Writer, 44-year Arlington Heights library trustee dies at 91
It was a Catholic nun who gave a young Richard Frisbie his first good review as a writer, and inspiration that led to him making the art of the written word the constant in his life story.
"Sister Florentine had been glancing at a stack of student papers. I saw her laugh. When I stood beside her, she looked up from my story and said, 'Richard, this is really funny.'"
"That's when I learned who I was - a Writer."
Frisbie, 91, of Arlington Heights, who died in his sleep Tuesday from natural causes, wrote those words only a month ago as part of a submission to Write Across Chicago, a program sponsored by the Illinois Writing Project and the Society of Midland Authors, an organization for which he was a past president and longtime board member. The project asks writers how and why they do what they do.
And did Frisbie ever have a story to tell.
He was the author of seven books and 400 magazine articles; a reporter and assistant features editor at the Chicago Daily News for seven years; editor of Chicago Magazine for two years; advertising agency creative director; and self-employed publishing and marketing consultant for more than four decades.
He helped create brochures, newsletters and industrial film scripts - "almost everything but skywriting," he wrote.
Frisbie also served 44 years as an elected member of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library board, where he became known as a champion of intellectual freedom and the First Amendment.
"He was a fierce proponent of maintaining those values," said David Unumb, who spent a little more than two decades on the board, some of that time alongside Frisbie. "I think it was actually bred into his own experiences as a writer and old-time newspaperman."
Around the time he was being instructed by the nuns growing up in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, Frisbie was one of the Quiz Kids on the popular 1940s and 1950s-era radio and TV show. While attending the University of Chicago, he was drafted into the Navy during World War II, then completed his degree at the University of Arizona after the war.
While covering a news conference for the Daily News at Mundelein College in Chicago, he met his future wife Margery, who was the college public relations director. The conference, which attracted national and local press, was to announce that Elizabeth Bentley, a famous Communist spy who flipped to help the FBI and converted to Catholicism, was joining the college faculty.
The couple married in 1950, and moved to Arlington Heights in 1954. He was first elected to the library board in 1967, the year before the current library at 500 N. Dunton Ave. opened. The Frisbies' bungalow where they moved in the early 1960s is a half block from the library.
While remaining a loyal and constant reader of books, Frisbie helped navigate the digital revolution by making e-reader devices, DVDs and informational databases available at the library. He retired from the board in 2011.
"He was very strong for providing great service to the people of Arlington Heights and fulfilling the library's mission," said his son, Thomas. "When you look at the library and what people love about it, it was partly his handiwork."
Frisbie is survived by his wife, eight children, 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Visitation is scheduled from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday, at Lauterburg & Oehler Funeral Home, 2000 E. Northwest Highway, and from 9 a.m. Saturday until the time of the funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Edna Church, 2525 N. Arlington Heights Road. Interment will be in Mt. Carmel Cemetery.