An
Appreciation by Douglas W. Fuerstenau and Raja V.
Raman
Frank Fulton Aplan graduated from South Dakota Mines in 1948 with a degree in metallurgical engineering and went on to become one
of the most influential leaders of the mineral processing industry and academia
for the past 60 years. Aplan, was who was also a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at The Pennsylvania
State University, passed away peacefully at Berwick, Pennsylvania on Tuesday,
November 3, 2020. His association with
the mineral engineering profession had many dimensions – an engineer, a
scientist, a manager of research, and a teacher to name a few, and his
performance in each of these roles, simply outstanding. Most
of all, Frank was an outstanding human being, brilliant, dedicated, gritty, hardworking and demanding. He
expected excellence from himself, and from everyone else. All his friends have
learned many lessons to accept and deal with adversity from Frank's four
difficult but successful campaigns against cancer. He was a warm and friendly person
who assuredly provided wise counsel and a helping hand. Frank often said that “no man is an island.
There is a half dozen or more people that probably helped you along career. I
guess that my philosophy is that often you cannot pay back but you can pay
forward…. that is why I've gone out of my way to recommend all kinds of people
for awards and honors and so forth and I try to give generously to cha...