Frank Farr

Frank Farr is a retired educator, having served 50 years in California and New Mexico schools as teacher, counselor, and principal, mostly in secondary schools. His books recount his experiences during World War II as a navigator on B-17 heavy bombers. Based in Bassingbourn, England, with the 91st Bomb Group, he flew 17 missions over Nazi Germany--actually sixteen and a half, he'll say with a wry grin. He was shot down by German fighter planes during a bombing raid over the Leuna synthetic oil refinery near Merseburg. The first book recalls the six months spent in a German prison camp. The second deals with his training to become an officer and navigator. A third book, scheduled for publication in 2011, will relate his combat experiences and impressions of England in 1944. He retired at age 80 from Crownpoint High School on the Navajo reservation, where he taught English and Spanish. In California he taught English, Spanish, French and Russian for 30 years and spent six summers as an elementary school migrant education principal. He lives in a scenic spot on the slopes of the Zuni Mountains 17 miles east of Gallup, New Mexico.