The Celebration of Life for Mike Franz, postponed since September 2020,

has been planned.  Please mark your calendar for Friday, July 9, 2021, at 11:00 am.

This will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church, 2600 East Fulton St. in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

There will be visitation with family at 10:00 am and a service will be held at 11:00 am,

immediately followed by lunch.  There will be time during the service for reflections.

There will be two speakers from IGE to share about Mike.  Please respond by July 1, 2021, to Kim McKeon at email hidden; JavaScript is required

if you would like to attend.

Thank You,

Kimberly McKeon, IGE Co-chair 

IGE has lost another great devoted worker for our cause, Mike Franz.  Mike taught English and Film at the  Grand Rapids Community College for 37 years, inspiring many students. He became interested in Educators for Social Responsibility and then Institute for Global Education in the mid 80’s.  Because Mike was so charitably minded and had many friends, he worked for many peace and justice causes and organizations such as Move On and Senior groups.  His great love was his Lutheran Church where he was a  musician for many years. He took “loving our neighbor” seriously and realized that  that it is necessary to strongly and loudly advocate for justice and peace and   get into the streets to do it. He organized many educational programs, media and protest events in the spirit  of educator he was,  advocating for the values of peace and justice.   He was an Executive Board member at IGE for many years and a wonderful guiding presence in our work. Thank you, Mike, we will miss you greatly!  

Mike is survived by his lovely wife Mari of 40 years, his daughter Renae, son, Sean, grandchildren, Helena and Armen and brother Robert. Due to Covid, a memorial for Mike will be held in the spring and we will inform you then of the date.

Memorial Donations can be made in his name to Institute for Global Education. igegr.org