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Show 146 John A. Francis THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH John A. Francis was born In Philadelphia during the First World War. His mother's family was from Philadelphia and his father's family from Cape Cod. He is a true son of those two regions for his food preferences have long included fish for breakfast and scrapple (a dish distinctive to Philadelphia). Mathematically gifted and organizationally skilled, he helped lay out the turbines for Hoover Dam and submarines during the Second World War. In the l950s he and his wife, Irene, moved to Fair Oaks, California, just outside Sacramento. He found-ed an insurance brokerage firm with clients throughout Northern California. His wife was a plein air artist. She enjoyed the scenery of the northern coast and the foothills of the Sierras. He became a pilot, in part, to fly her to various locations in the state. John loves golf and, until two years ago, continued to play a wide range of golf courses. His other passion is for card games such as bridge, Black Jack and poker. He missed his calling for poker which continues to be a very rewarding game for him on several levels. He has a longstanding interest in education. He developed programs in Sacramento to get resources to help teachers have the supplies they need in their classrooms located in schools where is very little of anything to help student learn. He negotiated with firms, teachers and administrators to maximize the supplies needed for an effective education. He developed new scholarship and mentoring pro-grams for college students without resources. He helped these scholarship students secure employ-ment throughout the region. For many decades he and his wife lived on a bluff over looking the American River in a wonderful house built at the end of the l9th century. A house surrounded by pomegranate, orange and persim-mon trees much to the grazing delight of his grandchildren. After the death of his wife he moved to Seattle where his oldest granddaughter, Sarah, lives. He en-joys visits from his other grand daughter Laura, his grandson, John and other family members. He is now involved in helping a Seattle school with limited resources obtain books for their students. He is delighted with the UROP program for he has long believed that you learn by doing, a lesson that has served him well. FRANCIS FAMILY FOUNDATION JOHN A. FRANCIS francis famil y founda tion |
