Frank grew up in New Orleans and attended Benjamin Franklin High School, where he discovered his passion for ham radio. His call sign, W6NJR (W6 Nemec Junior), couldn’t have been more perfect. While attending MIT, he met the woman he went on to marry (Laurie, attending Boston University for Math), bonding over shared passions like Star Trek and singing in the church choir.
After graduating in 1968 with a BS in Electrical Engineering, Frank moved to San Jose, CA, and started his career at IBM. He and Laurie married in August, and the next year moved to Philadelphia where Frank served at the Marine Corps Supply Activity. They returned to California in 1971, and Frank earned his MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley and returned to work at IBM. Family life soon blossomed with the arrival of a son, Philip, and a daughter, Cayley. The year after Cayley's birth, they moved into a unique 12-sided house on Bohlman Road, built to their own custom design. As the years passed, the family continued to grow with their son and daughter’s marriages. Family was a cornerstone of their lives, anchored by a cherished tradition of Sunday family lunches (often followed by game-playing).
In 2004, Frank was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment, but he defied the typical timeline, amazingly continuing his work at IBM until 2011. Then, without the time constraint of full-time employment, Frank had more time to read (particularly about physics, cognitive neuroscience, early Christianity, and Judaism), and enjoy fascinating discussions with folks from Mensa (particularly in the Big Ideas Reading Group) and Triple Nine Society.
He and Laurie continued to travel the world together (including various Mensa Gatherings), but this became less frequent as their mobility issues increased. They finally said goodbye to their “house on the hill” in 2022, and moved into assisted living in 2024. True to his spirited nature, Frank took the entire family back to New Orleans in July 2025 for what he called his “last gasp trip.” Frank passed away from cancer in January 2026, rejoining Laurie just eight months and a day after her passing.
They are survived by their two children and three grandchildren.
