Dr. Franz Stenzel

 

Son of Frank Stenzel and Louise Adelaide Darrow

 

Dr. Franz Stenzel is a second cousin of Frances Louise Berlin


This is the obituary of Dr. Franz Stenzel. Dr. Stenzel was the son of Frank Stenzel and Louise (Eloise) Adelaide Darrow. Louise was the daughter of Dempster and Susanna Darrow and Dempster was a son of Joseph Darrow, who was the great-grandfather of Frances Louise Berlin Hagen. That would make Frances, my mother, a second cousin of Dr. Stenzel. This obituary was sent to me by Sandra Gray Brenneman. She is a descendant of Joseph Darrow, through Dempster and his son Edwin.

 

From THE OREGONIAN, Wednesday, April 1, 1998

Philanthropist, Art Collector dies at 92

The Good Samaritan Hospital Skilled Nursing Unit bears the name of Dr. Franz R. Stenzel, who donated to the center.

By Rob Eure of The Oregonian staff

Dr. Franz R. Stenzel, a noted collector of early Northwestern art and a Portland philanthropist, died Sunday, March 29, in the Good Samaritan Hospital Skilled Nursing Unit that bears his name. He was 92.

Dr. Stenzel, a cardiologist, began collecting historical paintings of the Northwest in 1956. He wrote two books on early Northwest artists, "Cleveland Rockwell, Scientist and Artist, 1837-1907" and "James Madison Alden, Yankee Artist of the Pacific Coast, 1854-1960."

Dr. Stenzel donated his research, sketches and paintings to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in 1977. The collection of 1,600 volumes, 53 oil paintings, 300 works on paper and hundreds of prints will become part of the Western Americana collection.

"The artists represented in the Stenzel Collection extend the geographic and chronological bounds of our coverage," said George Miles, curator of the Western Americana collection at Beinecke. "The Stenzels’ research files will be a boon for students and scholars undertaking research in virtually any area of Northwestern art history."

In 1973, four Stenzel pieces were the only privately owned art included in the first art exhibit by the U. S. Information Agency shown in former communist countries since World War II. The Stenzels attended the opening of the exhibition in Warsaw, Poland.

Dr. Stenzel’s donation of an undisclosed amount to Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in 1996 enabled the opening of the Franz R. Stenzel and Kathryn M. Stenzel Skilled Nursing Unit.

The couple also donated 27 acres to the Portland Audubon Society in 1991 that are now part of Forest Park, said his wife, Kathryn Stenzel.

 Last summer, the couple The Franz R. Stenzel and Kathryn M. Stenzel Charitable Trust, which finances scholarships.

Franz Stenzel was born March 8, 1906, in Aberdeen, Wash. He moved to Portland with his family when he was 2 years old and graduated from the former Washington High School.

Dr Stenzel studied in France and Germany and graduated from Bates College in Maine. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1938.

In 1946, Dr. Stenzel returned to Portland, where he practiced at Good Samaritan Hospital until he retired in 1970. He was also an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of Oregon medical School, now Oregon Health Sciences University.

He married Kathryn M. Mathison in 1951. He is also survived by a son, Franz Stenzel Jr., by a previous marriage.

No service will be held. The family suggests remembrances to the Stenzel Skilled Nursing Unit at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, the Kenneth Ward, M.D,, Glucose Sensor Project at Good Samaritan, or a favorite charity.