Frank Joseph Silvestro, one of eight surviving children of the late John and Leonora De Franco-Silvestro, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on 02 November 1927. He was baptized on Christmas Day, 25 December 1927 at the Church of the Sacred Heart, also in Boston. Not long after his birth the large Silvestro family moved to Medford, MA and became parishioners of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Medford where Frank was confirmed on 05 May 1942 by the Most Rev. Richard J. Cushing, of the Archdiocese of Boston.

Frank attended Curtis Public Grammar School [1932-1933]; Forest Park Public Grammar School [1933-1938]; Roberts Junior High School [1938-1942]; and Medford High School [1942-1945]. After his high school graduation in 1945, Frank attended MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] in Cambridge, MA from 1945 to 1948 where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1948.

After one year of employment as an engineer with the Lima Hamilton Corporation in Boston [1948-1949], Frank returned to MIT where he worked as a researcher and began his graduate studies [1949-1952]. During these years at MIT he continued to be an active member of the parochial community of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Medford as a volunteer in the St. Vincent de Paul Society and friend of Fr. William Foley, pastor.