John Frame held degrees/diplomas from the Universities of Glasgow, Reading and New Zealand, was a Past President of the British Grassland Society, and was a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies, the Institute of Biology and the Linnean Society of London. He was formerly Chairman of the Agricultural Division, The Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruive, Ayr and Leader of Grassland Studies for the three Scottish Agricultural Colleges. He published prolifically and lectured widely on his research and development in grassland management as a specialist Grassland Adviser, both at home and abroad, during consultancy secondments in the course of his 32 years at the College. His overseas interests included being a leader and liaison officer of a project, on behalf of FAO, to develop the role and potential of white clover in European grassland. John also worked with a number of FAO projects in Argentina and in countries in Eastern Europe where his valuable contributions were much appreciated.
John was the author of standard grassland texts, including Improved Grassland Management and, with J.F.L. Charlton and A.S. Laidlaw, on Temperate Legumes. He worked closely with FAO for a number of years to make information on temperate legumes more widely accessible, especially through the Internet. As a development from the electronic information now available in the Grassland Species Profiles (see Acknowledgements) on the FAO Grassland website John authored the joint FAO/Science Publishers book on Forage Legumes for Temperate Grasslands to make available to a worldwide audience the detailed information on and illustrations of 35 selected forage legume species in anticipation that this would contribute to more efficient and viable grassland farming. In 2005 John Frame co-edited the FAO/Science Publishers book Grasslands: Developments Opportunities Perspectives with S.G. Reynolds. His contribution to the science of grassland led to many awards, not least of which were: Honorary Life President of the European Grassland Federation, Honorary Academician of the Russian Ecological Academy, and Honorary Academician of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
John died in November 2006.