Frank Besnette always wanted NAU to have a beautiful campus.
It is fitting, then, that instead of having his name on a bench or building, it is on a work of art—a sculpture that was originally going to be a big pipe sticking out of the ground as a vent for an underground shooting range. When Frank, then executive vice president, heard that, he said no, we can do something better. He reached out to renowned art faculty member Jim O’Hara to design a creative alternative with input from his students that would also enhance the campus.
And that is how NAU’s iconic “French Fries” came into being. This fall, that history is being recognized through a commemorative plaque that celebrates the legacy of Frank and his wife, Linda, whose time at NAU, in Flagstaff and throughout Arizona embodies a commitment to access and excellence to public education
President José Luis Cruz Rivera and Frank and Linda’s daughter, Carrie Besnette Hauser, cut a ribbon at the sculpture in early October, showing a newly installed plaque honoring Frank and Linda Besnette for their contributions to NAU and Flagstaff while the couple watched on FaceTime from their home in Colorado.
Hauser said that for 30 years, the campus was her parents’ priority. After several years as faculty in the College of Business, Besnette became dean, and eventually, the university’s executive vice president. He concluded his tenure in higher education as executive director of the Arizona Board of Regents. Linda’s career was spent as an award-winning public school teacher in Flagstaff, and she was an engaged member of the Flagstaff community, serving as president of the faculty wives club at NAU. She was instrumental in the founding of Theatrikos and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flagstaff, where she served as its first board president.
When the Besnettes visited a year ago, Hauser said her parents’ eyes landed on the work of art that Frank had helped create and loved when he was on campus.
“My dad recounted that among his close colleagues on campus, they jokingly referred to them as Frank’s French fries,” Hauser said. Over the years, the memory of the exhaust pipes faded, and the fries have become an iconic part of south campus—and a fitting place to commemorate the Besnettes’ history at NAU.
At the ribbon cutting, President Cruz Rivera noted how beautiful campus is today, much of which he attributed to Frank’s emphasis on aesthetic physical infrastructure, flower gardens, public art and NAU’s image, which Linda said was a university’s first marketing tool for families. He credited their efforts for the foundation upon which NAU continues to build.
“It’s a privilege for us at NAU to be able to officially recognize the legacy of Frank and Linda,” he said.
Watching from hundreds of miles away, Frank and Linda were thrilled—not only to see the sculpture and the campus they both loved so much, but also the friends who came for the ceremony. In town for a Flagstaff High School reunion with Hauser, former Alumni Board President Jana (Gardner) Harper, who graduated from NAU in 1990, attended. The Besnettes introduced her parents—Larry and Barbara Gardner—to each other, and the two families found themselves together again at NAU in the 1960s, where both men were business faculty.
Gibson McKay, Class of 1991, a high school classmate of Carrie and Jana, is the son of David and Kay McKay. Kay cofounded Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flagstaff with Linda and worked with Frank as a member of the Arizona Board of Regents. And while the Besnettes couldn’t attend in person, Marj and Sam McClanahan, also decades-long friends of Frank and Linda, attended “to represent all of the parents,” Hauser said. Both are NAU boosters, and Sam was a faculty member at NAU.
“I’m glad campus is as beautiful as it is today,” Frank, who started his NAU career as an assistant marketing professor, said.
“This is marketing,” Linda added. “The families have to see a beautiful campus.”