Special Announcement

Roger Carlson and Sheryl Franke Named Tustin Area Man and Woman of the Year

Roger Carlson and Sheryl Franke proudly display their Tustin Area Man and Woman of the Year awards.

Roger Carlson and Sheryl Franke, front row, second and third from right, pose in a group photo with TAMWY lifetime members who attended this year’s awards celebration.

Longtime Tustin community volunteers Roger Carlson and Sheryl Franke have been selected as Tustin Area Man and Woman of the Year for 2023.

The announcement was made at the annual Tustin Area Man and Woman of the Year (TAMWY) awards dinner and celebration on May 31. The event, held at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge, was attended by over 150 people, including city and county officials, previous TAMWY award winners and community members.

The TAMWY program has been held for more than 60 years. Tustin individuals are recognized for their dedicated work, leadership and outstanding volunteerism in the community. Nominations for the award come from previous winners or local nonprofit organizations. This year five men and six women were nominated for the award.

“When I started my business in November of 2000 my goal was to be part of the Tustin community as I built my accounting practice,” Carlson said. ‘Through my volunteerism I have met many people who are now friends through Tustin Rotary and my PB&J Ministries. I am honored to be included with the past recipients of TAMWY.”

Carlson has been involved in the Rotary Club of Tustin-Santa Ana for more than 24 years and has served as a board member since 2010, president (2018-19 and 2022-23) and treasurer. Carlson’s dedication to serving others is exemplified in everything he does, including chairing Rotary’s Arbor Day for the past two years, volunteering in Rotary’s Chili Cook-Off booth, serving as security with fellow Rotarians during summer evenings at Concerts in the Park and reading to elementary school students in Rotary’s Read Across America program.

Since creating PB&J Ministries in 2010, Carlson has annually organized the gathering of food for distribution to needy families in the Tustin community through various food drives with the OC Rescue Mission, Families Forward and the Tustin Family and Youth Center.

In 2016, Carlson, with the assistance of the Tustin Community Center, created and ran the Birthday Ice Cream Social event through 2019, which celebrated Tustin residents 90 years of age and older by providing a birthday cake and ice cream, averaging 18 to 20 honorees at each event.

Carlson enjoys quality time with his wife Karen and their adult children, daughter Haley and son Jeffrey. He was nominated by the Rotary Club of Tustin-Santa Ana.

“I am so honored to receive this special award,” Franke said. “It is with gratitude that I reflect on the volunteer activities that I have participated in over the years in the Tustin community. I am proud to support these wonderful organizations and help make the Tustin area the amazing place that we know and cherish. I am looking forward to continuing to volunteer for many, many years to come.”

Franke can best be described as a multi-talented dynamo when it comes to her involvement as an active volunteer in the Tustin community. Whether she is heading up an activity for Tustin Area Woman’s Club (TAWC), Santa Ana Elks Lodge #794, Tustin Area Republican Women Federated (TARWF) or Assistance League of Tustin where she chaired Operation School Bell for five years, Franke’s positive impact has been profound. A highly organized perfectionist, she works nonstop until the job is done.

Franke has been on the board of TAWC from 2015 through 2023, serving as its president, vice president/dean, treasurer, hospitality chair, past-presidents’ club chair and publicity chair, as well as co-chair of two very successful fundraisers. Steering TAWC’s philanthropic events, Franke currently is their Scholarship Committee chair and TAWC’s Young Woman of the Month Program chair. Her overall involvement has helped provide more than $50,000 over the years for TAWC-generated fundraisers to a variety of causes.

Franke has been treasurer of the Santa Ana Elks Lodge #794 Scholarship Committee since 2020, helping to raise over $140,000 in scholarships for the lodge’s service area of Tustin, Santa Ana and Irvine. Under her guidance as president for the past three years, TARWF has been recognized as Orange County’s 2023 Republican Club of the Year.

In Franke’s spare time she is an avid tennis player on three competitive teams, enjoys line dancing, and most of all treasures time with her family—husband Nathan and adult children Aaron and Jenny. She was nominated by the Tustin Area Woman’s Club.

Carlson and Franke will become lifetime members of the TAMWY organization. They will also ride in the Tustin Tiller Days Parade as guests of honor on Saturday, October 5, and have their names permanently etched on a brick walkway in the plaza between the Tustin Library and Clifton C. Miller Community Center at the Tustin Civic Center.

List of Tustin Men & Women of the Year

Click the names below to learn more about them

1957 – Jack Hall*
1958 – William Moses*
1959 – Victor Grant*
1960 – Eugene Jacobson*
1961 – G. O. Bixler*
1962 – Buel Williamson*
1963 – Glenn Sissel*
1964 – Pete Berlin*
1965 – Gene Thomas*
1966 – Earl Rowenhorst* / Margaret Pottenger*
1967 – Joe Carruba* / Lee Wagner *
1968 – Gerald Mack / Lucille Moses*
1969 – Lou Gerding* / Ruth Poe*
1970 – Msgr. John Sammon* / Ida McCalla*
1971 – James Hein* / Helen Holthe*
1972 – Ken Lovell* / Pat Furniss*
1973 – Frank Greinke* / Isa Varela*
1974 – Walt Fredriksen* / Maureen Holthe*
1975 – Ron Oster / Maureen Rischard*
1976 – A.J. (Tony) Coco / Vivien Owen*
1977 – Bob Hill* / Jan Klingelhofer*
1978 – Howard Pinkstaff / Barbara Benson*
1979 – Stephen Schuster* / Carol Jordan*
1980 – Arthur Peterson* / Cherrill Cady
1981 – Howard Jamieson* / Janet Schwartz*
1982 – Dean McCormick* / Anne Schultz*
1983 – Cliff Polston / Frances Logan*
1984 – Dr. Maury Ross*/ Linda Andrews
1985 – Joe Langley / Betty Miller*
1986 – Charles Puckett / Margaret Greinke
1987 – Tom Aufdemberg / Joyce Hanson
1988 – Dick Edgar* / Barbara O’Donnell
1989 – Eugene Thomas* / Margarete Thompson*
1990 – Jim D. Kane*/ Jill Leach
1991 – Don Biery* / Phyllis Spivey*
1992 – David Nisson / Judy Houlihan