He then joined the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce where for a year he worked in the Commercial Intelligence Division. On February 2, 1927, Frank accepted a position with his present employer, Warner-Hudnut Inc., and after a year of training he began traveling, setting up agencies in most of the West Indian Islands, and every city of consequence in Central America and the north part of South America.

In 1930 Mr. Cleary went to the Orient and established headquarters in Shanghai, which later became a manufacturing branch. From Shanghai he covered China, Japan and the Philippines. In 1935, in company with his wife and their first child, he made a trip around the world, paying a visit to each of the company's European branches. In 1938 he made a survey of New Zealand where he established a manufacturing branch, and then was transferred to Australia. He lived in Sydney where he already had an organization and from where he could supervise the New Zealand branches. In 1940 he was recalled to New York to become assistant to the president, a position he held until that gentleman retired in 1946.

He then moved to Toronto, Canada, where he shouldered the responsibilities as president of three Canadian companies. In the summer of 1953 he received another promotion, this time to the office of Director British Commonwealth and Far Eastern Operations, charged with supervising branches in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and South Africa. He handles this huge task from offices in New York City where he lives, and is currently on another round the world business trip.

One of Frank C. Cleary's Canadian admirers made a statement that seems ideal for closing this biographical account:

His pyramid of success stands as a symbol for what can be accomplished with hard, honest, effort and loyalty to your position. Probably no more than a half-dozen men have the global experience in the field of cosmetics as has Mr. Cleary.

 

The Right Reverend Monsignor Thomas Cleary

This outstanding clergyman was born in El Paso, Illinois in 1889, the son of Michael J. and Julia Hanifin Cleary. After graduating from high school he taught for a time in the one-room country schools of that day. Following this he attended Notre Dame University where he received A. B. and M. A. degrees, (1910), St. Viator Seminary where he received his Ph.D. degree, (1914), and the University of Illinois, (1931). He was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in 1914, and from 1918 to 1929 he served as pastor of St. Mary's Church in Westville, Illinois. For the ten year period of 1929-1939 his religious work was confined to Champaign County, Illinois, where he taught religion for the Newman Foundation at the University of Illinois. From 1939 to 1943 Father Cleary was the spiritual head of St. Joseph's Church in Kewanee, Illinois, and since 1943 he has been

Page 260

Go to previous page

Go to next page

Go to El Paso Story gateway page