I was raised in Swarthmore, PA home of Swarthmore College where my father, Frank Sr. was a professor of economics. My mother, Rita, taught at Horace Mann near where she grew up in Manhattan before marriage. Brother John and I attended the School in Rose Valley, a small private grade school before moving over to Swarthmore High School.
I left Swarthmore for good to attend Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana then on to the University of Chicago Divinity School in a PhD program (never completed).
My professional career with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) began in Chicago in early 1971 with the Campaign Against Pollution. I worked there 4 years. More importantly that's where Mary Ellen Kazda (Kaz) and I met. We moved together to Queens, NYC to start the Queens Citizens Organization with Dick Harmon. Two years later Kaz and I headed west to establish a permanent residence in Oracle, AZ.
I reconnected with IAF in 1989 to build Pima County Interfaith Council in Tucson, AZ.. Then on to the Phoenix Metro area (East Valley Interfaith and Valley Interfaith Project), Northern Arizona (NAIC) and Yuma (Yuma County Interfaith) building and supervising local organizations and the emergent statewide Arizona Interfaith Network (Arizona IAF).
Along the way I supervised an IAF project in New Mexico (Albuquerque Interfaith) for five years, spent three years full time in Las Vegas (Nevadans for the Common Good), and a final year in Denver, Colorado.
I served on the National Staff of the IAF and the regional staff of West/Southwest IAF. Part of the job was to lead training workshops for citizen leaders around the USA in cities big and small, like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Tucson, Wilmington, Del, Lubbock, TX and Jackson MS. I was fortunate to lead a series of workshops for young politicos in Eastern Europe with my IAF colleague Tom Holler, Scott Robertson and Ron St. John. The funder of that venture was the International Republican Institute in which John McCain figured prominently. Some believed the IRI was a CIA front.
Early on I joined training workshops led by Saul Alinsky. Decades long, relationships with Ed Chambers, Dick Harmon, Arnie Graf, Peter Martinez, Ernie Cortes, Mike Gecan, Christine Stephens, Pearl Caesar, Tom Holler, Maribeth Larkin, Greg Pierce, Elizabeth Valdez, Lady Carlson, Kevin Courtney, Renee Whitzig-Barrios, Robert Hoo, Joe Rubio, Sr Mignon Konechne, Kris King, Perry Perkins among many others followed.
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Which brings me back to Oracle, AZ ... after that wild "professional organizing" ride.. You'll find some good Oracle stories here: frankpierson.substack.com
I left Swarthmore for good to attend Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana then on to the University of Chicago Divinity School in a PhD program (never completed).
My professional career with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) began in Chicago in early 1971 with the Campaign Against Pollution. I worked there 4 years. More importantly that's where Mary Ellen Kazda (Kaz) and I met. We moved together to Queens, NYC to start the Queens Citizens Organization with Dick Harmon. Two years later Kaz and I headed west to establish a permanent residence in Oracle, AZ.
I reconnected with IAF in 1989 to build Pima County Interfaith Council in Tucson, AZ.. Then on to the Phoenix Metro area (East Valley Interfaith and Valley Interfaith Project), Northern Arizona (NAIC) and Yuma (Yuma County Interfaith) building and supervising local organizations and the emergent statewide Arizona Interfaith Network (Arizona IAF).
Along the way I supervised an IAF project in New Mexico (Albuquerque Interfaith) for five years, spent three years full time in Las Vegas (Nevadans for the Common Good), and a final year in Denver, Colorado.
I served on the National Staff of the IAF and the regional staff of West/Southwest IAF. Part of the job was to lead training workshops for citizen leaders around the USA in cities big and small, like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Tucson, Wilmington, Del, Lubbock, TX and Jackson MS. I was fortunate to lead a series of workshops for young politicos in Eastern Europe with my IAF colleague Tom Holler, Scott Robertson and Ron St. John. The funder of that venture was the International Republican Institute in which John McCain figured prominently. Some believed the IRI was a CIA front.
Early on I joined training workshops led by Saul Alinsky. Decades long, relationships with Ed Chambers, Dick Harmon, Arnie Graf, Peter Martinez, Ernie Cortes, Mike Gecan, Christine Stephens, Pearl Caesar, Tom Holler, Maribeth Larkin, Greg Pierce, Elizabeth Valdez, Lady Carlson, Kevin Courtney, Renee Whitzig-Barrios, Robert Hoo, Joe Rubio, Sr Mignon Konechne, Kris King, Perry Perkins among many others followed.
————————————————
Which brings me back to Oracle, AZ ... after that wild "professional organizing" ride.. You'll find some good Oracle stories here: frankpierson.substack.com