Glen Arbor remembers World War II pilot, best-selling author

By Fred Tasker
Sun contributor
In a study overlooking the peaceful Crystal River in Glen Arbor, Frank Robert Westie sat for five years writing some of the most horrific air combat scenes of World War II — as part of a searing, anti-war novel called Ash Wednesday ’45.
The best-selling novel, built around the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, expressed the author’s continuing grief and guilt over what he considered the worst atrocity ever committed by American forces in war.

But residents of Glen Arbor, where Frank summered and lived for the last 40 years of his life, were more likely to know him as the intellectual but pun-ready fellow who kibitzed with customers at the former Glen Arbor Farm Market and drove his baby blue Cadillac in the Fourth of July parade, filled with relatives carrying silly signs. He was also well known on the Glen Arbor tennis courts, where for years he short-lobbed generations of friends and relatives.
Frank died on March 5, 2004, at 82.
A memorable Glen Arbor moment occurred on a snowy day in 1995 when Frank Westie debuted his book at a well-attended signing at the Cottage Bookstore in Glen Arbor.
“Ash Wednesday ’45 was my best-seller for four or five years — until I ran out of books,” says Barbara Siepker, the bookstore owner. Barbara eagerly awaits the re-publication of Ash Wednesday ’45 this fall, and the possible publication of a “prequel” called Stosh, which recounts the pre-war life of one of the original book’s characters in Dearborn, MI.
Frank’s own early days were also spent in Dearborn, where he attended Fordson High School. A group of local Fordson graduates still get together annually in Traverse City. Frank joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. He flew 36 combat missions with the Eighth Air Force out of England, in some of the most hotly contested raids over Germany, France and Russia.
After the war, Frank earned his doctorate at Ohio State University and then taught for 33 years as a sociology professor at Indiana University. By the early 60’s he and his wife, Margaret, were spending a lot of time in northern Michigan, vacationing in Empire, Leland and Glen Arbor before buying the “Crystal Cottage” on Fisher Road in Glen Arbor in 1970.
“Dad loved Glen Arbor,” says Anne Wiesen, his daughter, who also lives in Glen Arbor. “He and Mom always had lots of visitors, and Dad took a lot of pride in showing off the area by taking company on rides in his convertible.”
Anne, who spent high school summers here with her parents, met another summer resident in 1975, named Dan Wiesen, who was attending Michigan State University. They married a year later, and also now live on Fisher Road, two houses down from Frank and Margaret’s house.
For years, Anne and Dan co-owned the now defunct Glen Arbor Farm Market with Frank and Margaret. They also joined forces to build the Glen Arbor Lakeshore Inn. Dan and Anne now own the Glen Arbor Cabinet Shop, and Dan is a varsity football coach at Glen Lake High School. They have four children: Matthew, 22, Alex, 18, Sarah, 15 and Claire, 8.
Matt, who just graduated from the University of New Hampshire, is the new owner of Crystal River Outfitters in Glen Arbor, featured in the June 17 issue of the Glen Arbor Sun. Alex, an avid skier, was on the Glen Lake state championship team this year. Sarah and Claire are also active in Glen Lake schools.
Over the years, Frank and Margaret’s Crystal Cottage became a popular gathering place for family and friends. Frank’s brother, Charles, and sister, Helen, had settled in Empire. And there was always the extended Wiesen family, which became “part of the Westie family and vice versa,” according to Anne. Friends came from far away for Margaret’s good food and Frank’s lively conversation.
Frank also took pride in his son, Kurt Westie, an accomplished musician who plays mandolin, piano, guitar and other instruments. Kurt has played in many local groups and can be seen summers joining in on the deck at Boone Docks.
Frank was often seen on his paddleboat or cruising in his motorboat around Fisher and the Glen Lakes with his grandchildren, who called him “Poppy Frank”.
To the outside world, however, Frank was best known for his novel, based on his experience as a B-17 “Flying Fortress” pilot during the Second World War. In autobiographical essays, he confessed that his psyche was dominated by the realization that he had participated in the destruction of Dresden — a non-military target, where the human loss and destruction were comparable to that of Hiroshima.
Ash Wednesday ’45 topped the Best Seller list in northern Michigan for many weeks upon its publication in 1995, in both hard and soft cover. It was also a top seller in the other area where it was marketed — southwest Florida, around Frank and Margaret’s winter home in Naples.
William G. Milliken, former governor of Michigan, himself a survivor of 50 combat missions in World War II, called Ash Wednesday ’45 “a moving, disturbing book. I lived every moment of it.”
Detroit News columnist George Weeks, of Glen Arbor, said: “Frank Westie does for World War II what Bruce Catton did for the Civil War. He puts us right there.”
Two printings of the book sold out, and it will now be re-published by Petoskey Press, owned by publisher Brian Lewis of Traverse City. It is expected out later this year, perhaps in conjunction with Stosh, the prequel.
In devoting his post-war life to the cause of peace, Frank also turned to music. A gifted pianist and composer, he completed a cantata, Pacem in Terra (Peace on Earth) in the final days before his death. The cantata was performed on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend at the Leland Community United Methodist Church, by his beloved church choir, with which he had sung for many years. Accompanying the choir were pianist Becky Jolliffe of Leland and string bass soloist Rick Jaissle of the Traverse Symphony Orchestra. The cantata was directed by Jeremy Evans of Maple City and Dick DeVinney of Glen Arbor, church organist and owner of Synchronicity Gallery in downtown Glen Arbor.
For many years, Frank had wished for “a soprano in the family.” It finally happened with granddaughter Anne-Marie Westie Tasker of Miami, a sophomore vocal performance major at Indiana University, who sang the soprano solo in the cantata, a solo written specifically for her by her grandfather. It was a touching moment for the family.
“My father loved Glen Arbor and God’s Country, as he called this area. It was where he wanted to debut his writing and his music and the place he loved to be most in this world,” said his daughter, Katharine Westie, of Miami, Fla.
A Memorial Service was held for Frank at the Leland Community United Methodist Church in March, and he was interred in May at Maple Grove Cemetery in Empire. He was buried beside his brother, Charles and daughter Joanna Westie Gell.
His wife, Margaret, continues to reside in Glen Arbor during the summer, wintering in Naples.