Voyageurs Legacies: Doug Franchot
Doug Franchot
It was the early 1990’s and Doug Franchot, an executive recruiter, was sitting in his office when a woman unexpectedly walked in. She was the first official executive director of Voyageurs National Park Association (VNPA), a grassroots organization committed to protecting Voyageurs National Park. Misunderstanding his role a bit, she’d stopped by hoping for help finding a new career, but as their conversation unfolded she saw an opportunity and changed course, boldly asking Doug to be on the board of VNPA (now Voyageurs Conservancy) instead. Despite having just met the woman and never having been to Voyageurs National Park, Doug was amused and intrigued. In his words, “I admired her hutzpah enough to learn more.”
Not only did Doug learn more, but he learned fast, especially after he was elected board president at the second VNPA meeting he attended. As the years and decades passed, he would serve as board chair at least four times. At some point, he lost count.
Doug grew up in New England, going to Vermont for summer vacations and “kicking around in the woods.” His first job was as a camp counselor in Maine, and eventually he found himself deepening his connection to nature through the expeditionary learning programs of Outward Bound. Given this background, getting behind the mission of VNPA was easy; finding a sustainable path forward for the organization, however, became the real challenge.
Doug recalls, “It was clear that this group was dedicated and had done some amazingly wonderful things, but the structure was holding it back. It had a 40-person board, plus an executive committee, and they couldn’t be definitive with anything.” He recounts, “My goal was to bring the organization from a grassroots, volunteer organization and get it started on the course of a more staff-driven model.” With that vision in mind, Doug spearheaded significant organizational changes, which eventually resulted in a governing board with term limits and the traditional nonprofit model the Conservancy has today.
Early on, Doug also recognized an unhealthy disconnect between the organization, which was Twin Cities-based, and the gateway communities surrounding the park, and he began taking steps to build bridges between the two. He made regular visits to the park and arranged meetings with the mayor, gateway residents, and business owners, striving to make connections and recruit board members from the gateway communities. Bit by bit, those relationships paid off, galvanizing more local acceptance for both the park and VNPA and eventually raising Voyageurs’ visibility enough to attract more national funding. Doug believes his focus on building these relationships constitutes one of his most impactful contributions to both the park and the Conservancy.
Throughout his decades of board service, Doug lent his skills as an executive recruiter to identify and mentor several different VNPA executive directors. In 2014, when the organization suddenly found itself without an executive director, Doug looked no further than the newly hired communications and membership manager (and only VNPA employee), Christina Hausman. He says brightly, “What I saw in Christina was smarts, passion, a sparkly kind of personality, and a significant level of humility. I also saw somebody who would basically not stop until she accomplished her goal.” He adds with pride, “She is one of the finest young ED’s I’ve ever met, and I’m the person who can say he hired Christina Hausman.”
Doug now enjoys retired life in International Falls and the distinguished title of Director Emeritis at Voyageurs Conservancy. Though difficult to summarize the many ways his service helped shape and steward both the Conservancy and Voyageurs National Park, leadership, mentorship, relationship building, and dedication top the list. He adds simply, “I showed up. If no one else would do it, I would do it.”
Though the Conservancy is far more stable now than when Doug joined the cause, he remains closely connected to the organization, and his belief in the value of public lands and Voyageurs National Park is as strong as ever. He concludes, “If we don’t have wilderness and special places, there is going to be a very significant gap in our national psyche that will hurt us. Nature is critical for bringing values into our thinking. Voyageurs National Park is a special place and people who go there get a sense that they are part of something larger than themselves, something important, something that we’re losing. Every time I see a comparative map of what was wilderness in the 1800’s and what we have now, it’s tiny. Voyageurs is a beautiful, remarkable piece of earth and a valuable resource. When you lose places like Voyageurs or the Boundary Waters, you cannot get them back in our lifetimes, so we better be pretty damn careful what we do to these special places.”
Check out the full list of our 50 legacies!
This year, we’re celebrating 50 years of Voyageurs National Park by sharing 50 inspiring stories of the people who shaped its legacy. Years, 50 Legacies is a yearlong storytelling series highlighting individuals whose lives are woven into the fabric of the park – whether through conservation work, cultural traditions, recreation, research, or personal connection.
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