Mike started his career in asphalt in 1992 working at the (Owens Corning) Summit Asphalt Laboratory and Pilot facilities. His first big project was generating data for the Asphalt Emissions Factors study led by Dave Trumbore. He also worked heavily in the Loss Prevention development program at Owens Corning which led to elimination of tank-related explosions and fires. He has 12 patents covering a wide range of areas in asphalt roofing from manufacturing asphalt products with recycled asphalt shingles to methods to reducing sulfur emissions during oxidation. His industry leadership in oxidized coating and Built-Up Roofing was very important to the asphalt coating used today in almost all the roofing plants in the United States. He retired from Owens Corning in 2022.
Mike was a member of the Roofing Technical Advisory Committee (RTAC) starting in 2010 and continuing in 2012 through 2016. Despite rotating off the committee in 2017, Mike remained very active on behalf of the RTAC – serving on task forces, writing magazine articles, and presenting at the annual meeting seminar series. Of the ten seminars that have been hosted at the AI annual meeting since 2012, Mike has been an organizer/presenter at five of them – more than any other individual. He authored/co-authored numerous articles (Basics in Roofing II and III, Evolution of Built-Up Roofing, Integration of Rheology into Roofing Applications, and Black Gold) in the Asphalt magazine. He furthered his efforts in educating the roofing asphalt industry by serving as a guest lecturer teaching a section on oxidation in the Asphalt Institute’s Basic Roofing Technician training class in 2018. AI has incorporated that lesson into future classes as well as the Asphalt Institute Foundation’s Intern Program.
Mike has always been a big contributor to the RTAC. His contributions stand out a little more since the RTAC has typically relied on just a few volunteers to do the main work of the committee. He was always more than happy to step forward and serve the Asphalt Institute.
His dedication to the roofing asphalt industry over thirty years has been evident in the efforts described above.
It is the Asphalt Institute’s pleasure to recognize Mike Franzen with the Distinguished Service Award, acknowledging his career of dedicated service to the roofing asphalt industry.
