Brian Joseph “Ski” Frankowski, a 25-year designer/fabricator for the Medical Devices Laboratory in the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, died January 6, 2024, at 60.
William Federspiel, professor of bioengineering in the Swanson School of Engineering, hired Frankowski in 1997 for his lab, which develops medical devices for critical care medicine patients experiencing respiratory failure, including blood purification devices. The two worked closely throughout the years.
“His impact was tremendous,” Federspiel says. Frankowski ran the machine shop in the lab, which made the prototypes to be tested there. “When we had these ideas … Brian would be the one who would translate the brainstorming into detailed mechanical drawings of what was to be manufactured.”
He also worked through the years with Ph.D. students in Federspiel’s lab, guiding them through bench testing of devices, and worked with McGowan’s Center for Preclinical Studies’ further research on the devices. He had excellent relations with other staff and faculty, Federspiel says: “Brian really had an infectious personality and people just loved the guy. Everyone enjoyed Brian’s presence.”
Frankowski even helped to take the case to Harrisburg for state funding, Federspiel recalls.
“With his help over the years we probably brought in over $20 million in research funding,” he adds. “A lot of that was Brian’s” work, which resulted in his co-authorship of about 75 peer-reviewed research articles and more than 20 patents.
“Having Brian in the lab, he could really trouble-shoot all our pieces of equipment well,” Federspiel says. “Brian could fix just about everything. We rarely had to call in any specialized technicians.
“The success of my career at the University of Pittsburgh and at McGowan and in bioengineering, I just don’t think would have happened without Brian Frankowski.”
One of the Ph.D. students Frankowski oversaw and aided in the lab most recently was Katelin Samski, now a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology.
“Brian went above and beyond,” she says. “He did his job, but he did way more than just that. He was a mentor and a friend” to most of the graduate students. “It was invaluable to have someone like him, who had 25 years of experimental experience.”
She also appreciated his generosity in bringing in home-cooked and baked foods and even buying extra food for students. “He would always ask how you were and what you were up to. How excited I would be to tell Brian what I would be up to that weekend, and how excited he would be for me.”
She recalled an earlier moment of her time in the lab. “Brian was known for his tough love. He would tell it to you straight,” just to make sure you learned a procedure. Once, working on a very complicated experiment, she hadn’t gotten very far by the end of the day and was feeling very stressed. Frankowski offered to stay to help, but she assured him she would only need a few extra hours. At 4 a.m., she finally finished gathering the data but was too exhausted to clean up.
“I know I’m leaving it dirty,” she texted him. “I’ll come back and clean it up later.” But by the time she returned later that day he had taken care of everything. “Up until that time I had been a little intimidated by Brian,” she says. “It was all clean and dry and put away. That was probably a couple of hours of work. That’s when I knew he cared about me. That meant a lot to me. We were going to be good friends too.”
He is survived by parents Bob and Sandy Frankowski; spouse of 33 years Devin Frankowski; child Michael Frankowski; siblings Tracey Frankowski and Robin Geisler (Lloyd); and nieces Jessica Daley (Pat) Julia Geisler, Jennifer Geisler and Sarah Frankowski.
— Marty Levine