Citizen Franey

By REBECCA MCKINSEY
r.mckinsey@carrollspaper.com

CARROLL — A Jefferson native was recently named Carroll’s “Citizen of the Year.”

Mike Franey, who grew up in Jefferson and has lived in Carroll since the early ’90s, received the award at the Carroll Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet Monday evening.

“I was totally shocked,” Franey said. “From an early age, I was taught that that’s what you do — you help others; you serve. I’m very honored to have the award, but it wasn’t why I do it. It was because that’s the way I was taught.”

The Carroll Chamber has presented the annual award since 1963.

“Though there are countless people that work very hard for our community, this award, in a special way, highlights and thanks one outstanding member of our community,” said the banquet’s emcee, Tam Milligan, a Chamber member with Commercial Savings Bank in Carroll.

Milligan and her husband, Paul, who were last year’s joint recipients of the award, presented this year’s award to Franey.

They described a man who grew up sitting on customers’ laps while his mother, Shirley Franey, who still lives in Jefferson half the year, cut their hair. The customers read him stories, and told him their stories.

They told of a man who worked at his uncle Don Franey’s bowling alley, Bowling Greene, which was south of Jefferson and later burned down — a young Mike Franey would run down the lanes to unstick the bowling pins.

They portrayed a man who delivered the Des Moines Register as a child.

“No doubt,” Franey said, growing up in Jefferson contributed to his strong belief that it’s important to serve others.

“You were just always around the neighborhood; the whole town was your playground,” he said. “When somebody asked you for help, you went — that’s what makes small-town America, in Carroll and Greene County, so special.”

Franey was born and raised in Jefferson, graduating from Jefferson High School in 1987 and receiving a degree in management and marketing from Northwest Missouri State University in 1991. After returning to Jefferson for a short time, he moved to Carroll in the early ’90s. He lives there now with his wife, Lynda. His stepson, Payton White, lives in Ankeny.

Franey spent time working for Bierl Realty and Insurance and Lenz Insurance and Real Estate before joining Mid-Iowa Insurance as a partner in 2004 and starting the office’s real-estate division.

“I didn’t ever know I wanted to be in insurance and real estate, but it was the people, the helping — it’s just caring,” he said. “And along the way, I had a lot of people that helped me.”

Now an owner with Mid-Iowa Insurance and Real Estate in Carroll, Franey has also been involved with Carroll’s Family Resource Center, the Carroll Area Development Corp. and American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

“This gentleman believes in giving back to your family, friends and community,” Tam Milligan said.

Franey also delivers meals through Meals on Wheels every week — gaining much more from the stories and insights of the people he meets through the program than he gives them, he said.

“I’ve found over the years that you learn more when you listen,” he said.

Accepting the award Monday evening, Franey admitted that he was speechless.

“I wondered why someone said I should wear a tie,” he joked.

He waved to his mother, standing in the back of the room — she’d traveled from Texas to surprise him.

“My parents instilled in me that service to others is the best work of life,” he said. “They built something in me — that it’s always better to give than receive.”

Although Franey said he doesn’t have much family left in Jefferson, Mid-Iowa Insurance and Real Estate has ownership in MacDonald Insurance in Scranton and Jefferson and Jefferson Iowa Realty.

“That’s very exciting for me to own a piece, and to give back to, a town that gave me so much,” he said.

It’s an honor to receive the award, but it’s not just about him, Franey said.

“I’m just fortunate for the people that helped me,” Franey said. “It’s not an individual award.”