Colonel Frank B. Wakeman, Medical Corps, was born at Sidney, New York on 15 May 1896.  He graduated in pharmacy from Valparaiso University (Indiana) in 1915, received his degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1916 and a B. S. in chemistry from the same school in 1917.  From August 1917 to 31 May 1919 he served as a First Lieutenant, Infantry Officers Reserve Corps, going overseas with the 369th U. S. Infantry.  After several years spent in the educational field, part of the time as a high school principal, he matriculated at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he received his M. D. in 1926.  After graduation and the completion of an internship at Walter Reed General Hospital, he practiced medicine in Indiana until 1928 when he was appointed a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, Regular Army.  He was promoted to Captain, on 3rd June 1928, major, on 4 June 1937, lieutenant colonel, on 1 February 1942, and colonel, on 8 September 1942

During his Army career Colonel Wakeman continued his scientific studies, receiving the degree of Master of Arts from Catholic University of America in 1933 and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the same institution in 1935.  In 1937 he earned the degree of Doctor of Public Health form Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.  Service courses which he completed were the basic course, Army Medical School, in 1929; the advanced course, Army Medical School, in 1036; the basic course, Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., in 1929; the advanced course at the same school in 1938; and the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1940.   

Teaching assignments during this period included a tour as instructor in biochemistry at the Army Medical School from 1932 to 1936, and a tour as instructor in sanitation at the Medical Field Service School from 1937 to 1939.  In 1938 he was awarded the Henry Wellcome prize by the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States for his essay on "A Specific Somatic Polysaccharide as the Essential Immunizing Antigen of the Typhoid Bacillus."  He was a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, and member of the the Society of American Bacteriologists and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.

In February 1940, Colonel Wakeman was assigned to the Training Division, Surgeon General's Office and became its director in July of the same year.  While serving in that capacity he laid the plans and was more responsible than any other man for the execution of the vast training program of the Medical Department during the current emergency and war.  He died at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey on 17 March 1944, of coronary occlusion, while attending a conference of G-3 officers.

The name of Wakeman General Hospital, camp Atterbury, Indiana, was announced in General Orders No. 34, War Department, 25 April 1944.

Colonel Wakeman received the posthumous award of the Legion of Merit for his meritorious work in connection with the training program of the Medical Department of the Army.