Through Jon Francis Foundation, lost hiker's family seeks to heal by helping others.

By Mark Brouwer
Staff Writer
Stillwater Courier
April 19, 2007

When David Francis lost his son Jon to an Idaho mountain last July, he didn't know much about search and rescue operations. Now he knows more than he could ever have wanted.

Over three dizzying days, the father of four learned that Jon had gone missing during a climb near the church camp where he worked, had rushed with his family to join an official search, and then watched as that search was called off by authorities just as it seemed to be finding its feet.

In the weeks and months that followed, the Francis family exhausted its bodies and their finances in repeated, private searches of the mountain, which gave them clues but no resolution to their ordeal.

Rather than let their bitterly earned expertise go to waste, however, the family has started a foundation so that others who lose loved ones in the wilderness have more resources, direction and hope at their ready.

The family began work on The Jon Francis Foundation after a conversation David Francis had this winter with Nancy Sabin, executive director of the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, which had assisted the Francis family by providing a lost person expert last summer. That foundation - created in the aftermath of the 1989 disappearance of St. Joseph boy Jacob Wetterling - was instrumental in the search. Sabin suggested that the Francis family "consider finding a way to bring some good out of their loss."

Particularly instrumental was Jeff Hasse, the lost person expert the Jacob Wetterling Foundation introduced to the Francis family. Hasse brought science to the search, including Global Positioning Systems and computer software and now serves as a member of the Jon Francis Foundation board.

Begun Jan. 23, and run, for now at least, out of the Francis family's Stillwater home, the Jon Francis Foundation will serve two purposes: to provide much needed money to cover costs for the search for Jon, and once he is found, to provide resources for people who lose loved ones in similar circumstances.

At first, Francis hopes the foundation's Web site will become a portal for information about mounting and maintaining search and rescue operations. Also, he hopes it will become a visible advocate for awareness about wilderness dangers.

"At first, the Web site will be very important as we try to attract attention," Francis said. Eventually, it could serve as the central hub for the foundation's activities - a place where people can learn about search and rescue and wilderness safety, and know to whom they might turn if a loved goes missing in a wilderness area.

Another project could be to work with outdoor retailers and other outlets to spread information about safety equipment, including what wilderness experts consider the "10 essential" items such as compasses, maps, mirrors, and whistles, as well as more high-tech items such as GPS units and personal locator beacons, which rescuers can track to determine a person's exact coordinates.

While the Francis family could never have wished for such a task a year ago, its ordeal has attracted a board of seven members - three from the Francis family - who are particularly well suited to creating, maintaining and publicizing an organization like the Jon Francis Foundation.

Serving as president is David Francis who, as a retired U.S. Navy Captain, nuclear submarine officer and businessman who specializes in small start-up businesses. His wife, Linda Francis, a retired office manager and former regional executive for the Girl Scouts, serves as treasurer.

The foundation's full-time executive director is their daughter, Jocelyn Plass, who has a master's degree in human performance and sports studies and has worked for non-profit organizations supporting housing and educational opportunities for middle-and-low income people.
 
Other board members are Hasse, the search-and-rescue expert; James Malkowski, president of EcoVision, an environmental education consulting company; David Recker, marketing director for Cummins Power Generation and David Francis' former Navy colleague; and Sheila-Marie Untiedt, a Stillwater Township resident who served with Francis on the Stillwater Township Board.

"Part of the reason I'm doing this is to help David and his family," said Untiedt. "David is the most compelling, true person and I could not say no to him. He loves his family and his glass is half-full even under the worst of circumstances.”

"It's given me a sense of purpose," David Francis said of the foundation. "And it's a chance to learn about Jon, to see him how others saw him.  It ensures that some good will come out of his loss."

On Saturday, May 19, at 7 p.m., the foundation will hold its Minnesota kick-off event at The Episcopal Church of the Ascension Church in Stillwater.

If you wish to contribute financially to the mission of the foundation you may do so online at www.jonfrancis.org, in person at any Wells Fargo Bank branch, or by mail to the Jon Francis Foundation, P.O. Box 2235, Stillwater, Minnesota 55082.

The Jon Francis Foundation - its goals

This winter, the Francis family of Stillwater founded the Minnesota non-profit Jon Francis Foundation in hopes of providing for others who lose loved ones in the wilderness what they say they didn't have last summer - a place to go for help.

"The Jon Francis Foundation will act as a resource to distraught and confused individuals and families who are dealing with the disappearance of a loved one," foundation literature states. "At a time when families need to be 'at peak performance,' they are disabled with grief and sidelined by a lack of knowledge."

The families of missing climbers, hikers, hunters are among those the foundation aims to serve through a web site "handbook" that contains information about search and rescue resources, links to groups and agencies that can offer assistance, as well as basic information about wilderness safety products and practices that can help prevent the need for rescue operations.

The foundation's mission, according to its web site, "is to provide families with information, logistical and emotional support during a wilderness search and rescue operation and to increase knowledge and awareness of wilderness safety to reduce incidents of loss."

In the short term, the foundation's directors are seeking qualified volunteers to help with the following tasks:

* Fundraising: A fundraising committee will solicit operating funds and other revenue for the foundation.
* Education: An education committee will be responsible for creating and distributing information on wilderness safety through means including wilderness safety course web content, brochures and search-and-rescue best practices.
* Product awareness: Others will identify and market safety products and/or information on safety products pertinent to wilderness safety and search and rescue..
* Search and rescue: support families and individuals coping with the loss of a loved one, missing in the wilderness, through a network of capable partners and logistical support.
* Information management: Provide information on search resources, foundation partners and