.capitol streets.
IN MEMORIAM
JOHN FRANZEN: 1946-2020
J
by Stephanie Deutsch
ohn Franzén, who died November 1, was a than one-third in three days. longtime resident of both political WashingIn the spring of 1999, John was invited by a friend ton, DC and the Capitol Hill neighborhood to attend the annual dinner of the Capitol Hill Comand made enormous contributions to both. munity Foundation and found himself seated next As a media consultant, he ran over 300 winto Ruth Ann Overbeck, a historian who specialized ning campaigns for office, wrote materials for a huge in local history. John found her “smart as hell” and number of education and environment-focused bal“charming.” Six months later Nicky Cymrot, presilot initiatives, and saw examples of his work placed dent of the Foundation, called. Cymrot asked him if he in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Muwould be willing to use his media background to tape seum of American History. Still, he once told an insome interviews with Overbeck, then very ill but anxterviewer that working with over 90-year-old Mary ious to pass on her extensive knowledge of the neighGray to produce a memoir of her family’s life on the borhood. Franzén agreed, visiting with her several Hill from 1840 to the 1930s was one of the most times, hearing her account of the life of this place beworthwhile projects of his life. He had a deep apginning with the Nacotchtank Indians. The last interpreciation of the place which, almost by accident, view was recorded at Sibley Hospital a few days behad become his home. fore Overbeck died. Growing up one of six brothers on a farm in From that almost accidental connection came a a thinly-populated corner of South Dakota, John whole slew of new projects. John joined the board of learned to read in a one-room schoolhouse. He was the Capitol Hill Community Foundation and became driving a tractor and doing heavy farm work with one of the founders of the Ruth Ann Overbeck CapiJohn Franzén. Photo: Photopia his father and grandfather by the time he was nine. tol Hill History Project which has recorded over 200 At high school in Langford, the nearest town, he played the trumpet in the band interviews with residents and people with knowledge of the neighborhood. When and was captain of the football team. Always, though, he longed to see a wider a series of public lectures about local history was proposed, John took that on too, world, to live in a place where “conversation didn’t revolve around the weather planning 57 talks over fourteen years on subjects ranging from the 1864 Arsenal and farm machinery.” Explosion to Frederick Douglass in Washington to the Breweries of Capitol Hill. So, Franzén turned down the opportunity to play football for the UniversiWhen a group began gathering to discuss the future of the deteriorating Old ty of South Dakota, and went instead to Concordia College in Minnesota, where Naval Hospital building on Pennsylvania Avenue, John joined them becoming, in he majored in English and philosophy, and then went on to graduate work in Engthe words of Executive Director Diana Ingraham, a “founding visionary” of what is lish at McGill University in Montreal with plans to get a PhD. But, after getting his now the Hill Center. John created a fundraising video and recorded the voice-over MA, John instead left Canada for Europe. A visit to a friend in Amsterdam turned for it and also served for a time as president of the Board. Concerned that the fuinto two years working there for a small English-language publisher, time he used ture of the Center be secure, John led the effort to create a Preservation Fund, writto travel and write and think about what would come next. ing individual notes to 400 donors. What he decided to do was to come home and get involved in the political fight In 2008 John met Mary Gray who, encouraged by Overbeck History project to end the war in Vietnam. George McGovern was not yet a presidential nominee volunteers, was writing a memoir of her family’s life on the Hill and her childhood but John had met him briefly at the South Dakota State Fair and even credited him growing up in the neighborhood in the 1920s. Over a period of several years, and with getting his father to change his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. along with other Overbeck volunteers, John encouraged her to keep writing, read So he threw himself into work for the fledgling effort, beginning as a volunteer but drafts of the manuscript and then created the Overbeck History Press to publish quickly moving into doing communications in the presidential campaign. In the fall “301 East Capitol, Tales from the Heart of the Hill” with a photograph of Gray that of 1972 McGovern lost in a landslide but John had found his voice. he had taken on the cover. He accompanied her to book signings and invited her For the next thirty years, national politics was John’s world. He was, as he once to give one of the Overbeck lectures. They became close friends. It was, John said, said, more familiar with the 16th congressional district in California, where he ran one of the most worthwhile things he ever did. six winning campaigns for Leon Panetta, than with Capitol Hill where he lived. He John Franzén will be remembered not just for these many and lasting contritraveled constantly, organizing media for candidates and for environmental groups, butions to our national political landscape and to the Capitol Hill neighborhood. teachers’ organizations, and the AARP. In 1990 he ran the reelection campaign for He once described his early mentor George McGovern as “a wonderful man… Senator Bennett Johnson in Louisiana. The ad he made showing challenger Dathoughtful, articulate, a true patriot, a gentleman.” These words could certainly be vid Duke presiding at a cross burning was, he said, “the most negative ad I’ve ever said of Franzén as well. He was a person of unusual dignity and grace, of both seput on the air. Also the ad I’m most proud of.” Support for Duke dropped by more riousness of purpose and great good humor. He will be missed. u
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