Frank Ballard

Frank Willard Ballard (December 7, 1929 – June 4, 2010) was an American puppeteer and educator. Serving as Professor of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut from 1956 to 1989, Ballard developed internationally renowned programs for puppetry education. The university-operated Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry was named in his honor. The museum opened in 1996 and was moved to a prominent new location in the downtown business district of Storrs near the main UConn campus in 2014.

Early life and education Born in Alton, Illinois, on December 7, 1929, Ballard began making puppets and producing shows while in elementary school. He ran his own troupe during school and college. His aunt Margaret helped build puppets, his father Glen built stages, and his mother Alice drove him to performances.

Ballard earned his Bachelor of Arts from Shurtleff College in 1952 and his Master of Arts from the University of Illinois in 1953. and launched a Bachelor of Fine Arts in puppet arts in 1966—the first such program in the United States. Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degree programs soon followed, with the first master's degree in puppet arts awarded in 1974. As of 2010, UConn was one of only two American universities offering a BFA in puppet arts and the only one offering a master's degree in the subject.

Over the following three decades, Ballard taught generations of students, oversaw four hundred student puppet shows, and directed over a dozen large-scale puppet productions of well-known plays and musicals, including The Mikado (1968), Two by Two (1976), The Magic Flute (1986), H.M.S. Pinafore (1989).

Ballard died on June 4, 2010, at his home in Storrs, Connecticut. The cause of death was complications from Parkinson's disease.