On Friday evening February 18, 1966 at 11:26 P.M., Frank McGonagle was stopped at a traffic light two miles from his home in Swansea, Massachusetts, with his wife, Charlotte, in their Triumph TR-4 sports car. Suddenly the world exploded. A car stuck them from behind and the Triumph caught fire. Passing motorists pulled Frank out just before the car exploded killing Charlotte and their unborn child of six months.

Frank suffered third degree full thickness burns to the top of his head and neck. His ears were mostly burned off, but miraculously his face sustained only first-degree burns. His hands, covered by gloves, were spared but his wrist areas sustained third degree burns along with some first-degree burns to his legs.

Frank spent the next three months in the hospital receiving treatment for his third and second degree burns while his brother and sister-in-law cared for his four children (aged seven to two). During the next three years Frank was in and out of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for nine reconstructive surgeries.

At the time of this accident Frank was advertising manager for Fram Filter Corporation. He returned to work after six months and in 1974 was named vice president for the company, which had become a division of Bendix Corporation.  The Rhode Island Advertising Club elected him Advertising Man of the Year in 1981.

Frank is active member of the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors and served as President of this organization's board of trustees in 1993 and 2000. He is currently involved in assisting the Phoenix Society's programs for survivors of the. Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island where one hundred perished and over one hundred fifty suffered serious burn injuries.

Frank is principal of his own business, packaging and marketing broadcast properties specializing in the automotive field. The most recent is the concept, packaging and marketing strategy for the "Two Guys Garage" and "Truck Universe" series on cable television's Speed channel.

Frank and his wife of twenty-nine years, Arlene, reside in Providence, Rhode Island where he is an avid sailor and tennis player. Four of his and Charlotte's children are married and have blessed Frank and Arlene with a total of eleven grandchildren.