A photograph of Florence Neavoll, winner of the chocolate cake competition at the Oregon State Fair, standing with contest judge, Gerry Frank. Neavoll is holding her winning chocolate cake and first prize ribbon up on a plate as Frank takes a bite from a slice of the cake. This photograph was published in the August 29, 1979 edition of the Oregon Journal along with the recipe for the winning cake. OHS Research Library, Gerald W. Frank scrapbooks and memorabilia; Coll 855; Vol. 131, P. 30; 001

Portland, OR — Few Oregonians witnessed more history or helped make more history than Gerry Frank. The longtime chief of staff to Senator Mark Hatfield, Gerry Frank was a business leader, philanthropist, mentor, best-selling guidebook author, chocolate connoisseur, and the first and only individual to officially be proclaimed “Oregon’s Premier Citizen.”

To recognize what would have been Gerry’s 100th birthday, the Oregon Historical Society invites the community to a special celebration in honor of this Oregon icon. Admission to the Oregon Historical Society will be free all day on Thursday, September 21, and a brief program featuring remarks from some of Gerry’s many friends will take place at 1pm. 

Among Gerry’s many passions was his love for chocolate cake, which led him to being the sole judge of the Oregon State Fair’s “Gerry Frank Chocolate Layer Cake Contest” for over 50 years. His penchant for chocolate led him to open Gerry Frank’s Konditorei, a well-known gourmet cake shop in Salem, Oregon. Fittingly, OHS will serve chocolate cupcakes after the 1pm program, and attendees can also participate in a raffle to win one of Gerry’s favorite chocolate cakes from the Konditorei.

In 2020, Gerry gave a treasure trove of memorabilia to the Oregon Historical Society, including over 100 leather-bound scrapbooks that document much of Oregon’s business, political, and cultural happenings during the second half of the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first century. A selection of these scrapbooks will be on display throughout the event and can also be viewed online through OHS Digital Collections. 

Gerry Frank’s oral history is also preserved in OHS’s research library and can be listened to online. This oral history interview was conducted by Jim Strassmaier at Frank’s office in Salem, Oregon, from May 25, 1988, to May 2, 1990. In this interview, Frank discusses his family background and early life in Portland, the Meier & Frank department store, his time briefly attending Stanford University, his Army service in Europe during World War II and his studies at Cambridge University in England, and his work with Senator Mark O. Hatfield.

About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than a century, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of objects, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and rich as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view.