POINT LOMA — Kenneth Francis Franke, who died of kidney cancer at age 74 on Dec. 17, was probably the longest-working member of the United States Coast Guard (USCG), according to his son, Ken Franke, president of the Point Loma-based Sportfishing Association of California and formerly a lieutenant in the San Diego Harbor Police. Capt. Franke remained fascinated with the Coast Guard throughout his life, his son said. Although his formal Coast Guard career spanned 27 years, Capt. Franke was born into the service because his father, Radford Franke, was the last lighthouse keeper of Ballast Point Light, located at the current site of the Harbor Inn on the Point Loma submarine base. The USCG took over responsibilities from the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1939. The only child of Radford and Marie Franke, Capt. Franke was born March 13, 1936 and spent his first 18 years living at the lighthouse, helping his father with lighthouse-tending duties. In his teens, Franke frequently filled in as crew aboard the Coast Guard’s 83-foot rescue boat based at Ballast Point, searching the ocean for distressed mariners and downed air crews from North Island Naval Air Station. Following his graduation from St. Augustine High School, Franke enlisted in the USCG Reserve and attended the California Maritime Academy, where he earned a degree in marine engineering. He joined the USCG upon graduation and in 1958 married his high school sweetheart, LaVerne Heim, with whom he lived around the world while on assignments. They had four children, Ken, Anne-Marie, Randy and Karen, all of whom live in San Diego County. Even after his retirement in 1984, Franke maintained his connection with the Coast Guard, ships and lighthouses. He became a marine surveyor and served as executive director of the Maritime Museum of San Diego for several years in the 1980s. During his tenure, he helped restore the steam ferry Berkeley and Star of India — both moored at the Embarcadero — and set up a permanent exhibit commemorating the Ballast Point Lighthouse that was dismantled in 1960. Following this service, Franke spent the next 25 years training thousands of USCG inspectors in how to carry out marine safety inspections. Capt. Franke’s illness was sudden and brief, his son said. “Twelve weeks before his death, he was teaching Coast Guardsmen how to inspect ships,” said Ken Franke. “We’re all still in shock.” Capt. Franke was also a key resource for information about Ballast Point Light, said lighthouse researcher Karen Scanlon, who — with her twin sister Kim Fahlen — authored the book “The Lighthouses of San Diego.” The sisters tracked Capt. Franke down through his son to get his story of life growing up in the long-demolished lighthouse. “We called him ‘Little Kenny’ because of the two photos of him as a child with the life ring at the lighthouse,” Scanlon said. “It was the name we gave him. We just adored him. He had a Santa Claus twinkle, a gentle spirit, the neatest man.” In their book, the sisters recount Franke’s story of envying the “real foghorn signal” of Point Loma Light. “His” lighthouse (Ballast Point), he told them, “sounded like a goat entangled in a fence.” She recalls his generosity in helping them with their lighthouse research and sharing memories and family photos. In addition to LaVerne, his wife of 52 years, his four children and five grandchildren, Capt. Franke is survived by a legion of friends and admirers.
