Frank Geltner

Frank Jo Maitland Geltner received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1980), experienced Trinity College, Oxford for two summer, earned a Master of Arts Degree (1969) from Memphis State University, and a Bachelor’s Degree (1967) from the University of Illinois in Chicago. Frank served as Alumni Director of the University of Illinois, Chicago (1970-1974), as the Associate Director and University Program Consultant for the Erb Memorial Union at the University of Oregon (1977-1997), as the Executive Director of the San Juan Community Theatre (1997-1999), and is retired from being Executive Director of the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts (1999-2007). Dr. Geltner is a veteran of the Army Security Agency (1959-1962), where he served in Herzogenaurach, Germany, not too far, as he learned in the course of writing this book, from Jena, famous for the 18th-century romantic drama played out so thoroughly in Andrea Wulf’s Magnificent Rebels. He thinks that might have been a good time in which to write this book. Geltner is an Arts Administrator, a Retired Professional Registered Parliamentarian, a college professor, an auto mechanic, an electrical helper, a bartender, and has served on many boards over the years. One of his most intense volunteer efforts has been to preserve the legacy of the composer, Ernest Bloch. He created the Ernest Bloch website around 2005 and maintained it until members of the Bloch family took over. He commissioned the first edition of Ernest Bloch: Composer in Nature’s University through a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission in 2005, which has been through many revisions. He is now part of an effort to celebrate the Bloch Sesquicentennial in 2030 in the Agate Beach district of Newport, Oregon. He is now “flame keeper emeritus” of the Ernest Bloch Legacy Project. Geltner was raised in the Roman Catholic Church in the Chicago Archdiocese. He considered himself ‘spiritual but not religious’ for a period of time before becoming a Christian Scientist. He is now a member of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation. Geltner was at the base of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington and MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963 and attended Woodstock in August 1969.