Who was Morris Frank?

Morris Frank (March 23, 1908 – November 22, 1980) was a cofounder of the first guide-dog school in the United States. He was the first person to be partnered with a seeing eye dog and the co-founder of The Seeing Eye, a guide-dog school. He traveled the United States and Canada to promote the use of guide dogs for people who are blind or visually impaired, as well as the right of people with guide dogs to access restaurants, hotels, transportation, and other places that are open to the general public.

Frank was born in Nashville, Tennessee, as the third and youngest son of wealthy Jewish parents, John Frank and Jessie Hirsch Frank. At age six, he went blind in his right eye after hitting an overhanging tree branch while horseback riding; at age sixteen, he went blind in the other eye while boxing with a friend.

Frank met Dorthy Harrison Eustis who was training German Shepards in Switzerland as guide dogs. The two then set about creating a guide-dog training school in the United States, and on January 29, 1929, The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, becoming the first guide-dog school in the United States. Two years later, the school moved to Whippany, New Jersey, and in 1965 to its current location in Morristown, New Jersey.Frank retired from The Seeing Eye in 1956, at age 48, to found his own insurance agency in Morristown.