Memorial to Frank Denis Sr.!
May 27th, 2004 we lost a father, the world lost a friend and the Slush business lost its greatest advocate. As an honor and memorial to Frank, we have posted his eulogy below.

Eulogy
Folks, eulogy means "the good word". So the question appropriate to this day, as we look back and celebrate his life, is, "What's the good word about Frank Denis?" The answer, in part, is bespoken by your presence here today. In my twenty-five years in the pastorate I've had the privilege of conducting many memorial services, and each of them were significant in their own way. But I am confident that this is the largest service in which I've taken part, and I point that out because I think it says volumes about the impact Frank Denis' life has had on this gathered community. Secondly, I know that there are family members and friends who will want to share with us today remembrances and stories that will hallmark what Frank's life was about.

If you are one of them, please don't be intimidated by our numbers here. We are gathered in love and memory and will welcome anyone who would like to share with us, beginning with Frank's family. But before we do that, I'd like the privilege of sharing with you a number of things that Frank's family shared with me as we gathered at Tommy's last Wednesday. Much of what I'll say, you already know, but these are some of the things that stood out to me, as stories about Frank poured out for nearly two hours. Frank Benjamin Denis was born on September 16, 1928 at a hospital in Sonora. His parents lived in Escalon. He attended Oakdale High School and graduated from Turlock High School. But before he graduated from Turlock High School, there was this girl named Tommy. Her folks were farmers in Turlock, and Tommy was a soda jerk at Duncan's Malt Shop on Main Street.

Blond bombshell that she was, and working at a malt shop, she wasn't discovered by Hollywood, but she certainly didn't escape the avid attention of one Frank Denis, who then made a habit of dropping by to order fried ham sandwiches. I got the impression he ate a lot of ham sandwiches that first year, and after about a year of dating, Frank and Tommy were married just before he graduated, and they lived with his parents for the first four months of their married life. And in spite of that, they went on to share a journey of 58 years - 58 years of love and hard work, and a fierce commitment to each other, that produced a remarkable life, and four children - Bruce and Sherry and Karen and Frankie - and nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. It was a partnership in the way marriages are supposed to be: Frank did what he did best - the buying, the selling, the trading - while Tommy watched the finances, kept things in order, and helped to build their life together the long slow way - a way guided by honest and hard work, thrift, and a whole lot of commitment. The thing you have to "get" about Frank is that while he was the youngest of four siblings, Frank was the guy the family counted on. I mean it only as a compliment when I say that Frank was like the youngest son of the Godfather. He was an honest, hardworking legal version of Michael Corleone.

People looked up to him. He was the guy who somehow just knew how to get things done. Without bragging or self-advertisement, he just came through for friends in need. And they didn't always have to ask. Frank was the type of guy who would offer his help when the chips were down. The slush-puppy people - affectionately referred to Frank as "the godfather of the west." In a way, it's hard to explain, but Frank Denis had a gift of vision - he saw what could be. Tommy said, "This is what his life was; developing projects, turning nothing into something that was spectacular." It was a gift, and he exercised that gift on an intuitive level that bordered on genius He was a natural born trader. He loved trading, and he almost always came out ahead because he understood the value of everything. He had the wisdom and the insight to understand that you make your money in the buying, not in the selling. I had to think about that. But he was exactly right. His business life was a high-wire act that combined steady hard work, using his wits, and savoring the calculated-risk of it all. He often said, the difference between a $100,000.00 deal and a million dollar deal was a couple of zeros. The thrill was in the risk it took to make it happen. And Frank Denis had the guts to try, rather than just talk about trying. He made me think of Robert Kennedy who was fond of the quote: "Some people look at the way things are and say, 'Why?' I look at things that haven't yet come to be, and say, 'Why not?"

Frank Denis loved to envision the possibilities and then create them. Not by telling George to do, but by rolling up his sleeves and doing it. He was a hands- on, hard-working guy who never considered himself better than anyone, but never thought of himself as a lesser than, either. And he would treat a customer of very modest means with exactly the same courtesy and service that he would extend to a millionaire. In short, he kept his feet on the ground. He knew who he was and he had the kind of integrity you could wish was a part of every business transaction you and I will ever make. As a responsible father, he taught his children the value of a dollar bill. When it was time to buy toys or create entertainment, he didn't do it by shopping sprees at F Schwartz. He showed them, literally, how to make things, whether we're talking about a rubber-band gun, or a boat referred to as "the green dragon." In other words, he taught them that if you want something, you figure how to do it. Don't be afraid to try or fail. The challenge is in figuring it out. Success is measured by the effort you made, not by how well it worked the first time out the gate.

In short, there are a thousand stories you could tell about the roller-coaster adventure of Frank Denis' life. And I'm hoping we'll hear some of them here in the next few minutes, but I don't want to give up the microphone before I tell you how much I respect Frank Denis' life. In a world where so many people are willing to take but not give, wanting to have but not work, ready to tear down but not to do the hard work of building, Frank Denis was a builder who didn't mind getting his hands dirty or breaking a sweat. He wanted to make things better than they were when he got there. By harnessing a kind of inner vision to his life-long willingness to do the work, he turned "sure-would-be-neat" ideas into brick and mortar realities. And I say to you that we honor our Creator God when, like Him, we are willing to hover over yet unshaped possibilities and do the hard work of creating order out of chaos, and bringing beauty where once there was only barrenness. Frank did that. A lot. He did good work. And it made a difference for those around him. And I say that's a life well- lived.