At 92, he’s always ready to keep kids safe

BY E.N. FURGURSON III
The (Annapolis) Capital

EDGEWATER, Md. (AP) — Frank Wilson loves his job. He gets up before dawn so he can take his time getting ready to man his school crossing guard post in Edgewater by 6:45 a.m. He’s always on time, with a smile on his face. His uniform is always inspection-ready. He likes the kids and the kids like him back, by all reports.

Sounds like your run-of-the-mill crossing guard, right? Well, Frank Wilson is 92 years old.

The Northern Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce honored him and 22 others in October with its top community safety award.

Twice retired, Wilson just can’t fathom spending his life sitting in a chair, wasting away. “You have to stay busy,” he said. “Otherwise everything falls apart … including your brain, if you don’t use it.”

Wilson joined the Anne Arundel County Schools crossing guard detail nearly 10 years ago. He’s up at 4:30 a.m. “I have a good breakfast, which I cook myself. Then I clean it all up. I clean up the bathroom, too, after getting ready. My wife taught me that.”

His wife of 44 years, Elizabeth, died five years ago. Now he lives in a basement apartment at his daughter’s house. The place is neat as a pin, not a thing out of place, everything just so. Family photos line the mantel. Stuffed animals sit in a row by the window.

He said he wasn’t sure whether the neatness and his reputation for being on time came from his wife’s tutelage or growing up in a Marine family. His father joined the Marines in 1914 and served for 43 years, both on active duty and as a civilian.

Frank Wilson was born in 1917 in Washington, D.C., and soon moved to Hyattsville. He graduated from high school in 1935, right in the middle of the Depression. He was able to get a few jobs here and there — cab driver, parking lot attendant, grocery clerk at the A&P. Then he went to work at the American Red Cross’ Washington headquarters.

When World War II broke out, Wilson joined the war effort — in the Marines, of course. He was assigned to the quartermaster and payroll department. After he was discharged in 1946 he stayed in California for about 10 years before heading back East.

For the next 27 years, he was a salesman for a wholesale kitchen supply company. He retired in 1982. “A month later, I went to work for one of my customers,” he said. “Worked there for 17 years and retired again.”

That was 1999. A year later he took the job as a county crossing guard. “And here I am.”

Wilson shuttles high school pedestrians across the street until 7:20 a.m. Then he takes a break until 7:45, when middle-schoolers parade by. At 8:05 he is done — with his morning shift. He’s back at his post by 2:05 p.m., when he works until 3:15 p.m.

He said he will keep doing his job until he can’t do it anymore. “I just can’t see being unemployed,” he said during an interview between shifts. “I am dependable and I can’t sit around and just do nothing.”

The county’s supervisor of crossing guards, Bill Anderson, said Wilson takes pride in his job, and “he interacts well with the students.” Three out of his nine years as a crossing guard, Wilson has had perfect attendance, including the past school year.

Anderson finds Wilson’s work ethic and drive amazing. “I’m hoping I can just get out of bed when I’m 92,” he said, only half joking.