Frank Brumit

Frank Brumit, 92, Kingsport, passed away on Monday, June 16, 2014 at Asbury Place Kingsport. Frank was born in Nashville, but grew up in Johnson City. His father was a Captain in the Army in WWI and was appointed by the Governor as the Adjutant General for the State of Tennessee. He became a Quartermaster at the Mountain Home in Johnson City (the forerunner of the Veterans Administration) in 1924. Frank grew up there, went to school at ETSU Lab School, Science Hill High School, attended The University of the South, received his college degree from Milligan College, and pursued graduate studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Frank spent 4 ½ years in the Navy during WWII. He was in aviation communications and was stationed in Norfolk, VA and French Morocco. Frank was one of three in the Patrol Wings Atlantic Fleet who had top secret clearance for dealing with coded messages. Frank remembers the Sunday the report came into their office that the Japanese had invaded Pearl Harbor. He had to convince the duty officer that the report was not a hoax.

He worked for Mason Dixon where he was in accounting and management information systems. He spent his career with Mason Dixon, working there for 35 years, serving as Director of Information Services, Corporate Secretary, and retiring as a Vice-President.

Frank was a natural athlete and participated in many sports. In 1940 he canoed down the Holston River from the present site of the Ridgefields Club to Knoxville. In college, he was on the Milligan Tennis Team. When he started work in 1948 for Mason Dixon he played at the same time on three different softball teams-one in Elizabethton, one in Johnson City and on Mason Dixon's team in Kingsport. These were fast pitch days and Frank was the pitcher.

He was also a consummate golfer, learning the game as a teenager. Frank was a four time winner of the Ridgefields Country Club Men's Invitational Golf Tournament (he played in the first 56 Ridgefields Invitationals). He went on to win eight club championships at Ridgefields. In later years he shot his age 240 times and was often called "The Legend." In 2007, the club honored Frank by naming their Invitational Tournament for him.

His love for music and films from the 1930s and 1940s was evident in his compilation of movie clips from that era and the presentations of these mini-documentaries to local groups such as the Survivors Club, retirement homes, and Ridgefields Country Club.

Frank has been a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church since 1953.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Goss Brumit of the home; daughter, Anne McKenna and husband, Michael of Lihue, Hawaii; granddaughter, Molly McKenna of Chicago, Illinois; brother, Philip Alfred Brumit and wife, Peg of Indianapolis, IN; niece, Elaine Pickens and husband, Larry; nephew, Philip Brumit; and cousins, Alice Burrell and husband, Fred of Johnson City, and Paul Ward of McLean, Virginia.

A memorial service will be conducted at Hamlett-Dobson Chapel, Kingsport, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. A Celebration of Life and reception will follow at Ridgefields Club.

There will be a private burial at Oak Hill Memorial Park.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 800 Broad St. Kingsport, TN 37660, to the World Wildlife Fund, 1350 Twenty-Fourth Street, N.W., P.O. Box, 97180, Washington D.C. 20090 or to Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium, 853 Bays Mountain Rd., Kingsport, TN 37660.

A special thank you to Care Central caregivers, and the staff at Asbury Place, especially Amanda, Wes and Bobbie.