frautschi graduated from harvard college in 1954 and received his phd from stanford university in 1958, having written his dissertation on "pc conservation in strong interactions and wide angle pair production and quantum electrodynamics at small distances", under the supervision of sidney drell. frautschi worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the groups of hideki yukawa at kyoto university and later of geoffrey chew at the university of california, berkeley. he was an assistant professor at cornell university before moving to caltech in 1962. at caltech he was the executive officer for physics in 1988-97, and master of student houses in 1997-2002. he received the feynman prize for excellence in teaching in 2014.