He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and completed his BA at Wake Forest University and his MA at North Carolina State University. Moving to Toronto to attend York University, he completed his Ph.D. in 1969. When he attended North Carolina State University, the civil rights movement was ending formal apartheid in the South and many of his professors in the psychology department were deeply moved by the events. Some felt compelled to add their voices to those opposing apartheid and Frank was among the students who also added their voices. That experience introduced him to mindfulness because it was apparent in the quiet steady presence he saw among the civil rights workers he walked alongside.