| Part of a series on Jehovah's Witnesses |
|
 |
|
| About Jehovah's Witnesses | |
|---|---|
| Demographics | |
| History | |
| Bible Student movement Jehovah's Witnesses splinter groups |
|
| Organizational structure | |
| Governing Body Faithful and Discreet Slave Legal instruments |
|
| Government interactions | |
| Supreme Court cases Civil Liberties |
|
| Controversies | |
| Persecution | |
| United States · Canada Nazi Germany |
|
| Beliefs | |
| Beliefs and practices | |
| Literature | |
| The Watchtower · Awake! New World Translation Aid to Bible Understanding |
|
| Related people | |
| Formative influences | |
| C.T. Russell · William Miller N.H. Barbour · Jonas Wendell |
|
| Watchtower Presidents | |
| J.F. Rutherford · N.H. Knorr F.W. Franz · M.G. Henschel D.A. Adams |
|
| Notable Watch Tower Officials | |
| Hayden C. Covington · A. H. Macmillan | |
| Notable Former Jehovah's Witnesses | |
| Raymond Franz · James Penton Olin R. Moyle |
|
Frederick William Franz (September 12 1893 – December 22 1992) served as President of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the legal entity used to direct the work of Jehovah's Witnesses). He had previously served as Vice President of the the same corporation from 1945 until 1977 and as a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses before replacing Nathan H. Knorr as president in 1978. Raymond Franz, also a member of the Governing Body until he was expelled and subsequently disfellowshipped in 1980, was Frederick's nephew.
Franz was born in Covington, Kentucky, and graduated high school in 1911. He attended the University of Cincinnati where he studied Biblical Greek,[1] having already decided that he wanted to be a Presbyterian preacher. After reading some of the literature of Charles Taze Russell, he became interested in the Bible Students. He was baptized as a Bible Student on 30 November 1913, and left the University in May of 1914. Franz immediately began evangelizing full time as a pioneer. In 1926, he joined the editorial staff as a Bible researcher and writer for the Society’s publications. Franz is generally (although never officially) acknowledged to have been a leading figure in the preparation of the Witnesses' New World Translation of the Bible, which was prepared anonymously like most Watchtower publications. He was the oldest member to lead the organization, and one of the oldest ever to be a leading figure in any religion. In his last years, he was quite feeble. Franz died in Brooklyn, New York in 1992 at the age of 99 and was succeeded by Milton G. Henschel. The New York Times of December 24, 1992 described him as "a religious Leader....[of] a Christian denomination" and "a biblical scholar." The article claimed he was "versed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek."
References
- ^ Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, chapter 9
