Frank Quine, beloved former Merrill assistant dean and development director, dies at 84

Jan 1, 2022

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland — Frank Quine, who spent 24 years working at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism after 18 years with the American Press Institute, died Oct. 30 at age 84.

After coming to Merrill in 1988, he served as the college’s development director and assistant dean, as well as vice president of the American Journalism

Review, which ceased publication in 2015. He retired in 2010 but came out of retirement for six months in 2013 at the request of Dean Lucy Dalglish. During that time, he returned to his previous roles of assistant dean and chief development officer on an interim basis while the search for a new development officer took place.

Quine played a key role in bringing the college a grant for an endowed Knight Chair in 1994 and contributed to securing the gift from Philip Merrill that led to the naming of the college in 2001. In his final four years before his initial retirement, he helped coordinate the fundraising, design, construction and 2010 opening of the $30 million John S. and James L. Knight Hall, the new home of the college.

Along with his wife, Mary Ellen Doran-Quine, he also sponsored a Merrill scholarship for undergraduate students in need and hosted international Humphrey fellows, a Fulbright exchange program funded by the U.S. State Department.

Quine was a beloved member of the Merrill community, Dalglish said.

“Frank was Merrill College’s No. 1 fan. He was kind, thoughtful and creative,” she said. “I knew Frank long before I joined Merrill College. When we suddenly lost a development officer, I turned to Frank to fill in for the interim because I knew he wouldn’t let us miss a beat.”
Christopher Callahan, former associate dean at Merrill and current president of the University of the Pacific, praised Quine’s role in helping the college rise to national prominence.

“Quietly, humbly and always with a smile, Frank Quine helped build the foundation for what is today one of the very best journalism schools in the country,” Callahan said. “Working side by side with two great deans — Reese Cleghorn and later Tom Kunkel — Frank played integral behind-the-scenes roles in building bridges to the news industry and critically important donors that helped shape the college.”

Before coming to Merrill, Quine was director and CEO of the American Press Institute for eight years (1979-87) after serving as managing director (1977-79) and associate director (1969-77). While at API, which at the time was the U.S. and Canadian newspaper industry’s management training and career-development center — he planned and conducted 92 seminars for editors, department heads and publishing executives.

Quine previously worked for legendary St. Petersburg Times publisher Nelson Poynter as sports editor and news editor at the St. Petersburg Evening Independent in Florida. He also was a sportswriter for the Jacksonville Journal.

He was the 2014 recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Chapter’s Distinguished Service Award and the 2013 winner of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association Distinguished Service Award. He received a Lifetime Service Award from the American Press Institute in 2006. Quine, who grew up in a suburb of Akron, Ohio, also won the 1971 William D. Taylor Award as Kent State University’s Journalism Alumnus of the Year.

“Frank was a journalist's journalist — a thorough pro who loved the news business and brought an amazingly positive, cheerful, can-do attitude to everything he did and everyone he met,” said Merrill Professor Emeritus Carl Sessions Stepp. “In his first week on the job, he came into the dining hall one day for lunch, spotted some of us at a table, sat himself down with us, and in that moment became a fast friend forever.”

Said Carol Rogers, Merrill professor of the practice emerita: “He was simply one of the best — at what he did and who he was. Merrill College wouldn’t be what it is today without his skilled hand and his heart, and those of us who knew him would have missed out on a lot had he not been in our lives.”

Quine's survivors include Dr. Mary Ellen Doran-Quine, his wife of 43 years; two children from his first marriage to Beverly Champion, Laura Heinle (Thomas) of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Linda Barry (Chase) of Jacksonville, Florida; a stepson, Sean Kelleher of Winchester, Virginia; two grandsons, William and Theo Heinle of Silver Spring; and stepgrandson Ethan Barry of Jacksonville; two brothers, Thomas and John Quine; and two sisters, Anne Quine and Ellen Hill, all of Ohio.

He was predeceased by son Franklin Quine, stepson Paul Kelleher and brother William Quine.

Friends, family and colleagues were invited to share memories about Quine during a Celebration of Life, held Nov. 30, at Clyde’s Willow Creek Farm in Broadlands, Virginia.