Douglas W. Franchot Jr., a retired lawyer and World War II veteran who frequently accompanied his son, Maryland Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D), to public events — and seemed to delight in doing so — died Thursday of cardiovascular failure. The elder Franchot, who lived at the Riderwood Village retirement community in Silver Spring, was 97.
The comptroller released a statement on social media that said his father died peacefully and “was alert, in good spirits and free of pain in the days leading up to his death.”
The elder Franchot served as a pilot in the South Pacific during World War II, flying a bomber known as The Liberator. He attended Yale University and Yale Law School, and worked as an attorney in private practice.
The comptroller frequently took his father on official and campaign trips – or to lunch with his powerful political friends.
“For all of his past accomplishments, I still shake my head in wonder that, right up to the end, he was preoccupied with the future,” Peter Franchot wrote. “We would spend hours upon hours discussing the disruptive industries that are changing the American economy, political trends across the world, and the possibility of scientific innovations that could make life better tomorrow than it is today.”
Franchot credited his father for helping advise him through his 33-year-political career.
“It should go without saying that I wouldn’t be where I am today without his impeccable guidance,” he said.
In addition to the comptroller, Douglas Franchot is survived by two other sons, nine grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
A private memorial service has yet to be scheduled.
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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