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Frank Elmer Masland Jr
Born
Frank Elmer Masland Jr

December 8, 1895
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedJuly 30, 1994(1994-07-30) (aged 98)
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Resting placeMount Holly, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
Other namesFisheyes, Archeyes
EducationDickinson College
Occupation(s)industrialist, conservationist, explorer, early river runner, and philanthropist
EmployerCH Masland & Sons
Spouse(s)Virginia Sharp, Florence Corey
ChildrenFrank Elmer “Mike” Masland III and David Sharp Masland

Frank Elmer Masland Jr (December 8, 1895 – July 30, 1994) was an American industrialist, conservationist, explorer, early river runner in the Grand Canyon, and philanthropist.

Born to Frank Elmer Masland and Mary Esther Gossler on December 8, 1895, he was the grandson of Charles Henry Masland, founder of the Carlisle carpet company C. H. Masland & Sons.[1] During World War I, Masland attended Dickinson College and graduated in 1918. That same year, he became an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve. While he did not fight overseas, he served on a sub chaser searching for German U-boats along the east coast of the United States.[2] Masland served in the Navy for two years and the Naval Reserves for two more. He was honorably discharged on April 29, 1921.[3]

Masland and his brother Robert Paul relocated C. H. Masland & Sons from Philadelphia to Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1919. Construction for the new building began on July 1, 1919.[4][5] Between 1930 and 1961, Frank Masland served as the president of C. H. Masland & Sons, leading the company through World War II and into the decades that followed.[6] During the war, the company converted its operations entirely to the war effort making waterproof canvas and earned the Army-Navy E Award for excellence in wartime production five times.[7]

In 1951, the carpet company purchased "Kings Gap", a 32-room stone mansion in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.[8] In 1973, the company transferred ownership of the property to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through the auspices of the Nature Conservancy.[9] Today, the property is known as Kings Gap Environmental Education Center. Besides the carpet company, Masland was active in both the National Association of Manufacturers and the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association.[10] He served as director of the First National Bank of Mount Holly as well as the president and director of Denicron Corporation from 1939 into the late 1950s.[11] Masland served as a regional director of the Small Business Administration during the 1960s and 1970s. He also served as a trustee of Wesley Theological Seminary and Dickinson College.[12][13] Masland was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Lycoming College and Lebanon Valley College, and received the YMCA "Master of Men" Award.[14] A member of The Explorers Club, Cosmos Club, University Club of New York, and the Boone and Crockett Club, Masland was a member in a small group of Colorado River Canyoneers who ran the Grand Canyon in the 1940s.[15]

Frank E. Masland, Superintendent John McLaughlin, and Horace Albright, 1964

Frank Masland first visited the rim of the Grand Canyon in 1938 and first boated the entire length of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon in 1948 with Norman Nevills and Otis R. Marston. On that river trip Masland acquired the nickname "Fisheyes."[16] Marston listed Masland as the 97th person to travel all the way through the Grand Canyon by the water route.[17] Masland traveled through Grand Canyon again in 1949 with Nevills and Mary Ogden Abbott and in 1954 and 1956 with Marston.[18]

After he boated Grand Canyon in 1949, Masland purchased a canvas on wooden frame Folding kayak. He paddled the craft from Mexican Hat, Utah, down the San Juan River into Glen Canyon in July, 1950.[19] He took the same boat through Glen Canyon again in 1952, arriving at Lees Ferry, Arizona in time to join Barry Goldwater and others to dedicate a plaque to the deceased Norm and Doris Nevills at the Navajo Bridge.[20][21]

Masland and Marston conducted horse packing trips in the slickrock rim country of Glen Canyon during the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. On their first such trip in 1954, the group reached an arch Masland had seen from the road to Navajo Mountain Lodge in 1950. At the Arch, Marston nicknamed him "Archeyes."[22][23]

In 1954 Masland lobbied Secretary of Interior Douglas McKay in opposition to Echo Park Dam. Masland served on the National Park Service Advisory Board from 1958 to 1979, serving three years straight as its chair.[24] Masland worked closely with Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall and Lady Bird Johnson to create Canyonlands National Park.[25] In a 1965 letter, Udall wrote “Whether it’s hiking with me on the Serengeti Plains on Tanganyika, running the Allagash River of Maine or scrambling on the high country of Utah, Frank Masland has demonstrated his devotion to the out of doors and preserving a conservation heritage for future generations of Americans. Thank heavens for people like Frank!” [26]

