Luminary: Winston "Wink" Franklin

Luminary: Winston "Wink" Franklin

Winston Franklin, president of the Petaluma-based Institute of Noetic Sciences and a pioneer in the study of human consciousness and mind-body health, died of advanced stages of metastatic melanoma on August 27, 2004.

"He chose the path of conscious dying rather than to participate with medical interventions to postpone the inevitable," said his wife of 15 years, Laura Franklin.

Franklin guided the Petaluma-based institute for 20 years, first as its vice president and CEO. He was president since 1998. He was also a founding trustee of the Kalamazoo, Michigan based Fetzer Institute, where he was key in envisioning the institute's program in the psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of human health, including the Emmy award-winning television series Healing and the Mind, with Bill Moyers.

He was also vice president of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation in Kettering, Ohio, where he led programs to encourage interracial dialogue. At the young age of 29, Wink was particularly instrumental in the development of the concept of "transformational social change." Changing Images of Man, a landmark project with Stanford Research Institute, brought together cultural leaders such as Joseph Campbell, Margaret Mead, René Dubos, Carl Rogers, and others to explore the basic forces at work in cultural transformation, including the images of humankind that underlie in which society shapes its institutions and educates its citizens.

Wink received his B.A. degree from Ohio Wesleyan in 1962, and his M.P.A. degree from the University of Kansas in 1964.