Barney Frank
Barnett Barney Frank is a former American politician and current board member of the New Yorkbased Signature Bank. He previously served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. As a member of the Democratic Party, he served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and was a leading cosponsor of the 2010 DoddFrank Act, a sweeping reform of the U.S. financial industry. Frank, a resident of Newton, Massachusetts, is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.
Frank was born Barnett Frank in Bayonne, New Jersey, one of four children of Elsie and Samuel Frank. His family was Jewish, and his grandparents had immigrated from Poland and Russia. Franks father ran a truck stop in Jersey Citya place Frank has described as totally corruptand when Frank wasor 7, served a year in prison for refusing to testify to a grand jury against Franks uncle. Frank was educated at Harvard College, where he resided in Matthews Hall his first year and then in Kirkland House and Winthrop House. He graduated in 1962. One of his roommates was Hastings Wyman of Aiken, South Carolina, later a political consultant who in 1978 began publishing The Southern Political Report. When Wyman invited Frank to visit in Aiken in the early 1960s, Frank made a point of drinking from the sinceabolished coloredonly water fountain then available to African Americans.
Source: Wikipedia