In 1980, 1,270 acres of secondary old growth forest in the Tuscarora State Forest in Pennsylvania was named in his honor as the Frank E. Masland Jr. Natural Area.[27][28] After four years of negotiation, Masland donated $200,000 (~$460,267 in 2023) in 1987 to the National Park Service and Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for the purchase of 50 acres of private land in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, including Children's Lake, for transfer to the Appalachian Trail Conference Land Trust (today's Appalachian Trail Conservancy).[29][30][31]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ url=https://gardnerlibrary.org/encyclopedia/charles-henry-masland-1841-1934
  2. ^ Friends Say Goodbye to Masland, The Sentinel, August 5, 1994
  3. ^ url=https://gardnerlibrary.org/encyclopedia/frank-elmer-masland-jr-1895-1994
  4. ^ Carlisle fair Grounds Sold; Use For Factory, Public Opinion, June 10, 1919
  5. ^ Contract Given For $250,000 Factory, Public Opinion, July 2, 1919
  6. ^ M. H. Masland, Head Of Carpet Company, Dies, The Evening News, April 9, 1930
  7. ^ "Masland Celebrates 150 Years - Apr 2016". www.floordaily.net.
  8. ^ Masland Company Buys Cameron Estate Property, The News-Chronicle, May 8, 1951
  9. ^ Conservancy to Buy King's Gap for State DER Purposes, The Sentinel, September 27, 1973
  10. ^ F. E. Masland Jr. Named to PMA Boar, The Sentinel, October 16, 1951
  11. ^ F. E. Masland Dinner Speaker Jenner C of C, The Daily American, October 29, 1953
  12. ^ Donehoo, George Patterson, (2012). A History of the Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania Vol. II. Literary Licensing, LLC, pp. 260, 261 ISBN 978-1258476953
  13. ^ Godcharles, Frederic A, (2010). Biographical and Genealogical Sketches from Central Pennsylvania : Excerpted from Chronicles of Central Pennsylvania : Volume IV, Personal and Family History . Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., pp. 333, 334 ISBN 978-0806348360
  14. ^ Over 100 YMCA's To Send Delegates, Simpson's Leader-Times, May 3, 1960
  15. ^ "Frank E. Masland Jr.," The Sentinel (Carlisle, PA), August 1, 1994
  16. ^ Martin, Thomas C., (2012). Big Water Little Boats; Moulty Fulmer and the First Grand Canyon Dory on the Last of the Wild Colorado River. Flagstaff, AZ: Vishnu Temple Press, pp. 42-56, 92, ISBN 978-0979505560
  17. ^ Marston, Otis R., (2014). From Powell To Power; A Recounting of the First One Hundred River Runners Through the Grand Canyon. Flagstaff, Arizona: Vishnu Temple Press, pp. 434, 499 ISBN 978-0990527022
  18. ^ Webb, Roy, (2005). High, Wide, and Handsome: The River Journals of Norman D. Nevills. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State University Press, pp. 216-26, 245 ISBN 978-0874216035
  19. ^ "Boat on Exhibit," The Evening Sentinel, September 13, 1950
  20. ^ "Memorial Service To Honor 'White Water' Adventurers," Arizona Republic, July 4, 1952
  21. ^ "River Rats Dedicate Plaque," Arizona Republic, July 12, 1952
  22. ^ (1962), “The Land of the Anasazi,” Explorers Journal published with the aid of the Kevorkian Foundation, Volume XL, October 1962, pp. 14-30
  23. ^ "Running The Rapids," Philadelphia Inquirer, September 16, 1956
  24. ^ Park plans three new centers for visitors, Port Angeles Evening News, May 9, 1961
  25. ^ Smith, Thomas G., (2017). Stewart L. Udall: Steward of the Land. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 147-148, ISBN 978-0826357755
  26. ^ The Frank E. Masland Jr. Advisory Board Collection (1958-1979) Finding Aid, National Park Service History Collection RG 38, National Park Service Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services, Harpers Ferry WV
  27. ^ "Masland Will Be Honored," The Evening Sentinel, May 7, 1980
  28. ^ "Outdoors," Philadelphia Inquirer, July 27, 1980
  29. ^ "Saving the Heart of a Community". dev.conserveland.org. May 7, 2015.
  30. ^ "Lake Changes Hands," The Sentinel (Carlisle, PA), December 16, 1887
  31. ^ "Masland Dead at 98," The Sentinel (Carlisle, PA), August 1, 1994
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