Floyd (Butch) Frankford

Floyd (Butch) Frankford enlisted in the US Air Force just after graduation. He went to Biloxi MS for basic training  and was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for extra training in electronic surveillance.  He learned to track the heartbeat and vitals of Soviet Cosmonaut Uri Gregarin during his 17 orbit flight of the Earth. 

Later he was assigned to a 15 month tour of duty to Peshawar Pakistan as a sight analyst, monitoring Soviet satellites.  Butch held a top secret clearance and was head of the team that received and decoded the first ever pictures from space.   They sent their findings directly to the National Security Agency in Fort Mead, Maryland.

While in Pakistan he used the opportunity to take trips into the Himalaya Mountains, travel through historic Kyber Pass and visit Kabul Aphganistan.  “One weekend we hired a driver and a land rover to go into the mountains.  The driver took us as far as he could to a place where we rented horses to ride further into the mountains,” he says. “This is in the area where the Taliban are hiding today.”

That night after Butch and his friends pitched their tents it sounded like they were going to be overrun by locals, perhaps wanting to steal from them.  They had brought their guns and fired a few rounds into the air.  “It was all quiet after that,” Butch says.

“Americans were not necessarily liked even then,” Butch says. “But we were a base of more than 1000 people who bolstered their economy so much that they did welcome us.

There was also an American Base in nearby Kabul, Afghanistan.  The Americans there came to Butch’s  base at Peshawar to re-supply.  The American had their families with them and had established an American School in Kabul. “I was invited by a Senior girl in the American School to come to her prom.  I stayed in the American compound in the center of Kabul for a week.  It was a very interesting to visit Afghanistan  seeing these women in full Burka’s walking the streets.  But there was no suicide bombings then. There still was the rule of law.”  Butch explains.

Today’s headlines have a very special meaning to Butch Frankford. 

Butch left the service in 1964, returned to Girard, went to work for Copperweld Steel as an electrical specialist and began dating Classmate Judy Bixler.

The couple married in 1965.  Butch stayed with Copperweld for 36 years retiring in 2000.

From the early days, Butch has been associated with being a “driver of vehicles.”   Early on he got his license as a professional driver to drive cab in a family business, Girard Yellow Cab.  Later he began driving school bus for Niles and Girard City School systems.  Since retirement he has been employed by the Austintown Local School system.

The family cab business later became the family bicycle business.  Butch soon got hooked on bicycle riding and began an incredible journey “driving a bicycle.”   When winter hit last December Butch had accumulated a staggering 125,077 miles on the bicycle, averaging 6000 miles per year.  Any day of the year that the temperature hits the mid 60’s will find Butch doing his 50 miles.

He and Judy have done extensive traveling and the bicycle comes with the couple.  He's ridden bicycle in OH,PA, MI, KY TN, TX, MS, AR, FL, ME, CN, MA, DE, VA, MD, ND, SD, SC, and NC. 

“The bike always comes along on vacations,” wife Judy says. “I would go ahead 10 miles and wait to give him water or a snack, sometimes he'd wave and yell "another five"  (you have to remember, this was before we had cell phones. If he didn't come in the amount of time I thought it should take him I'd have to go back and find him). I got to read , lay on the beach, shop, get lunch or just sight see. I've waited for him at  the top of   mountains in the Ozarks, on the beach at the Outter Banks of NC, in Acadia State Park in Maine and many other great places.  And I have met many nice people and enjoyed every minute.” 

Over the years the couple have been in 45 of the 50 states. They have seen the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf, Grand Canyon, Gateway Arch, Bad Lands, Fisherman's Wharf and Crookedest St, in San Francisco, Pikes Peak, and San Antonio's Riverwalk and have rode the rapids at the Snake River in Wyoming.

Floyd’s bicycling has paid off as today he looks much like he did in high school.  He certainly would be taken more for 48 than for 68 years old.

He also “drives” a motorcycle.  He and Judy do rides every Sunday possible with his two brothers and their wives.

Butch and Judy have two daughters, Michele (Chele) and Kim.

Daughter Chele (Michele) is a social worker for Valley Counseling in Warren and is a state rated level 10 gymnastics judge.  She excelled in gymnastics at GHS and in her junior year was Ohio State Champion on the Uneven bars.  She was also on the GHS track team in 1980 that took 1^st Place in the State of Ohio. She was on the 440 relay team that was a part of the 1980 State Track Championship team.  In 1999 Chele was inducted into the Girard High School Hall of Fame in recognition of achievement and contribution to athletics in Girard.

Today she sometimes rides bike with her dad. 

Daughter Kim followed in Butch's footsteps and went into the Air Force, after she got out of the active service as a Sergeant she joined the reserves at Youngstown Air Base and finished as a  Technical Sergeant. She married back into the AF and today she and her  husband Chief Master Sergeant John Kovach  live in FL.  Both work at Cape Canaveral AFB.  John is from Girard and grew up across the street from the Frankfords.  Kim and John have two children Marti 22 and Amanda 21. The grandchildren now live in the house Judy grew up in on Wilson Ave in Girard.
 

Over the years Butch's interest have included playing softball, running and bowling.  In fact he was a member of the Niles Men’s Bowling Association, serving as secretary for many years.  In 2003 he was inducted into the Niles Men’s Bowling Assn Hall of Fame.

Floyd has always been there helping Judy with reunion activities. 

The Frankford’s are quite a family.--ED