Frank Badart Kemp of Darien passed away peacefully at home on August 30, 2025, due to heart failure.
Born on September 30, 1943, to Blanche and Lemuel Kemp, Frank was raised at their home in Catonsville Md. He graduated from McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Md. in 1961.
As an American studies major at Yale’s Davenport College, he was active in campus programs, especially the Yale Political Union, taking great pleasure in hosting guest speakers of national reputation to a seminar chat, dinner, and then presentations to the larger student body.
He enlisted in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps, and upon graduation in 1965 was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry. His initial assignment was at Camp Casey, Tongduchon, Korea, 40 miles north of Seoul and near the Demilitarized Military Zone. His first assignment was an infantry platoon leader, prior to being promoted to first lieutenant and the battalion staff. Prior to his discharge from the Army, he taught marksmanship to basic trainees at Fort Dix.
At Columbia University he earned an M.B.A. in 1969, majoring in finance and information management and was hired into a start-up training program for liberal arts graduates by Arthur Young and Company. There, he learned the consultant’s discipline and thrived in projects devoted to computer systems and development.
While at Columbia he met and courted Judith Ann Budding who had graduated from Connecticut College while he was in the Army. Their marriage in the fall of 1969 marked the beginning of 44 years of bliss, starting in Murray Hill, then Brooklyn Heights, and a final move to Darien in 1987. Once settled in at Seagate Road in Darien, they began their commuting careers, together in the morning, but unable to coordinate the timings of their trips home.
With a love for sailing, clearly inherited from his dad, Frank ventured with Judy all over Long Island Sound, enjoying weeks-long cruises to places where they could anchor out and enjoy the sunsets. In later years, the sailing platform was an 18′ Marshall Catboat, a sturdy craft found mostly in the middle of the pack: neither the first, nor the last. After the years of sailing, he recently “went to the dark side” with a sturdy 19′ center console boat, taking it to Hartford, the Erie Canal and around Manhattan several times, for the pure joy of it.
Following a career at Arthur Young, Frank served as chief information officer (CIO)for the Municipal Bond Investors Assurance Corporation and the law firm of Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdun, completing his career as CIO at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants just after Y2K computer issues were resolved.
On their retirements in 2000, Frank and Judy launched into a most vigorous era of public service projects within Darien. Frank was recognized as a volunteer of the year in 2006, served on the boards of Person-to-Person and the Darien Arts Center and on the vestry of Saint Luke’s Parish. He served as president of the Darien Arts Center for several years, and as commander of the Darien Sail & Power Squadron. He relished the challenges of organizing the Squadron’s flare up session, as well as the boat camp, involving over 100 camper students and many volunteers’ boats.
Upon the loss of Judy in 2013, Frank returned to active participation in yet more civic activity, including teaching boating courses for the Darien Sail & Power Squadron. It has been estimated that he and his colleagues taught and certified over 3,000 students for their Connecticut boating licenses — many of whom remained good friends.
He was one of the longer-serving members of Darien’s Representative Town Meeting and was chair of the committee that has been revising the town’s charter and ordinances.
He is survived by his partner Margaret MacMillen and a great cloud of honorary nieces and nephews, and their kids.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Frank’s memory to Person-to-Person, 1864 Post Road, Darien CT 06820 or East Coast Contemporary Ballet, 15 Yew Street, Norwalk, CT 06850.