FRUMP, Robert (R.) 1947-

PERSONAL: Born 1947, in Phoenix, AZ. Education: University of Illinois, graduated, 1969; Northwestern University, graduated, 1970; attended University of Virginia Darden School.

ADDRESSES: Home—Summit, NJ. Offıce—Standard & Poor's, 55 Water Street, 33rd Floor, New York, NY 10041. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, former investigative reporter; Journal of Commerce, former managing editor; McGraw-Hill, Standard & Poor's Division, New York, NY, vice president, 1986—.

AWARDS, HONORS: George Polk Award, for stories on Marine Electric disaster; Gerald Loeb Award, for coverage of maritime business affairs; Pulitzer Prize (with others), Philadelphia Inquirer team coverage of Three Mile Island.

WRITINGS:

Until the Sea Shall Free Them: Life, Death, andSurvival in the Merchant Marine, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Robert Frump worked as a journalist until 1986. He then made a career switch and began working as an executive in New York City. Until the Sea Shall Free Them: Life, Death, and Survival in the Merchant Marine is his first book.

On February 10, 1983, the Marine Electric, a coal ship, was traveling from Norfolk, Virginia to Somerset, Massachusetts with a full load of coal. Thirty miles off the East coast and just thirty hours into its journey the Marine Electric was overcome by twenty- to forty-foot swells and sank into the Atlantic Ocean. The thirty-four men comprising the ship's crew were thrown into the frigid waters around midnight; only three would survive the ordeal. Frump covered the story as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and in Until the Sea Shall Free Them he tells the story of the sinking of the Marine Electric through the efforts of survivor Robert Cusick to prove that the ship, which was a refurbished World War II vessel, was in poor condition and caused the deaths of thirty-one men. "From what begins as a powerfully told story of a marine disaster, Robert Frump constructs a riveting legal drama," noted Michael Kenney in a Boston Globe review.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Boston Globe, May 28, 2002, Michael Kenney, "Maritime Disaster Becomes Legal Thriller," p. E2.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2002, review of Until theSea Shall Free Them: Life, Death, and Survival in the Merchant Marine, p. 158.

Publishers Weekly, April 15, 2002, review of Until theSea Shall Free Them, p. 52.

online

Random House,http://www.randomhouse.com/ (July 19, 2002).

Silicon Valley,http://www.siliconvalley.com/ (July 19, 2002), Michael Kenney, "Until the Sea Dissects '83 Maritime Tragedy."

Tom Paine—Common Sense,http://www.tompaine.com/ (July 19, 2002), Steve Weinberg, "The Lost Art of Muckraking."

Web and Wire,http://www.webandwire.com/ (August 28, 2002), "Robert R. Frump."*