August 14, 1924 - September 30, 1997

The obituary said that Irwin Franzel was a scientist, a scholar and a sailor.  While this is certainly true, it doesn't say enough.  He was a humanist and a sage. He spent his life working for the betterment of mankind.  (Although I don't think I realized that until just a few years ago.)   He was also a great story teller, and a great man.  And yet, his family was first and foremost his greatest love, his greatest source of pride.

When I began, I thought that creating this website would be a catharsis - would make the pain of missing Dad subside, but it hasn't worked that way.  In fact, just last night I did, perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever done while performing routine maintenance on my car.  Then, during the process of recovering from my foolish mistake, I did something even stupider.  There is only one person in the world who I would have called at the time to confess, and discuss the impact of my err.   It hurts that I couldn't call.  This site does not lay out feelings, except for this paragraph, but presents a life.  Perhaps it should be thought of as a memorial, or a tribute.  I don't know.  You tell me.

This Website only begins to tell his story.  All of us who know and love him have unique and different perspectives and stories to tell.  This site can only become complete when those perspectives are included.  To get around, click on the navigation bar buttons.  On this, the Home Page, the navigation bar is on top.   All other pages have the navigation bar on the left.  Contributions and comments are welcome and appreciated.

Most of the pages have newspaper or newsletter articles on them.  The articles were scanned and proofed, and when I had the reference, I included it.   Lawyers, I did not attempt to get permission to post the articles, but if you think I should, I will send emails.  Sources include: