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by senior writer Marcia Goodrich
HOUGHTON - June 9, 2011
One of Michigan Tech's most generous benefactors and
his wife, Franklin and Lorraine St. John, have recently
established a $1 million charitable trust to support the
Generations of Discovery Campaign. The primary goal of
the campaign is to build the University’s endowment,
particularly scholarships and faculty chairs.
St. John earned a BS in Metallurgical Engineering
from Tech in 1960. Since then, he has received numerous
honors from his alma mater, including an Honorary
Doctorate of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and
the Board of Control Silver Medal. Additionally, he has
been inducted into what is now the Academy of Materials
Science and Engineering.
More than 20 years ago, St. John became the first
person in Tech's history to set up a $1 million bequest
to establish an endowed chair, the Franklin St. John
Chair in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. He has
made generous outright gifts to the endowment and plans
to complete funding the chair through his estate.
His latest gift, the Franklin M. and Lorraine E. St.
John Charitable Remainder Unitrust, will be applied to
his three existing endowments, which St. John
established through a series of outright and estate
gifts. They include the endowed chair and two
scholarships, the Franklin St. John Endowed Scholarship
and the Louis St. John Endowed Scholarship, which was
established in his father’s memory.
In particular, those scholarships will be directed
toward students from his native Baraga County, a region
that endures some of the state's worst unemployment. St.
John, born and raised in L'Anse, had a spartan
upbringing with his big family in a small house, which
boasted a cold-water tap and an outhouse. He was the
first in his family to attend college, and for that he
credits Michigan Tech.
"There was no education in the family," he said. His
father finished the eighth grade, his mother made it
through grade 5. "If I hadn’t been close to an
engineering college, I don't know what I would have
become."
By the age of 12, he had set his sights on attending
what was then the Michigan College of Mining and
Technology. He became the first person in his family to
graduate from high school and did so well he earned a
full scholarship. He still had to travel back and forth
from his home in L'Anse in all weather, however. That
commute, plus a grinding academic load, forced him to
turn down legendary coach Verdie Cox's plea to play
basketball. "I could not do a sport and school and
travel," said St. John.
His Tech education gave him the tools to leave behind
the poverty of his childhood. While working at Pratt and
Whitney and Avco Lycoming, he earned an MBA and an MS in
Industrial Engineering and in 1976 cofounded the
successful company Jensen Industries, which manufacture
dental alloys. There, he discovered his passion for
developing and launching new products. And he also met
the woman who would become his wife, and she ignited his
interest in natural healthcare and Chinese medicine.
Meanwhile, the couple's travels led them to Asia,
where St. John lectured on American business practices
and developed new professional partnerships. (He
prepared for the endeavor by acquiring a working
knowledge of Mandarin Chinese.) This led to a remarkable
new business venture that dovetailed with the couple's
shared interest in natural healing. In 1996, Frank and
Lorraine St. John launched HerbaSway, a company that
makes and markets liquid herbal concentrates, many of
them based on traditional Chinese medicine.
Until recently, their flagship product had been
HerbaGreen Tea, which offers the antioxidant benefits of
15 cups of green tea in a single serving. Now, however,
a new product is beginning to appeal to an entirely
different demographic.
In partnership with Warner Brothers Studios,
HerbaSway is co-marketing its new hangover remedy, Last
Round, with the hit movie "Hangover, Part II." The
winner of HerbaSway's "Can You Make It to the Last
Round?" contest, promoted on Facebook, received an
all-expense-paid trip to the film's debut, and both the
movie and the remedy appear together in magazine ads.
"You take Last Round before you go to bed," said St.
John. "You wake up, and you don't get a hangover." And
it really works, at least according to thousands of
five-star reviews on Amazon.com and other online
retailers.
"It's been doing very well," St. John said. "We're
really excited about this." It may soon be doing even
better: the 7-Eleven convenience store chain will soon
be selling the 2.5-ounce bottles.
Despite the looming success of their business, St.
John wanted to assure that his wife would always have a
secure income. "So we set up the charitable remainder
unitrust," he said. This Franklin M. and Lorraine E. St.
John Charitable Remainder Unitrust will provide her with
revenue throughout her life and ultimately benefit
Michigan Tech and the students of Baraga County.
The St. Johns are members of the Hubbell Society and
the McNair Society. Franklin is a lifetime member of the
Alumni Association.
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