Pizza magnate has success, now a sheepskin
By Amy Geiszler-Jones
 Wichita entrepreneur and Pizza Hut co-founder Frank Carney shares a laugh with classmates in English instructor Maureen Hoag’s "Exploring Literature" class. Carney, who attended the University of Wichita from 1956 until 1961 but never graduated, earned a WSU bachelor of general studies degree in December. |
After building not one but two successful pizza businesses in the past 40 years, entrepreneur Frank Carney has taken care of some unfinished business – a college degree from WSU.
Carney co-founded the Pizza Hut chain with his brother and now fellow alumnus Dan in 1958, during his first stint as a college student at WSU. During his second time as a college
co-ed he grew his business as one of the largest franchisees of Papa John’s International restaurants.
While Carney’s sense of business has shown he never really needed a degree to be successful, it was a sense of family obligation that led him to complete his college studies.
"I’m tying up loose ends within my family," says Carney, about the bachelor of general studies degree he earned in December.
His parents had made a commitment that their children would finish college. All of his older siblings had, although Carney had attended WSU, then known as the University of Wichita, from 1956 until 1961.
"I started taking fewer hours after 1958, when we started Pizza Hut," Carney says. There weren’t evening or weekend classes or telecourses at that time, so with no options, Carney dropped out, several hours shy of a sheepskin.
When he was presented with WSU’s Board of Trustees Award at a dinner for WSU donors in October 1997, he told the audience about his mother promising his father, who’d died when Carney was 10, that their children would finish college. He’d remarked that he hoped his late mother would still feel proud of his success, despite his never having received a degree.
In the days following that speech, Jim Rhatigan, WSU’s senior vice president, checked Carney’s transcript and realized that he was relatively close to graduation.
"I called him and told him he should finish his degree," Rhatigan says. "An implicit promise that you’ve made to your mother doesn’t go away when your mother passes away."
So, within months, Carney was back in school, studying geology, literature, economics, psychology and diversity, earning the 33 hours he needed to complete his degree. He took about half his classes by telecourse. Telecourses consist of video lessons, reading assignments, projects and occasional on-campus meetings.
And during that time, Carney continued to expand his chain of Papa John’s franchises from about 50 stores to 121 and moved into two new markets – Hawaii and California. His other stores are in Kansas City, Wichita and Houston. Carney still traveled a lot during his second time around as a college student – he visits two markets a week and maintains a long-distance relationship with his wife Zenda who lives and works in Santa Monica, Calif. But this time, Carney says, he was more dedicated to his studies.
"Where I used to sleep on airplanes, I’d study," he says. "Where I used to go to a hotel room to relax, I’d study. I was anal about getting assignments done and done properly. I’m sure I wasn’t like that when I was younger."
At age 62, Carney certainly fit the description of nontraditional students at WSU. And while he was content to be on the learning end of the classroom, sometimes instructors took advantage of having a successful entrepreneur in the class and asked him to be a guest speaker. In a new product marketing class, he shared insight on the development of Pizza Hut’s pan pizza, and in a psychology class on motivation, he talked about his experiences motivating employees.
While taking these classes fulfilled his degree obligations, he also found a class or two that he believes will help him in his business endeavors. For example, this past fall he had enrolled in "Leadership Techniques for Women," a class his wife had taken a few years ago when she finished her college degree. He also showed he had a sense of humor, noting he was the only man in the course by jotting on his papers, "Leadership Techniques for Women and One Lone Man."
"Some of our best managers are women but there are only a few," he says. "I wanted to find out if we could unlock that potential and get more female managers." For his class project, he surveyed the women in his five pizza companies, using the same survey class professor Carol Wolfe Konek had used for research she and former WSU professor Sally Kitch had done on women and work.
While Carney has no plans to earn a graduate degree, he says he’s still interested in taking more classes, particularly on computers and the Internet.
"Lifelong learning is important, whether or not you’re getting a degree," he says. "If you’re not learning, you’re going backward."
