Frank Schaefer - rest in peace

Folks,

I mentioned at the start of this Provincetown report that at the sound check we sadly missed our dear friend, Ukulele Diva, and organizer of the show, Mary J. Martin. She missed the sound check and the show.

We saw her later that night and tried to console her for the loss of her beloved husband, Frank Schaefer, who passed away earlier that very day.

Below is Frank's obituary. I'm truly sorry I never got to meet him.

- Uke Man

Frank Schaefer Longtime proprietor of the White Horse Inn

Frank Schaefer, a long-time resident of Provincetown, died on Sept. 14 in the company of friends and in the arms of his wife, Mary.

For years his White Horse Inn, on Commercial Street, has welcomed artists, wanderers, the famous and not so famous, many of whom have returned season after season.

Frank was born in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad-Oblast) in 1937, and thus he lived his early years under Stalin and Hitler. He first arrived in America on a Fulbright scholarship as a journalism student.

His interests and accomplishments were many. He started the Wellfleet Al-Anon meetings and took part in the creation of the Fine Arts Work Center.

“I was always surrounded by artists,” he would say. As a lifetime member of the Provincetown Art Association, he did everything there from laying floors to repairing roof leaks at the same time that he himself was a painter and serious photographer.

The White Horse Inn was named after the famous White Horse Tavern in New York City, where he drank with and got to know some of the great visual artists of the day. As he restored the inn and furnished it, it became filled with art and other objects of interest — it has been dubbed, lovingly, “the world’s largest Cornell Box.”

He was Buddhist by action; he worked for world peace and the rights of others. The White Horse Inn was the first in town to rent to persons of color. He was also a concerned and constant friend to animals, especially to Boston, Maggie, Blackjack and Ida Tiger Lily.

He is survived by his sister, Ulrike Schaefer Frank of Berlin; his brother, Knut of Munich; a sister by his father’s second wife, Heike; his wife, Mary J. Martin; and his golden cat, Buckaroo.

A memorial service will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, his relatives ask that you do something remarkably kind in memory of dear, brave Frank.