Frank Waterman Stearns was an American businessman whose father, Richard H. Stearns

R. H. Stearns

Richard Hall Stearns was a wealthy tradesman, philanthropist, and politician from Massachusetts whose self-titled department store became one of the largest department chains in Boston and the surrounding area....

 had founded the R. H. Stearns department store and company in Boston. His mother was Louise M. Waterman.

After graduating from Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 in 1878, he joined his father's retail dry goods firm in Boston. He became a partner in that company in 1881 and was appointed chairman of its Board of Directors in 1919.

Frank Stearns was an early supporter and close friend of his fellow Amherst College alumnus, Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...

 whose political career, culminating in the presidency following the death of president Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

in 1923, he championed.

In 1880 Stearns married Emily Williston Clark.

Frank Waterman Stearns died in Boston in 1939.