Emigrated 1959 from Antwerp, arrived aboard 'Oranjelijn'
Il est marié avec Nancy Jane Day.
Ils se sont mariés le 28 octobre 1988 à Harris, Texas, Verenigde Staten , il avait 66 ans.
Le couple est divorcé.
Franciscus married Marjorie circa 1966, then Myrtle Graham 29 Jun 1985 in Harris, Texas.
Early in his life, Franciscus' parents recognised his exceptional intelligence and sent him to the most challenging schools in The Hague, where the family had relocated. As a young boy, Franciscus travelled all over Europe on his bicycle and gained fluency in seven languages.
During World War II Franciscus was incarcerated in a German concentration camp, but eventually escaped to Holland and joined the Scottish Brigade. Because of his linguistic abilities, Franciscus joined a British intelligence group in West Germany after the war. There he tracked war criminals, some known to him personally. Because Franciscus spoke excellent German, he was sent behind the Iron Curtain three times as an espionage agent to bring out scientists who were valuable to the United States and wanted asylum.
In 1949, Franciscus went to work for Royal Dutch Shell in The Hague as a lab technician in the micropaleonto-logical laboratories. Shell sent Franciscus to Indonesia (Borneo/Sumatra) from 1950 to 1952; he returned to The Hague paleontology laboratory in 1953- Franciscus was in Owerri, Nigeria, with Shell from 1954 to 1956 and again returned to The Hague paleontological laboratory, where he worked from 1956 to 1959. During this period, he helped train many new recruits for Shell. In 1956, at the request of the Bataafsche Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij, The Hague, Frank began to write a handbook for Shell. Shell transferred Franciscus to Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1959, and he worked there and in New Orleans, Louisiana, until 1965. He was moved to Houston and remained with Shell's Bellaire Stratigraphic Laboratory until his retirement as senior staff paleontologist in 1985. Franciscus was instrumental in training many of Shell's micropaleontologists during his tenure in the Bellaire laboratory. After retirement, Franciscus set up his own consulting business under the name "Micropaleo". He also taught for Shell, Mobil and several other oil companies.
Despite his lack of formal college training, Franciscus eventually became a world-renowned micropaleontologist and the published author of two major textbooks, a monograph on bathyal benthic foraminifers, and several scientific articles.
Franciscus Petrus Cornelius Maria van Morkhoven | ||||||||||||||||||
1988 | ||||||||||||||||||
Nancy Jane Day |