Braynard, Frank O. 1916-2007 (Frank Osborn Braynard, Frank Osmond Braynard)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Some sources cite middle name as Osmond; born August 21, 1916, in Sea Cliff, NY; died of pneumonia, December 10, 2007, in Glen Cove, NY. Maritime historian, nautical collector and curator, administrator, educator, publicist, editor, illustrator, and author. Braynard loved ships, and spent most of his life among them, teaching and writing about them. It was Braynard who conceived and organized Operation Sail, the famous eighteen-mile parade of tall ships and other craft that sailed through New York Harbor and up the Hudson River on Independence Day, 1976. It may have been his most publicized achievement, but it was only one of his many contributions to maritime history. Braynard spent much of his career in relatively low-key positions related to the sea. He was an information director for the American Merchant Marine Institute and a public relations director for a marine towing company. He was an editor of shipping news for the New York Herald Tribune and a press representative for the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It was his spare-time activities that fueled Braynard's passions. After the success of Operation Sail in 1976, Braynard became the founder and director of the Annual New York Harbor Festival and eventually the chair of the nautical marketing company Operation Sail Limited. He had been a founding member of the quaint South Street Seaport Museum as early as 1967, before it spread itself over seven city blocks and three riverside piers, and became a part-time curator of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy museum in 1979. He also produced nearly fifty books that reflected his love of the sea and shared his enthusiasm with generations of readers. One of Braynard's favorite topics was the subject of his six-volume tribute, Leviathan: The World's Greatest Ship (1972-1983). The story of his most famous accomplishment was the subject of Search for the Tall Ships: A Sketchbook of the Ships That Came to Operation Sail 1976, the Places Visited in Finding Them, and the Liners Sailed On in This Search (1978). His other books, often illustrated with his own drawings, included Classic Ocean Liners (1990, 1994), Picture History of the Cunard Line, 1840-1990 (1991), and The Tall Ships of Today in Photographs (1993).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Braynard, Frank O., Search for the Tall Ships: A Sketchbook of the Ships That Came to Operation Sail 1976, the Places Visited in Finding Them, and the Liners Sailed On in This Search, Operation Sail (New York, NY), 1977.

PERIODICALS

New York Times, December 14, 2007, p. C17.