Frank M. Grunwald

Born in Olomouc Czechoslovakia, September 30, 1932. Family moved to Prague in 1934. Son of Dr. Kurt Grunwald and Vilma Grunwald. Older brother John (April 5, 1928).

Shortly after the Nazi army invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, Frank and his brother John were evicted out of public school. Frank and family are transported to the Terezin ghetto in the summer of 1942. In December of 1943 Frank and his family are transported to the Auschwitz - Birkenau concentration camp. Mother and brother are killed in the gas chamber on July 11, 1944, Frank is separated from his father and transported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in January 1945. He survives three other camps and is liberated by the US Third Array on May 4,1945 at the Gunskirchen concentration camp near Linz Austria. He is re-united with his father five weeks later and they resume their life in Prague.

Frank and his father escape from Czechoslovakia (which has been under Communist control since the summer of 1948) in the fall of 1949 and live in London till the spring of 1951. Frank, his father and stepmother Melitta immigrate to the United States. Frank receives his high school diploma from Forest Hills High School in NYC and completes four years of college at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY. He receives a degree in Industrial Design and has a career in product design and new product development with several large corporations (GE, Ford and Thomson Multimedia). His career is primarily in consumer product design , design management and product management. Frank married Barbara (Erhardt) in 1961 and they have two sons and five grandchildren.
 

Frank's favorite pastime is playing music from the "American Song Book" on the piano accordion. He also enjoys painting, sketching and doing sculpture.

Frank retired from the corporate arena in January of 2002 and has lectured at various colleges and design schools on the subject of new product development and product design. He has been a visiting lecturer at Purdue University since 2002 on the subject of creativity and product innovation,
 

Frank and Barbara live on Geist Reservoir in Indianapolis.