Alan I W Frank

Alan I W Frank peacefully passed away on Monday June 19, 2023 at the age of 91 with his daughters by his side. Alan

was born in Pittsburgh on March 6, 1932. He was the son of Cecelia Kaplan Frank and Robert J. Frank. 

Robert Frank was a co-founder of Copperweld Steel, a manufacturer of copper-coated steel wire founded

in 1915. Alan’s mother, Cecelia, was a generous and dynamic patron of the arts in Pittsburgh who

championed and nurtured many of the city’s leading cultural institutions. His paternal grandfather, Isaac

W. Frank, worked for Andrew Carnegie before launching several manufacturing businesses that

specialized in steel rolling and steel fabrication. The United Engineering and Foundry Company and the

Weirton Steel Company were among those in which he was an active participant. 

Alan’s two sisters, Joan Frank Apt and Barbara Frank Dane, predeceased him. All three siblings lived in

their native Pittsburgh until the end of their lives. Alan’s two daughters, Darcy Frank Mackay of Mill Valley,

CA and Kimberly Frank Shaw of Radnor, PA survive him. His beloved grandchildren, Katherine Orlesky,

Calder Orlesky, Susanne Shaw and Jack Shaw, also survive him.

Alan grew up Pittsburgh and graduated from Shadyside Academy. He attended Harvard College where

he worked on the Harvard Crimson and was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club. He took a year off to

become a Korean war correspondent for Argosy magazine.  Upon graduation from Harvard in 1954 with a

bachelor’s degree cum laude, he joined the U.S. Army and became a special agent with the Army’s

Counter Intelligence Corps from 1955 to 1957. In 1960, he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from

Columbia University and became licensed to practice law in New York and Pennsylvania.

In the late 1950’s, Alan was active in the oil industry in the southwestern United States.  He was named

President of National Petroleum while working in the region. In 1962, he established a business of his

own called the AIWF Corporation in Exton, PA.  AIWF was a manufacturer of houseware products. He

served as its President and CEO until 1981.

Alan served as a Trustee of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation and was an active and

loyal alumnus of Harvard College and Columbia University.

In 1940, at the age of eight, Alan moved with his parents and two sisters into a new contemporary house

in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood that his parents had commissioned from two of the world’s most

famous architects. Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus movement, was chair of the Harvard

Graduate School of Design at the time. Marcel Breuer, another member of the Bauhaus movement, who

designed the Whitney Museum in Manhattan, among other residential and commercial commissions,

collaborated with Gropius on the design of the Frank house and its interiors.  The two Bauhaus architects,

along with German textile designer, Anni Albers, also created everything in the house’s interior, including

all of its furnishings, carpets, wall treatments and curtains. The house has been hailed by architectural

historians as one of the early twentieth century’s most important exemplars of modernist architecture.

Alan’s mother, Cecelia, was a driving force in the design of the house. She hosted numerous fundraisers

and special events at the house over many decades. 

Alan continued to live in the house he grew up in until his death. He created the Alan I W Frank House

Foundation to support the ongoing maintenance and preservation of his historic family home and, in

2019, he co-authored a book about the house. Published by Rizzoli, the book is called Alan I W Frank

House: The Modernist Masterwork by Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

A service will be held at Calvary Episcopal Church on Friday July 7, 2023 at 11a.m. in Pittsburgh, PA. In lieu of flowers, those

wishing to make gifts in Alan’s honor may direct them to the Alan I W Frank House Foundation, a 501(c)3

nonprofit, by visiting https://www.thefrankhouse.org/get-involved. Arrangements by John A. Freyvogel Sons, Inc. (freyvogelfuneralhome.com)

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