Views from the Shore
Every now and then, I meet someone whose story stops me in my tracks. This month, the featured individual is Frank Tamru, a South Jersey native, world traveler and author of a new memoir called “Power.” A portion of the proceeds from his book benefits Shore Medical Center, a place that holds deep meaning for him.
Frank’s connection to Shore begins with his late wife, Dr. Robin Carter, an OB/GYN who delivered countless babies here before her passing in 2014. “Robin lived to deliver babies,” Frank told me. “She called herself a ‘baby catcher’— she just loved bringing new life into the world.”
Displayed in the family room of Shore’s Maternity Care Center is a large poster of Robin holding a newborn, surrounded by dozens of other babies she helped bring into the world — a joyful tribute to the legacy she left behind.
Frank wrote the memoir for many reasons, but honoring Robin is chief among them. Donating part of each sale to Shore is his way of keeping her light burning in the place she loved most.
Frank grew up in Collingswood, New Jersey, served as an Army infantry officer in South Korea during the Vietnam War era, and — like many ambitious South Jersey kids — set his sights on New York City. He calls it “the graduate school of life.” Those early days weren’t glamorous. He drove a taxi to make ends meet, with stories to prove it — like the day two officers commandeered his cab.
When he asked where they wanted to go, one barked, “Just go!” As he sped down Second Avenue, he realized that the road to purpose is rarely straight. “Power” revealed itself to him that day.
Eventually, he found his lane in sales. A small ad in The Wall Street Journal — heart valve sales, New York territory — changed everything. Frank knew sales from his Procter & Gamble days, but heart valves? That was a leap. He took it anyway. He learned fast, listening to surgeons, shadowing cases and internalizing a simple truth: when a heart valve fails, there’s no Plan B. The work mattered.
From there, the world opened. He rose to lead teams in New York, then made a bold move: after running the 1979 New York City Marathon (4:35 — he remembers the time like his Social Security number), he boarded a train west.
Walking uninvited into the company president’s office in California, he said, “I’m here for that international job you promised.” Within an hour, he had a title, an office (a converted storage closet) and a new mandate: carry this lifesaving technology to the world.
What followed were chapters you’d swear were fiction if they weren’t so detailed — assignments in Australia, Japan, Singapore and across Southeast Asia. Partnerships came next with visionary surgeons. From ball-in-cage to tilting-disc to bileaflet designs, he watched innovation sprint forward, sometimes faster than the ethics that should have governed it.
Frank witnessed the best of medicine — the brilliance, teamwork and lives saved — and also the worst: boardroom calculi and the corrosive sway of perks and kickbacks. He doesn’t sensationalize it; he tells you what he saw and how it shaped him.
One friendship changed him profoundly: renowned heart surgeon Dr. Victor Chang. Together, they chased the idea that high-quality heart valves could be made closer to the patients who needed them most — affordable, reliable and accessible across Asia. They launched a company in Singapore, and for a time, it seemed like the future.
Then came tragedy: Dr. Chang was murdered in 1991. Investors pulled back, momentum stalled, but Frank, ever the survivor, found his footing again with a new firm and broader responsibilities. He spent 23 years in Asia, building a reputation not only as a sales leader but as a connector — someone who gave clinicians a platform to share research through the launch of a scientific heart journal. It was a first for Asia. He pushed for progress over polish.
Frank eventually returned home to Brigantine, and fate took its course. Through Match.com, he met Dr. Robin Carter, an OB/GYN at Shore. It was love at first sight. They married, built a life in Egg Harbor Township and found in each other a shared conviction: do the right thing for patients. Robin’s example reframed everything Frank thought he knew about medicine.
“She didn’t want lunches or trips or cash on the side,” he said. “She only wanted to do the right thing and provide the best care.”
When Robin passed suddenly from a stroke eleven years into their marriage, Frank did what he’s always done: he turned pain into purpose. “Power” — a decades-long journey to the Far East and back — is part love letter, part field report, part dare to anyone who thinks reinvention has an expiration date. It’s a story about the choices that shape us — showing up, speaking up and standing up when it counts.
Brian Cahill is the Director of Marketing for Shore Medical Center and Shore Physicians Group. He also volunteers on the Board of the Somers Point Business Association and is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at Stockton University.
