Franklin Rohner

ROHNER, Franklin B. Franklin B. Rohner was born September 18, 1927 and grew up in Fortuna, California. After high school, he joined the United States Navy, serving with the occupational forces in Nagasaki, Japan. He attended Stanford University and graduated from Stanford Law School in 1954. He served in the Judge Advocate Corps of the United States Air Force and clerked for California Supreme Court Justices Homer Spence and Roger Traynor. Thereafter, he went on to successful business and law careers including extensive involvement in the television industry. He spent several years at the Columbia Broadcasting System where he served as Vice President of the CBS Television Network. Subsequently, he formed the law firm of Rohner & Walerstein where he negotiated and drafted various landmark deals in the television industry and represented some of the most prominent names in the entertainment industry. An avid fly fisherman, horseman, yachtsman and adventurer, he traveled the world including Iceland, Greenland, Siberia, Mongolia, Antarctica, the Marquesas and sailed throughout the South Pacific and Carribbean. At one time he bred, raced and sold thoroughbred horses both in Kentucky and California and owned and operated a 900 acre thoroughbred horse ranch near Santa Barbara. In his later years, he undertook various philanthropic projects - renovation of the Fortuna Depot Museum which contains a thorough history of the Rohner family, joining "The President's Circle" as a benefactor of the United States Naval Academy, funding research for finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis, and acting as a founder of the Los Angeles Music Center. He is survived by four children who are involved in various enterprises throughout the country.