A Farewell to Francine...
by Susan Little

Many of us in the room today remember our first “Francine” encounter and even all these years later, still can feel the knot in our stomachs as we asked what we knew was the dumbest question on the planet of the smartest woman we knew. Our fear of being found out as not perfect (gasp, a FED would know we don’t know it all) was only matched by not wanting to pass out from anxiety.

I remember nearly 15 years ago being at Callaway Gardens near Columbus for a GASFAA Fall meeting and the long narrow meeting room being packed for Francine’s session. Folks were sitting in the floor, hanging in the doorway and standing in the hallway to catch even a smidgen of what she had to say. Those of us fortunate enough to be there early had seats and couldn’t have left them if we had wanted to—there was no where to walk. This was a typical session during a time that we really had no other means of getting our questions answered. Anytime we were asked to be presenters at a meeting, one of the first questions asked was, “Will we be presenting opposite Francine?”, because we knew no one would be in our session—not necessarily a bad thing. I suspect this was the beginning of our tradition of having a full-blown General Session for federal presenters and saving the rest of us from speaking to an empty room.

I asked a few of our colleagues if they had a favorite Francine story and Ray Tripp responded that every time he called and asked her a question, her first and very professional response was to laugh hysterically. Having worked with Ray for 11 years and knowing the kinds of questions he asked, this sounds perfectly reasonable to me. The woman has sense.

Many of us are still comforted by Francine always treating us with grace and dignity when we called with a “hypothetical question about a mythical school in a far away state from ours.” She never let on that she knew exactly why we were calling and did her best to either keep us out of or get us out of trouble if we were already there.

When anyone had a conversation with Francine or received something in writing from her (pre-email days), copies were passed around for literally years. I am certain that many of us in this room have procedures still in place in our offices simply because “Francine said so” even if she didn’t tell us directly but told someone 15 Xerox copies back from what we thought would stand up as documentation in a program review.

Some of us know that a “fuzzy naval” to Francine has nothing to do with belly button lint. The affirmation that washed over us after happy hour in a hotel bar and discussion of detailed federal rules and regulations was capped off perfectly when we knew she could see that we finally caught on to what she was explaining. We had pleased the Queen of Reg’s and life was good.

Marie Mons from Georgia Tech tells the story of the time she had Francine all to herself for a 10-hour round-trip drive from Atlanta to Nashville over the mountain and back again. Marie asked Francine’s opinion on every financial aid issue she could conjure up and each one was answered, completely and politely. Finally, with an hour left on the trip home Marie asked if Francine had anything she wanted to ask her. In her very sweet and respectful manner, Francine asked “Yes, do you ever stop talking?”

We have a few regulations to share with you as you leave us. Retirement regulations as explained in the Dear Francine (RET-05-01) letter state:

Godspeed, Francine, as you move completely into the very best part of life. We know your writing, your family and your faith will fill your days with great joy.