Robert E. Franzl, 81, of Temple died Nov. 3, 2002 in a Temple nursing facility. Memorial services will be 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin with the Rev. David Alwine officiating. Burial will follow in Oakwood Cemetery in Waco.
Franzl was born May 27, 1921 in New York City, NY to Frank A. and Louise (Kabrna) Franzl. He graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1937 and went on to obtain a bachelor of science degree with a premed major from the College of the City of New York in 1941.

Further schooling was postponed when he entered the U.S. Army immediately after Pearl Harbor and was attached to the 36th Engineers Combat Regiment Band which was latter reorganized by General Patton as the 115th Army Ground Forces band and attached to the 7th Army Headquarters.

Following his discharge, Franzl was admitted to the Department of Biochemistry at Columbia University in New York City for graduate studies. He received his masters degree in organic chemistry in 1948 and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia in 1952.

He worked as a research associate for Sloan Kettering Institute and at Rockefeller University in New York before joining the faculty there in 1958. In 1967, he was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship to Montevideo, Uruguay.

He returned to Rockefeller and stayed until 1972 when he left to become Chief of Immunoneurological Research at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Coatesville, PA. In 1976, he moved to Nevada to spend the last years of his career conducting research at the Medical School at the University of Nevada in Reno. He retired to Round Rock in 1988.

Franzl married the former Betty Caperton Bowman Feb. 19, 1977 by the Rev. Milton Brown in the chapel at the diocesan headquarters of the Episcopal Church, Diocese of West Texas, in San Antonio.

He is survived by his wife, Betty Franzl of Temple; daughters Roberta Louise Franzl of Fairview, NJ, Lynne Gertrude Contreras of San Bernadardino, CA, Annie Melton of Dallas, Betsy Davis of Sharp, Mary Michelle of Shinnston, WV, Laura Rochelle of Killeen; sons George W. Bowman of Cameron and Jim E. Bowman of Dallas; 19 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Special Music Program, Austin, TX.