Germanna Foundation

Preserving the historic heritage of the original settlers of the Fort Germanna Colonies in Virginia

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You are here: Home / Germanna Blog / Frank Turnage

Frank Turnage

February 26, 2019 By Germanna Foundation Leave a Comment

I am saddened to report the death of our friend, Dr. Frank Turnage, former Executive Director of the Germanna Foundation and serving as Trustee Emeritus at the time of his death.

Frank, whose roots go back to colonial North Carolina and Virginia, had a long and distinguished career in the Virginia Community College System and served for 21 years as President of Germanna Community College, retiring as President Emeritus in 2007.

We were proud of his service to Germanna Community College, named after our Foundation for the gift of 100 acres of land in 1969 to build the first campus. Frank expanded our namesake, opening campuses in Fredericksburg and Culpeper, and burnished its name in the Virginia Piedmont by enhancing the skills and educational achievements of so many families in the Germanna region.

For Germanna Foundation members, we knew and loved Frank through his leadership of the Germanna Foundation as our Executive Director, which complemented his earlier service as a Trustee, beginning in 1996.

At our July Germanna Conference and Reunion in 2011, Frank announced his second retirement as our Executive Director. What we could not say then, but what we can say now, is that Frank had put into motion the transfer of the Fort Germanna/Enchanted Castle archaeological site to the Germanna Foundation from the Commonwealth of Virginia at the end of 2013.

I have been part of many negotiations as a Congressional staffer and State Department advisor, but let me tell you what a sheer pleasure it was being in meetings in the Germanna area and in Richmond with high-ranking officials and watch Frank go to work. He was a master of subtle diplomacy, of what some State Department hands called “the ability of letting the other guy have it your way.”

Frank was effective because he called us to listen to “the better angels of our nature” and do-not just the right thing -but the best thing.

The noted Virginia historian, Dr. John Walter Wayland, one of the founders of the Germanna Foundation, is known best in some circles for a short essay entitled “The True Gentleman.” When I first read it, I imagined Frank. This essay continues to shape the character of young Americans through its recitation in countless homes and campuses to commission a young man on new voyage in life, and reflecting the ethos which we seek to inculcate in ourselves as ambassdors of the Germanna Foundation:

“The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others rather than his own; and who appears well in any company; a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.”

Ever the “True Gentleman,” each act of service he rendered reflected well on the Germanna Foundation. In the good company of Frank Turnage, we became truer to the people God wants us to become. We are privileged to have known him.

God bless his wife Nancy of 56 years, his children Wells (Ann-Marie) and Noah (Christina), and his five grandchildren: Maryanna, Gabor, Parker, Elizabeth and Melina.

J. Marc Wheat
President
Germanna Foundation


Richard V. Hurley, President of the University of Mary Washington, Dr. Frank Turnage and Germanna Foundation President Marc Wheat at the Fort Germanna transfer ceremony in 2013. Frank holds a certificate from Mary Washington College Center for Historic Preservation of being a “Trustee of America” in recognition of significant contributions to the conservation and preservation of America’s architectural, cultural, historical and natural heritage.

Read about his life and career:
Frank Turnage, pivotal Germanna college president, dies at 79 (Culpeper-Star Exponent)

 

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Germanna Foundation’s Mission and Stewardship

The Germanna Foundation tells America’s story of liberty through the frontier experience of her settlers and descendants using archaeological, historical, and genealogical research and interpretation. We are stewards over these important properties and initiatives:

  • Fort Germanna Visitor Center campus which includes a Museum, Genealogy Library, the Hitt Archaeology Center, and the Germanna Memorial Garden
  • Siegen Forest – 170-acre Hiking and Nature Trails along the Rapidan river
  • 1714/1717 Fort Germanna Archaeology Site
  • Virginia Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood’s home “Enchanted Castle” Archaeology Site
  • 1757 Georgian-style Salubria Manor
  • 1800 Peter Hitt Farm
  • Publishing “The Germanna Record” genealogy/ history books
  • Maintaining a genealogy database with over 130,000 records of descendants of the Germanna colonists

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Germanna Foundation

The Germanna Foundation
MAILING: P.O. Box 279
LOCATION: 2062 Germanna Highway
Locust Grove, VA 22508-0279
Phone: 540-423-1700
Fax: 540-423-1747
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Fort Germanna Visitor Center, Museum & Library

2062 Germanna Highway (Route 3)
Locust Grove, VA 22508
(Next to the Germanna Community College campus)

Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Saturdays, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Closed on Sundays

Out of town visitors are urged to call us at 540-423-1700 to confirm or to make special arrangements for groups.

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Hike Siegen Forest!

Behind the Fort Germanna Visitor Center is our 170-acre Siegen Forest nature and hiking trails along the Rapidan river. Trails are OPEN 7 days a week, during daylight hours. When visiting the trails, please practice “Leave no Trace” ethos. If you enjoy the trails, consider donating to the Germanna Foundation to help support their upkeep.

 

About

The Germanna Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring the Colonial Virginia frontier via the historic 1714 Fort Germanna and its German colonists and their descendants.

It conducts archaeological exploration and conservation, genealogical research and publishing, and historic preservation and interpretation.

The Foundation owns and maintains several historic sites and properties, such as Salubria Manor, that were part of or closely connected to the Germanna colonies, the town of Germanna, and the other early colonial Virginia settlements and towns in the Piedmont area of Virginia.

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