October 6, 1912 – January 25, 2012

It is difficult, if not impossible, to capture the breadth and depth of the life and Spirit of Frank Lepreau in one document. Frank’s dedication to the wellbeing and healing of others, combined with his skills as a physician and surgeon, took him beyond the life of Westport Meeting and into the world beyond. Still, whenever Frank was not practicing medicine abroad, or on call locally at hospitals and clinics, he was always present in meeting for worship, even in his 99th year of life.

Frank’s place within the life of Westport Monthly Meeting was Spirit-filled and unique. He cared deeply for members of our Meeting community as a Friend and as a physician. There was no separating the two principle spheres of his life. Frank’s spiritual life as a Quaker was dramatically evidenced by his keen sense of the needs of others within the meeting community and by his dedication as a physician to alleviate the suffering of under-served people around the world. Frank’s ability to listen deeply and to respond as way opened with compassion and love are what Westport Friends experienced and remember most vividly about this dear Friend.

Frank managed to find time to serve the meeting in several formal capacities. He was clerk of meeting for several years, and also served on Ministry and Counsel, Peace and Social Concerns Committees, all while attending to the needs of his family and nearby medical practice. Several Friends recall fondly that Frank would show up at their house to offer support and pastoral care, and while there, Frank would take out his stethoscope and check the vital signs of the person he was visiting. Meeting documents reveal that Frank, while serving as Meeting clerk or as a member of other committees, meticulously attended to correspondence with individuals locally and among high-ranking public officials in Washington and other countries around the world. Frank’s compassion for the welfare of humanity, from those ravaged by substance abuse locally or civil strife around the world, knew no boundaries.

To be sure, Frank Lepreau also possessed a refreshing sense of humor. Whenever Frank came across a new acquaintance, he made it his mission to get to know his new friend. Frank could be engaged in deep, reflective conversation one minute and let loose with unbridled laughter with the same person a moment later. Among Friends, Frank possessed an uncanny ability to craft a turn-of-phrase at just the right moment to lighten things up and/or to discover the obvious way forward that seemed to evade everyone else.

Frank’s love of the arts is legendary, especially musicals and plays on Broadway. He possessed an insatiable curiosity for exploring the unknown and doing new things. He loved to travel and go hiking whenever possible and take uncommon excursions to remote locations in the U.S. and while working overseas. For Frank, these recreations were more than rest and renewal. They provided yet another way to celebrate the creative spirit of the accomplishments of humanity itself, of which Frank wrote and spoke of frequently.

We cherished the fact that Frank Lepreau was always just Frank to us, even though many near and far knew and revered him as Dr Lepreau, a medical pioneer who combined his faith as a Friend with the science of medicine for the betterment of everyone he knew and worked with. Frank’s medical travels and expertise as a physician and surgeon are well documented in medical circles. Frank’s humility, poise, worldly knowledge and Spirit imbued grace, as significant as they were, were never worn as status or station, nor sensed in any way by Quakers and townspeople alike. Testimony to this fact became apparent at Frank’s memorial service; People from every walk of life filled the meetinghouse beyond capacity as person after person rose to offer a treasured memory of this beloved Friend.

“Do the best you can do where you are, and be kind,” were words Frank imparted to many throughout his long and fruitful life. Having lived and practiced medicine in places where people survived by any means possible, and where peaceful existence came on the backs of those who came before, through turmoil and human lives lost, Frank spoke of the following in his book, Surgery and Beyond:

I must fall back on the fact that I am a Quaker physician. I must hoe it out on my own compass. When I see a sick or dying person, I see God in him. I have the skills to restore him. Do I have a choice? As Mary Martin sang in South Pacific, “I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope.”*

For those of us who knew and loved Frank locally, we treasure his lifelong messages of hope and love of humankind. And we have been blessed, too, having had this remarkable Friend, Frank Lepreau, among us at Westport Friends Meeting.

* From Surgery and Beyond, by Frank J. Lepreau, M.D., p. 164, Old Harbor Publishing, Westport, MA. © 2005.

Approved at Monthly Meeting for Business , June 29, 2014