One Who Made a Difference

Evelio Franco accomplished more in the last nine years of his life than most people do in a lifetime. That doesn’t make his sudden death at 45 of an apparent aneurysm any easier to accept.

A longtime San Fernando resident, Franco worked for 15 years in the aerospace industry and served three years on the San Fernando City Council. For anyone else, that would be a full and accomplished life, but Franco felt something was missing. His desire to make an even more meaningful contribution led him to take a pay cut and a new job as director of the United Methodist Church’s Shalom Zone in North Hills.

Times were tough enough in the days following the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and times in North Hills were--and are--as tough as they come. To the area’s mostly poor Latino immigrants, Franco was a godsend, a man whose soft voice and steady manner proved a match for everything from uncooperative landlords to gangbangers.

Many people work 14-hour days to make money. Franco worked them to make a difference in the lives of the 500 people a day served by his programs. He was counselor, teacher, translator, peacemaker--the godfather of North Hills.

The difference Franco made in his community was evident last week in the desolation expressed at his loss, a loss “too huge” to bear, according to a resident of a community that already has borne too much hardship. Said another: “You want to talk about a hero, this man was it.”

His legacy will be seen for years to come in the programs he established and in the thousands of lives he’s helped. It will be seen, as well, in the inspiration he gives us all to make a difference, now, while we can.