Frank Ahlgren served as editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal from 1936 until his retirement in 1968, having been named editor at the age of 33. He was appointed to the UT Board of Trustees in 1948. As a member of the board for 27 years, he obtained the trustees’ unanimous approval for creating a School of Journalism in 1957. He succeeded in getting new quarters for the school and in a new building that was originally intended for the Division of University Extension, with the thought that the school would be expanded into a college.
Ahlgren attended the University of Wisconsin at Racine and received a civil law degree from Southwestern University. In his obituary, the Commercial Appeal wrote that he and Edward J. Meeman, editor of the Memphis Press Scimitar, played key roles on the Memphis Community Relations Committee in peacefully integrating public facilities. He also played a major role in the Accrediting Council, an organization certifying that journalism and mass-communication-education programs met basic standards. He, together with the Commercial Appeal, established the Frank Alhgren endowment in the College of Communications (now College of Communication and Information). He was inducted into the Tennessee newspaper Hall of Fame in 2007.