William Frinsko
William Frinsko, long time resident of Normal, passed away at his home on Friday, April 4, surrounded by close family members.
He was 101 years old and was born on Dec. 9, 1923 in Benld, to Mike Frinsko and Anna Kolotila.
Two major events had a profound influence on his life; The Great Depression and WWII. As a grade school boy during the Depression, he did what he could to help the family. This included selling 5-cent bags of popcorn at night downtown Benld earning ½ cent per bag. With his younger brother, they earned 25 cents/barrel carting kitchen waste from local taverns by wagon across town to the dump.
He enjoyed hunting squirrels and rabbits in nearby woodlands, collecting nuts, taking the family milk cow to pasture and also was a book collector, wood carver, cook, photographer and uranium prospector.
Frinsko graduated high school before the war began and enrolled at the St. Louis Business College and within a year he received a certificate including training in stenography.
When the War broke out, he went to Boot Camp at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Shortly before graduating Boot Camp, he became ill and was sent home. He returned to St. Louis and took a warehouse job packing boxes of medical supplies being sent to the front. After some months, he found an opportunity and was hired as a stenographer with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in El Paso, Texas which he held until the war’s end.
In 1945, he enrolled at the University of Illinois where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1950. To earn money for room and board, he worked summers in New Port Walter, Alaska, at a herring reduction plant. He also spent a summer cutting timber in Oregon.
Being adventurous, he headed west to earn a Master’s in elementary education from the University of Wyoming in 1952. It was there that he married, Joan Banks, a teacher. They married in Denver, Colorado in 1953.
He later earned an Ed. D. from Wayne State University in Detroit in curriculum development in 1962.
He had a 34 year career in teaching. His first teaching position was in 1945-1946 with a War Emergency Certificate in a rural high school in LaGrange, Wyoming. Other places where he taught included Green River, and Laramie, Wyoming; Honolulu, Hawaii; Detroit, Michigan; and Normal, Illinois. He was on the faculty of the University of Wyoming, the University of Hawaii, Wayne State University (Detroit), and last at Illinois State University, retiring as Full Professor in 1984 after 23 years. His principal subjects taught were methods of language arts and social studies. He received the 1969 Bone Distinguished Teacher Award. His passion was training future teachers.
He contributed letters to the editor of The Pantagraph (Bloomington) and had articles published in The American Rationalist and Freethought Perspective.
Frinsko led a Centennial project in Benld that recognized those who served in the military from World War I to Desert Storm. The effort was completed in 2005 and is now housed in Macoupin County Library. In 2015 he was inducted in the Gillespie Unified School District “Wall of Honor”.
He is survived by his son, Michael Frinsko, Winterville, NC; daughter-in-law, Carla (nee Barrows); grandchildren, Alex and Emma; nephews, nieces, and cousins.
He was proceeded in death by his parents; wife; siblings, Mary Frinsko, Mike Frinsko, Anastasia Frinsko, Olga Greevsky, John Frinsko, Helen Montessano and Dorothy Mages.
He was cremated. There will be no visitation and inurnment will be private. A memorial service is being planned.
Kravanya Funeral Home is in charge.
