Lieutenant Frank Everett McNett served with the Dental Corps within the Army’s Medical Department. At the time of his death he was posted to Camp Greenleaf, a medical officer training camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He died of pneumonia following influenza in nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee, on December 18, 1918. Frank was one of just three physicians selected to complete a course of study at Columbia University in plastic surgery and reconstruction. Funeral services, with full military honors, were held at the camp.
His wife was with her husband at the time of his death and escorted his body, accompanied by a military escort, to Portland, Oregon, for burial. Frank is buried at Riverview Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. (bit.ly/uw_mcnett). Frank was married to Marian Cole Atwater, on April 26, 1916, in Portland. A cenotaph in his memory is also in his family’s plot at Evergreen Cemetery in Everett.
A native of South Dakota, Frank was one of four children born to Henry Sanford McNett and his wife, Emma Julia Ward. In 1895 Frank and his family moved to Everett, Washington, where he graduated from Everett High School. The family later moved to Leavenworth. Frank attended the University of Washington for two years where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. He then transferred to North Pacific College – a professional school of pharmacy, dentistry and optometry – in Portland, Oregon, and graduated in 1915 with a degree in dentistry. He had opened his first practice in LaCrosse, Washington, prior to enlisting.