over 50 years to Richard Harlan Frank, retired Judge of the 2nd District Court of Appeal. They have three daughters and two grandchildren.”
However, not every job is perfect and she had an employee who was not happy with her. The outcome was that the Clerk’s office had to pay this employee $2,500 of which $1,250 had to be attributed to pay back. Here is that document:
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http://www.justice.gov/crt/emp/documents/marshallsettle.pdf
This is just some of that document:
“October 12, 2007, Marshall, filed; Marshal v. Pat Frank, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County (in her oflcial capacilyl, Case No.8:07 cv 01862
Alleging that the Clerk's Office violated the Uniformed Survices Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 failing to reemploy Marshall in her prior position as supervisor of the Clerk's County Clerk Il Section of the Felony Department upon ha return from active duty in October 2005; and (b) transferring Marshall from the Clerk's Felony Department to the Clerk's Traffic Department at a lower rate of pay because Marshall took action to enforce a protection afforded her under USERRA or to exercise a right provided for USERRA.”
Overall, Pat Frank cares about the people she works for. Recently she just wrote this letter.
And as Clerk of Court she is trying to secure her position for the people and has written to the Citizens of the State of Florida. This document that she has written includes a cover letter, other Clerk’s pleading for their jobs, and some statistics.
http://199.241.8.125/articles/PatFrank.pdf Here is just some of what that document says:
“There is no rational basis to take away this elective office from the people. For 170 years, the Clerks of the Courts in Florida have been answerable to the people of Florida. This accountability is vital because it is the people’s records and money that the Clerks maintain and administer. It is the Clerk’s office that you go to:
* For your public records, both court and official;
*To maintain the integrity of the court files and evidence;
*To pay your traffic tickets;
*To select judges for assignment (through a blind selection system);
*To call jurors to duty;
*To process domestic violence complaints and child support delinquency compliances;
* To handle the multitude of papers for foreclosures cases and evictions;
In short, it is the Clerk’s Office that keeps our court system running in a transparent, fair, and orderly fashion"
I have learned a lot this semester and from Pat Frank. That as a woman and as I citizen I have rights, and that I could doing anything if I put my heart and mind into it. Thank you, Pat Frank.
