Rochester — Frank Cameron Zumpfe, also known as Frank “Courageous” Zumpfe to his buddies, and “Frankie” to those who loved him most, passed away Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, following a period of failing health. He was 88 years old, and he filled every one of them.

Born June 2, 1937, in Boston, Massachusetts, Frank was the son of the late Walter and Cecilia (Cameron) Zumpfe. He served his country in the United States Army, and when he came home he found his calling in the sky (not in planes just yet, though that would come) but in iron, walking steel beams high above the ground as a proud member of Ironworkers Local 7.

For decades, Frank helped raise the skyline of New England and beyond. From the summit of Mount Washington, where he helped build the observatory that still stands watch over the White Mountains, to the bridges and buildings of Boston, New York, and points in between, the structures people trust with their lives carry, invisibly, a little bit of Frank Zumpfe in their bones. He was a man who built things meant to last.

And he brought that same enormous ambition home with him.

Frankie didn’t do anything small. He would launch a project with the same energy he brought to a job site. One year it was a proper working farm, animals, barn, land and all. And then a bridge needed building, or a deadline pressed, and Frank would be gone. Sharon fed the pony, kept the chickens, cared for the children and that was the reason the farm and family made it, the same way she was the reason most things Frank started survived.

Frank was gruff. Direct. Plain-spoken. His loyalty ran deep and steady. He was a most generous man. His word meant something. When Frank was on your side, he was all the way on your side.

Frankie was the one who raced motorcycles and went skydiving and took up scuba diving and flew planes, because boredom was never something Frank had much patience for. He restored antique cars. He traveled to places he loved: Nantucket, York Beach, Gloucester, Alaska, and across the Atlantic to Germany and Austria and across the pacific to Hawaii.

Franklin is survived by his beloved wife, Sharon (Victorine) Zumpfe of Rochester, NH; his children Kristin Seaward and her husband Robert of Concord, NH; Sharilyn Mott of Dover, NH; Michelle Blum and her husband Micah of Candia, NH; and Derek Zumpfe and his wife Kali of Barrington, NH. He was the proud grandfather of Hunter, Calvin, Aidan, Lauren, Kayley, Sarah, Lindsay, Charles, and Maya, and is survived by many nieces and nephews who knew what it meant to have Frank Zumpfe in their corner.

He was predeceased by his siblings Ralph Zumpfe and Dorothy Lloyd.

Mass of Christian Burial Tuesday, June 2, 2026 (his 89th birthday) at 10:00 AM St. Ignatius Parish, St. Martin Church 120 Maple Street, Somersworth, NH

He built things meant to last, from the top of Mount Washington on down.

He was one of them.