Frank Gibson, TCOG’s first executive director who had the idea to create an open government coalition in Tennessee, passed away Sunday morning in Florida.
Frank served as TCOG’s executive director for TCOG from 2003 until 2011 when the Tennessee Press Association recruited him to be its public policy director. However, he remained active on the TCOG board through the rest of his life, contributing day-to-day guidance and strategy. In 2014 and 2015, he wrote “Keys to Open Government,” a guide to Tennessee’s open records and open meetings law.
Frank was a journalist for more than four decades. From the small West Tennessee town of Gleason, Frank got his first job as a copy boy in Nashville at The Tennessean while still a teenager. He left for a stint in the Armed Services during the Vietnam War and later went to the University of Tennessee, where he graduated and served as editor of The Daily Beacon. He came back to The Tennessean, working as a reporter, city editor and political editor.
Frank’s idea for a statewide coalition that could advocate and educate on the state’s open government laws arose from his work as a journalist and his time on the FOI committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. While still working at The Tennessean, and with the encouragement of his bosses, including John Seigenthaler and Frank Sutherland, Frank answered calls from journalists throughout the state who were dealing with government officials who would not share public records or who tried to hold governing body meetings in private…