Municipal councilor and entrepreneur John Franke from Zuidlaren passed away this afternoon. He had been ill for some time.
Franke has been a member of the city council for Liveable Tynaarlo since 2018. From 2008 until the bankruptcy in 2015, he was director of the Prins Bernardhoeve in Zuidlaren. One of the causes of the bankruptcy was an earthquake that caused extensive damage to an exhibition of sand sculptures in the exhibition complex.
John Franke had lung cancer. Together with patient organization Lung Cancer Netherlands, he advocated a national population study to detect the disease at an early stage, just like with breast cancer. He recently achieved success in this. There will be a test among 400,000 Dutch people between the ages of 60 and 79.
According to his brother Dennis Franke, he fought hard for this and ‘John was happy that he was able to experience the result’. “But he was up, he was there until the last moment with his head and was in control of everything.”
Next Saturday afternoon there will be a memorial service in Het Kwadraat in Groningen, a multi-company building that John Franke has redeveloped in recent years. He will then be privately cremated.
John Franke turned 58 years old. He leaves behind a wife and five children.