Frank Carroll of Worcester, business leader and veterans advocate, dies

Francis “Frank” R. Carroll, a Worcester native and philanthropist who supported city businesses, has died.

Worcester City Manager Eric Batista announced Carroll’s death Wednesday evening and wrote that Carroll was a “champion of small business.”

“Frank came from humble beginnings and spent his life working to make Worcester a better place to live,” Batista wrote. “We are grateful for the gifts he left behind.”

Born in Worcester’s Vernon Hill neighborhood, Carroll founded the Worcester Small Business Bureau in 1968 to provide benefits to small businesses and advocate at the state and national levels to reduce health insurance costs. He also became involved in the development of Federal Square, purchasing the Dexter, Academy and Vuona buildings on Main Street and investing in facade renovations.

Carroll was also involved in raising money for the St. John’s Food for the Poverty, for the construction of the St. John’s Center. Francis Xavier, a soup kitchen and pantry, and the construction of the Living Memorial Hospital in Vietnam in honor of the Central Massachusetts men killed or missing in action in Vietnam. The hospital built in 1967 still operates today.

“We are happy to honor him with Frank Carroll Plaza in front of Hanover while he enjoyed having his legacy secured,” Mayor Joseph Petty said in a statement Thursday. “Worcester is a better place because of the work he has done and we will truly miss him.”

According to Petty’s spokesman, Carroll was 89 years old.

Carroll was also an early supporter and founder of the team that restored the theater in Hanover. In 2008, the square in front of the Theater in Hannover was dedicated to him. IN 2023the plaza was redesigned to accommodate a massive art installation and the Bank of America Stage for performances.

“As an entrepreneur, attorney and philanthropist, Frank was a natural fit as a founding member and board member of The Hanover Theater and Conservatory,” the theater wrote on its website. Facebook page. “His unwavering support and dedication to Worcester and THT have helped shape our organization into what it is today.”