The recipient of The Wanderer’s Marion Keel Award for 2025 is longtime resident, historian, public servant, and antiquarian Frank McNamee. McNamee was nominated for the award for his many behind-the-scenes contributions to the town and continued preservation of its history.
McNamee graduated from Bridgwater State College with a degree in Marketing and later earned his Master of History from Providence College. He also graduated with certifications from the Rhode Island School of Design’s Appraisal Studies Program and the H.F. du Pont Winterthur Institute Museum School in Delaware. Before his studies and just at the tail end of his high school journey, Frank and his mother Mary founded the Marion Antique Shop in 1974, just recently passing their 50th anniversary.
Frank said his “background is in history,” and that would be correct. Currently, Frank sits as curator of the Sippican Historical Society, having previously been president for approximately 20 years. He clarifies his work for the historic society, saying “I didn’t do it all by myself, I was just the boss.” McNamee’s work included obtaining the endowment funds for the Marion Music Hall’s restoration/renovation. The society also purchased the post office on Front Street, which was renovated to match its origin from 1940 with 19th/20th century refurbishment.
McNamee also spoke of the Sippican Historic Society Memorial Garden, also on Front Street near the society’s main offices, containing brass plaques of those notable to the town’s past and present. His work also included the Bandstand near Island Wharf and was exceptionally happy to succeed in raising funds for the renovation of the General Store in 2019. Frank personally thanked contractor Lars Olson for help with these projects. In 2022, the Marion Town House underwent exterior renovations, for which Frank also acquired funds, thanking Mike Vareka and Steve Gonsalves for their efforts as well.
Recently, Frank McNamee has taken up work as a member of the Friends of the Council on Aging. He assisted in the acquisition of portable, soundproofing walls to section off event and activity spaces efficiently at the Cushing Community Center.
McNamee acquired office space at the old “Marconi Building,” a property at 13 Atlantis Drive off Route 6 in the industrial center that had been owned by the Town of Marion. He explained the building was originally a powerplant built in 1914 by Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian-born inventor who worked in radio telegraphy, and that the site in Marion served as the transmission origin point for trans-Atlantic communications with the site on the Cape being the receiver. Though Marconi had won a Nobel Prize in Physics, as McNamee explained, his connections to Mussolini and the Italian National Fascist Party led the United States force the site to be sold to RCA Corporation. Later, the Town of Marion would acquire the land, and McNamee would purchase it from them.
Frank primarily uses the site for storage, though it is also where his Marion Antiques holds their auctions a few times a year. There are other tenants in the building, such as the aforementioned Lars Olson or the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA) who works with turtle preservation in the area. He recently hosted an auction at the site, where his nephew Desmond “Dezzie” took the helm at the family business, and spoke in front of the crowd of hundreds, and a virtual crowd of thousands.
On the side of his historical and antique work, he and his wife Diane, whom he credits with much continuous support in his work, volunteer at the It’s All About the Animals site in Rochester every week. He said, “I clean litter boxes. No one believes me, but I do!” He also said through Marion Antiques, he raises money for the non-profit. “We raised about $14,000 last year and are on track to do that again this year.”
With that, a “thank you” to Frank McNamee on behalf of The Wanderer for his continuing work in the Town of Marion. Congratulations on your recognition with the 2025 Marion Keel Award! History is all around us, but without those that work to preserve it, it will fade into obscurity.
2025 Marion Keel Award
By Sam Bishop
