- Date Of Birth: January 21, 1934
- Date Of Death: February 17, 2021
- Occupation: Engineer and lawyer
- City: Chicago
- State: Illinois
Francis Bernard Francois (January 21, 1934 – February 17, 2021) was an American engineer and lawyer who received recognition for his achievements in the field of engineering and policy leadership in regional government, surface transportation infrastructure and research. In 1999, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Francois grew up on a farm in Barnum, Webster County, Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1956. He moved to Washington, D.C. and began his career in 1956 as a patent examiner in the U.S. Patent Office. He enrolled in night law school at The George Washington University, and earned a law degree in 1960. Francois become a patent advisor for the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in 1959. He was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1960, and practiced patent and trademark law with the firm of Bacon and Thomas from 1962 until 1980.
Francois was married to his wife Eileen Mary Francois for 43 years, before her death in 2003. Together they had five children Joseph, Marie, Michael, Monica and Susan. In 2011 Francois documented his early years growing up on a farm in Barnum Iowa, Webster County as well as his move to the Washington DC metro area, and dedicated his memoir to his wife, 5 children, and 7 grandchildren saying: “Nothing in my life means more to me than these people, and my memoirs are dedicated to them.” – Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License from Wikipedia.
