Frank Rampolla was born in New York City in 1931, where he also took his early academic training. He received his BFA from Boston University in 1960. He moved to Sarasota in 1960 and taught painting, drawing and color design at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art until 1968. Until his untimely death in 1971, Rampolla taught painting at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He was the first living artist to mount a solo show at the Ringling Museum. In 1983, he had a posthumous solo show at the Arts Center, curated by Eric Lang Peterson.