2005 Distinguished Alumnus - Jack Franke

Jack Franke is a professor of Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian from UT Arlington in 1987 and holds a master’s degree from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. His Ph.D. is in foreign language education from the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He worked for three years as an interpreter aboard Russian fishing trawlers in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Bering Sea and in 1990 began working as a Russian instructor at the Defense Language Institute. After spending time in Russia and Germany, Dr. Franke returned to Monterey in 1997 and, in 2001, became the youngest professor in the institute’s history.