Franklin George Alexander Yellen

Franklin G. A. Yellen, 90, of Caldwell, Idaho passed away September 30, 2022 of natural causes. He was born September 1, 1932 to Joseph and Lillian Yellen in Bottineau, North Dakota. He attended grade school in a one-room schoolhouse where it was his job to start the fire in the morning. He had two sisters and three brothers: Jeanette, Marolane, James, Lawrence, and Ted. The family farm was near the Canadian border. He went to Canada on a Boy Scouts field trip. It was the first of many foreign countries he visited during his life. 

After the Depression the family tried life in California and Arizona. They bought a farm near Salem, Oregon and raised strawberries. He enjoyed building control-line balsa wood flying model airplanes and learning magic tricks. Again, Frank worked on the family farm, and also at a cannery where he joined the Teamsters. In 1950, as a junior, he was Oregon’s high school state champion wrestler.

Always motivated and eager to learn, he took electrical and radio theory correspondence courses. He most liked power supplies. He wanted a related job in the military and joined the U.S. Army in 1953. He asked for radio schooling which required passing an examination board's question battery. The questions were mostly about power supplies, his specialty. 

Frank was in the Eighth Army’s Signal Corps in Korea. His primary job, originally, was to adapt naval radios for use on tanks. Later, he installed and operated President Park’s public address system during a speaking tour.

In 1955 he began working at the new family business, Utility Electric in Nampa, Idaho. (It opened in 1949. It changed names several times as their services changed.) They repaired commercial refrigeration systems and home appliances, including refrigerators. He continued to love airplanes. In 1958 and 1959 he took flight lessons from Clark’s Flying Service in Nampa. He wanted to become a commercial pilot and flight instructor. Frank’s training was interrupted due to his instructor’s unfortunate death. Later, he seriously considered reenlisting in the Army to fly helicopters in Vietnam.

He bought a house in Nampa. He took dance lessons, where he met Avalee Hurn. They were married on New Year’s Eve of 1959 at the Brethren Church in Nampa. They raised their two children, Carl and Colleen, in Nampa. Frank and Avalee took evening classes together at Boise State University. When they took BSU classes in Florida they enrolled their oldest child, Carl. The professors for those classes were NASA engineers, including Wernher von Braun. They bought houses and built a rental business and worked and worked. Frank performed a parlor magic show for the Cub Scouts and various civic organizations.

Flight was in Frank’s blood. He didn’t become a commercial pilot, but he joined the Boise Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the Air Force. He established the Nampa Senior Composite Squadron and was involved in many aerial searches for persons lost in the wilderness and crashed or lost aircraft. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Many of the Yellen family camping trips were to mountain airstrips in the forests of Idaho with the Civil Air Patrol to perform maintenance.

They divorced in 1981. In 2004 he married Faye Sorensen at Lucky Peak Reservoir. They loved the adventure and experience of travel. Many of their trips were written about in the Idaho Press Tribune. Also, he gave educational presentations on his travels at the Caldwell Public Library. He visited a total of thirty-six foreign countries. Some countries he visited more than once. He spoke Czechoslovakian, which was helpful in Slavic countries. Together, they were also active in the Edelweiss Club, Boise’s German club, where they were in a folk-dance group and gave public performances. For years he played Santa Claus and gave children presents during their Kinderfest with his grandchildren Rachael Uzzel, Grant Uzzel and Alexander Yellen alternating through the years as his elf helpers. Frank returned to Korea in 2005 and was awarded the Ambassador for Peace Medal for his wartime service.

He was a craftsman with an artistic soul. Among friends and family he advocated for big ideas. Some were political. He talked about Zen Buddhism for a while and about buying a cabin in Siberia, because Idaho is as “hot as a firecracker” in the summer. He did tremendous amounts of work, free of charge, for customers who couldn’t afford new equipment. He was well-known and highly regarded in the Treasure Valley and beyond.

Frank worked in the family business–finally, named Yellen Appliance Parts Service Center–for fifty-five years, until he and his brother Lawrence closed it in 2010. It was open sixty-one years. He was a member of Junior Chamber of Commerce, Civil Air Patrol, Elks, Veterans of Foreign Wars (life member), American Legion, Edelweiss Club, and Korean War Veterans Association.

He was preceded in death by his parents Joseph and Lillian Yellen; his sister Jeanette McCormick; and his brother James Yellen. 

He is survived by his brothers Ted and Lawrence Yellen; his sister Marolane Stevenson; his children 

Carl Yellen and Colleen Nielsen; his grandchildren Alexander Yellen, Grant and Rachael Uzzel; his first wife Avalee Maiberger and his wife Faye Yellen.

A funeral service will be held at Alsip and Persons Funeral Chapel at 404 10th Ave. S. in Nampa, Idaho at 11:00 AM, October 14, 2022. Interment and military honors will follow at 1:00 PM at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens at 15862 S. Indiana Ave. in Caldwell, Idaho.

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