Jabara had profound impact

Fran Jabara inspired generations of students and community partners to turn their ideas into commercial success. In the process, he had a profound impact on Wichita State University and Wichita’s very identity.

The sorrow of his death Saturday at age 90 cannot diminish the power of his winning thinking, which will live on in the Center for Entrepreneurship he founded in 1977 at WSU, the two prestigious annual $20,000 Fran Jabara Scholarships in Entrepreneurship at WSU, and the countless business ventures he had direct and indirect involvement in launching.

The son of Lebanese immigrants, Jabara directed the Center for Entrepreneurship until 1989 and also was dean of WSU’s business school for seven years during his four-decade WSU career.

He recognized how one success – such as that of Pizza Hut, co-founded in 1958 by WSU students Dan and Frank Carney – sparked daring and creativity in others. Ever the optimist, Jabara even observed that recessions could be opportunities for business creation.

As he said in a video upon receiving the local Chamber of Commerce’s Uncommon Citizen award: “If you can’t outthink ’em, you gotta outwork ’em.”

His pioneering efforts to forge strong, mutually beneficial relationships between the university and industry also are inseparable from WSU’s new Innovation Campus.

For all of his influence on others, from college students to company presidents, Jabara once said, “My greatest thrill is to learn something new.” May the entrepreneurial spirit he kindled at WSU and in Wichita stay strong.

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Jabara had profound impact."