This involved a return to Washington, consultations with the Department of State and the Office of the President, and the final result of Turner’s efforts was the assignment of the Naval Headquarters compound in Manila, the Sea Frontier, to the agencies for housing and headquarters offices. Once staffed, Turner turned his attention to procuring steel and equipment, employing a Filipino staff for training, and preparing plans for the bridge replacement program. As rapidly a the Philippine Bureau of Public Works could be staffed and reorganized to accept responsibility for the work, it was shifted to them. Once again he demonstrated innovation and ingenuity by refitting a naval landing craft, an LCI, first as a survey ship to reach remote islands and later as a floating school for training Filipino engineers in highway techniques throughout the archipelago. In 1949, he was transferred, temporarily, to the American Embassy to coordinate all the rehabilitation programs of the nine U.S. Government agencies. His thoughtfulness, his courtesy, his consideration for others, and the high regard in which he was held by the Philippine Government made the assignment a highly successful one. His contribution to the Philippines was recognized by that Government’s making him a member of the Legion of Honor (Officer Grade) in 1951.
Turner returned to the United States in 1950 to become assistant to the Commissioner, Thomas H. MacDonald. In this capacity he coordinated the work on the Inter-American Highway and the many foreign missions engaged in highway activities in Ethiopia, Turkey, the Philippines, Liberia and many others, as well as taking on many special assignments. Here he brought into play his tremendous capacity for work—a 14- to 18-hour day was not unusual for him—and his extraordinary memory for detail. He had the ability to retain in his mind everything that he read and recall it months later.
In 1954, President Eisenhower appointed the President’s Advisory Committee on the National Highway Program, and Turner was appointed Executive Secretary for the Committee. At that time, the highway program was at a crossroads with many influential voices seeking to establish a National System of Toll Highways. One of the responsibilities of this Committee was to recommend whether to make the system, so obviously needed, toll or free. Turner worked unceasingly to place before the Committee all aspects of the problem, and it was largely due to his influence upon the Committee members that the decision was to recommend a National System of Interstate and Defense Highways to be financed in part by Federal excise taxes on automotive equipment, parts and fuel set up in a Trust Fund and in part by matching funds supplied by the States. Upon conclusion of the Committee report, Turner worked in liaison with the several congressional committees to convince them of the soundness of the recommendations and the need for the program. More than any other single individual, he may be said to be the “Father” of the Interstate Highway System. During his contacts with these committees, he again exhibited endless patience, sound reasoning and disregard of personal acclaim that had always distinguished his career.
About this time, a highly placed departmental official came into office who obviously had been directed to liquidate the highway organization or to severely diminish its activities and influence. As he worked closely with Turner, it became obvious also that his viewpoint was changing, and he became one of the strongest advocates of the organization and its responsibilities. Later he told one of his staff, “I decided that if an organization could produce a man like Frank Turner, there had to be some good in it, and I’d better take a real close look at it before I made any changes.”
From 1957 to 1967, Turner served as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Engineer for Public Eoads, and upon his shoulders fell the major responsibility for implementation of the legislation that had established the Interstate Highway System and provided for its funding. The difficulties and complexities of this challenge are discussed in other places in this history but the experience that he had gained in drafting the original legislation that had established the program stood in good
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