Irvin G. Franzen

Irvin G. Franzen, age 83, Topeka, died December 19, 2003 at Midland Hospice House, Topeka, Kansas.
Mr. Franzen served in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment from 1947 until he retired in 1986. After serving as statistician and chief of its Research and Analysis Section for 12 years, he was appointed state registrar of vital statistics and served in that capacity for 27 years. For 25 of
those years, he also served as director of health statistics. He served as President of the American Association for Vital Records and Health Statistics, from whom he, in 1985, in Washington, D.C. received the Halbert L. Dunn Award for distinguished service to the vital statistics system of the United States. As an established writer of accidental death and student accident reports, he also served on the School Safety Committee of the National Safety Council. He was also appointed to serve on the Model Vital Statistics Laws and Regulations Committee of the National Office of Vital Statistics and on the National Death Index Committee. He was a life member of both the American and the Kansas Public Health Associations. He served as section chairman and on various committees of both organizations and received special service recognition awards from both.
Mr. Franzen was born August 4, 1920, in Goessel, Kansas, the son of Gerhard and Lydia Dalke Franzen. He grew up in the Goessel community and graduated from Goessel High School in 1938. He earned an AB degree in Economics and Business Administration from Fort Hays State and a masters degree in Public Health from the university of North Carolina. He also attended Washburn University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He was a member of Tan Kappa Epsilon fraternity and a life member of the Fort Hays State Alumni Association.
He served with the U.S. Army during World War II for over three years, including 26 months of foreign service from Australia to New Guinea and on to the Philippine Islands. He earned four Foreign Service stripes and was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Service Medal with
two bronze stars along with the Philippine Liberation Medal. He was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Mr. Franzen was a charter member of the Gage Park Baptist Church of Topeka and was part of the crew that built the church. He served as church deacon, trustee, and financial secretary, choir member and on various committees.
After retirement, he continued participation in the APHA Action Alert Program to promote life-saving public health and safety legislation.
He was married to Becky Morehead at high noon on December 25, 1942, in the First Baptist Church of Topeka. She preceded him in death, as did their first-born son.
Survivors include two daughters, Jennifer Parnell, Topeka, and Roxana Turner, Lyndon; two sons, Mark Franzen, San Jose, California, and Dana Franzen, Monument, Colorado; three sisters, Elma Mishler, New Paris, Indiana, Doris Unruh, Fairview, Oklahoma, and Gladys
Adams, Panama City, Florida; two brothers, Daniel Franzen, Nemaha, Nebraska, and Kenneth Franzen, Wichita, Kansas; ten grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.
Services will be December 23, 2003 at 11:00 a.m., at Gage Park Baptist Church, 3601 S.W. 10th Street, Topeka, Kansas. Memorial contributions may be made to the Topeka Rescue Mission, 600 N. Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Kansas 66608. Mr. Franzen will lie in state from noon to 9:OOPM Monday at Penwell-Gabel Mid-Town Chapel.