John Franzén · 2016 Honoree

John Franzén grew up on a farm in a thinly populated corner of South Dakota, one of six brothers descended on both sides from Swedish homesteaders. He learned to read in a one-room schoolhouse, was driving a tractor by the age of nine and spent a lot of time hunting and fishing. But his real focus, he says, was on finding his way to a wider world. 

College took him to Minnesota, graduate school to Montreal, and after earning a Master’s Degree in English and working for a couple of years for a publishing company in Amsterdam, he showed up in New Hampshire in the fall of 1971 as a volunteer for George McGovern’s fledgling presidential campaign. In a matter of days he was hired as in-state press secretary, and he went on in that role to a series of other primary states and to New York for the general election. McGovern lost, but by then John was hooked, and ever since he has been involved in candidate and issue campaigns. He ran his own media consulting firm for three decades and then served as a communications officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts until his retirement two years ago.

Although a Hill resident since 1973, John dates his first real involvement in the community to meeting local historian Ruth Ann Overbeck in 1999. When she became terminally ill he offered to record a set of interviews with her to capture some of her knowledge of the neighborhood’s history. Those interviews led the Community Foundation to launch the Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project, which has recorded over 200 oral history interviews with Hill residents. As part of the project, John has produced 57 free public lectures on DC and Capitol Hill history.

John also takes pride in the publication of 301 East Capitol by Mary Z. Gray. John met the author, then 89, in 2008 after she declined to be interviewed for the Overbeck effort. With John’s editorial assistance, Mary instead wrote a charming, full-length memoir of growing up on the Hill in the 1920s. John created the Overbeck History Press to publish the book and it made Mary a local celebrity.

But perhaps John’s biggest contribution to the community is his service as a founding board member of Hill Center, where his counsel and communication skills have been essential to the effort that transformed a deteriorating Old Naval Hospital into a vibrant center for the arts and education. He also serves on the board of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.