Frantz graduated second in the P&S class of 1922, one of only five women out of 74 students. She then became the first woman appointed a surgical intern at Presbyterian Hospital. At the time, surgery was an unheard-of career for a woman. The rigors of raising a family and the advice of her seniors convinced her to eschew a career as a clinical surgeon. She became instead an outstanding teacher and investigator. For 38 years, she taught second-year surgery at P&S, emphasizing the healing of wounds. From that course arose her textbook, Introduction to Surgery, now in its fourth edition. Around 1924 she launched the new field of surgical pathology, working with Stout, Clarke, and Lattes. After her death in 1967, the board of Presbyterian Hospital recognized her in a tribute: "Her individual attention to the evaluation of each student was a model and a stimulus to the succession of younger instructors whom she taught to teach in the second-year course. Her searching, yet humorous questions deflated cant and didactic presumption, and constantly challenged her students to replace rote memory with constructive and critical thought."

Adapted from "Faculty Remembered" by Nicholas P. Christy MD 1951 (P&S Journal, Spring 1995)