REDLANDS >> Frank Wiswell is “The Cookie Man.”
Every week, the 89-year-old resident of Plymouth Village gets on his red electric tricycle and delivers homemade baked goods to his neighbors and employees at the retirement community, where he has lived for the past five years.
“I love it here,” Wiswell said on a recent baking day, placing rounded mounds of cookie dough onto a baking sheet. “People wait on me and all the residents are nice, so that’s why I like to cook and give to them to show my appreciation of how everybody is so nice here.”
Wiswell has no need for recipes, nor does he measure his ingredients, which are of a healthy variety. He often uses applesauce, pumpkin, raisins and oats, and he stays away from shortening. He makes doughnuts using mashed potatoes, and his zucchini bread, he says, is a popular request.
“I don’t think I have a favorite,” he added. “I like to make what people like.”
Originally from Massachusetts, Wiswell was a cook in the U.S. Navy during World War II, when he spent time on the USS Wisconsin and USS Missouri.
“I was a cook in the Navy. We never measured there,” Wiswell said. “My wife used to say, ‘Aren’t you going to measure?’ I’d say, ‘That would spoil the fun.’ ”
After he was discharged, Wiswell took a job at a paper mill. But, looking for warmer weather, he and his wife moved to Lone Pine, where he worked at Pittsburgh Plate Glass. When the plant closed he turned down a position in Sierra Leone, Africa, and instead went to work as a maintenance foreman for Foote Mineral in Silver Peak, Nevada. He moved up to general superintendent, and after 17 years with the company, Wiswell retired at age 56.
He and his wife traveled and eventually moved to Banning.
“We traveled this country for 10 years and really had a good time,” he said.
When his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Wiswell cared for her until her death nine years ago.
The couple had three children, all of whom are now retired, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
“We had a really good marriage and everything worked out real fine for us and we were very fortunate,” he said. “And still things are going in my favor.”
Wiswell is known throughout the retirement community not only for his baking, but also for his work cleaning up the village’s workshop where he spends time fixing picture frames and furniture for fellow residents.
Woodworking is a longtime hobby of Wiswell’s. He built much of his furniture himself.
“It keeps me out of trouble,” Wiswell said.
