Longtime Claremont resident Francis “Frank” Carroll died on August 18 at the age of 93.

He was born March 3, 1924, in Norwood, Massachusetts to Francis Martin Carroll and the former Irene Elizabeth Dunn of Norwood. The young Mr. Carroll was a senior in high school on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, propelling the United States into World War II. He volunteered for the Army Air Corps but chose instead to attend The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts under an officer-commissioning program.

Mr. Carroll graduated from MIT in 1945 with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering. He then began his naval career in Kodiak, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. After his Alaskan assignment he returned to civilian life in Massachusetts, working as a research associate at MIT’s Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel.  He continued taking classes at MIT, eventually earning a graduate degree in engineering and business management.

He then began a long civilian career at Dennison Manufacturing Company, General Electric, Raytheon, Aerojet-General, Emerson Electric, and the United States Department of Defense Civil Service. Meanwhile, he joined the US Naval Reserve and began a parallel career at Naval Air Stations in Squantum, Massachusetts; Trinidad, British West Indies; Quonset Point, Rhode Island; Los Alamitos, California; Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, and The Bureau of Aeronautics, Washington, DC.

Mr. Carroll married Virginia Lee of Somerville, Massachusetts in 1950. Shortly thereafter, the young couple relocated to Trinidad. Soon they started their family, which would grow to include six children and decades of school activities, scouting, Indian Guides, family trips, beach vacations and supporting sports and music.

Mr. Carroll retired to California in 1991. In retirement, he was a volunteer with the Costa Mesa Police Department, the secretary for the Golden West Chapter of the Military Officers’ Association of America, and made toys for underprivileged children as a volunteer worker at the Huntington Landmark woodshop in Huntington Beach, California. 

He is survived by his sister, Eleanor Masce of Cape Cod, Massachusetts; his six children, Elaine Carroll of Lafayette, California, Gloria Carroll of La Verne, California, Nancy Carroll of Huntington Beach, Paul Carroll of Alexandria, Virginia, John Carroll of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Beverly Katz of Altadena, California; twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Virginia Lee Carroll, his brother, Joseph Carroll, and his sister, Mary Davis.

Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, September 8 at Saints Simon and Jude Catholic Church, 20444 Magnolia St., Huntington Beach. A reception and military honors will follow at The Good Shepherd Cemetery, 8301 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests a donation in Mr. Carroll’s name to Catholic Charities USA at catholiccharitiesusa.org.