About Frank Heppner

Frank Heppner retired in 2010 after 40 years of teaching (mostly large) biology classes, including ornithology, at the University of Rhode Island. During this time, he had more than 25,000 students. Retirement seems to be pretty much like his former job; he teaches, writes, does research, and community service. The only differences are that he doesn't get paid, and his office is in the basement of his house. He's an active railfan, and has traveled more than 500,000 miles by train. He published a history book in 2012 titled Railroads of Rhode Island, and in 2019 published The Seventy Year Train Ride: 500,000 Miles by Rail, an illustrated book. He has written several books on teaching in universities, including Teaching the Large College Class: A Guidebook for Instructors with Multitudes (Jossey-Bass, 2007) and Forty Years in the Academic Trenches: Change Comes to an American University (Omis Press, 2020). All are available on amazon.com. He was for years Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Kingston Station organization. Although not a fan of Facebook, he set up a Facebook page for “Railroads of Rhode Island.” Simply go to Facebook, and search “Railroads of Rhode Island.” The site will attempt to be amusing and provocative—or at least as provocative as a book entitled Railroads of Rhode Island can be.