<p>Frank Carney, who with his brother started the Pizza Hut empire in Wichita, died Wednesday from pneumonia. He was 82.</p>.<p>Carney had recently recovered from Covid-19, but had Alzheimer's disease for more than a decade, the Wichita Eagle reported. He died at 4:30 a.m. at an assisted living facility in Wichita, his wife and brother told the Eagle.</p>.<p>Frank Carney was a 19-year-old student at Wichita State University when he and his 26-year-old brother, Dan, borrowed $600 from their mother to start a pizza business in 1958 near their family's Carney's Market.</p>.<p>“When you are starting a business that's going to pay your way through college, you don't even think about what the economy is doing,” Carney once told a 1992 entrepreneurship conference at Wichita State.</p>.<p>“We didn't care about who was in the White House or what the unemployment rate was," he said. "The entrepreneur, all he thinks about is: Is there a market for the product? Can I sell it?”</p>.<p>PepsiCo bought Pizza Hut for $300 million in 1977. Over the years, he got involved in various business ventures, including other food companies, real estate, oil and gas, automotive, rental and recreational businesses.</p>.<p>Only five of about 20 of the companies made him money, which his brother contends is actually not a bad average.</p>.<p>“He probably lost most of what he had made in Pizza Hut,” Dan Carney said. “He was not depressed. He was just aggressive to build something different.”</p>.<p>When PepsiCo decided to move the Pizza Hut headquarters from Wichita to Dallas — a decision Frank Carney thought was a mistake — it solidified his decision to become a Papa John's Pizza franchisee in the 1990s and compete against his former business associates in the Wichita market.</p>.<p>Frank Carney had one of the largest Papa John's franchises and kept working until Alzheimer's struck. </p>
<p>Frank Carney, who with his brother started the Pizza Hut empire in Wichita, died Wednesday from pneumonia. He was 82.</p>.<p>Carney had recently recovered from Covid-19, but had Alzheimer's disease for more than a decade, the Wichita Eagle reported. He died at 4:30 a.m. at an assisted living facility in Wichita, his wife and brother told the Eagle.</p>.<p>Frank Carney was a 19-year-old student at Wichita State University when he and his 26-year-old brother, Dan, borrowed $600 from their mother to start a pizza business in 1958 near their family's Carney's Market.</p>.<p>“When you are starting a business that's going to pay your way through college, you don't even think about what the economy is doing,” Carney once told a 1992 entrepreneurship conference at Wichita State.</p>.<p>“We didn't care about who was in the White House or what the unemployment rate was," he said. "The entrepreneur, all he thinks about is: Is there a market for the product? Can I sell it?”</p>.<p>PepsiCo bought Pizza Hut for $300 million in 1977. Over the years, he got involved in various business ventures, including other food companies, real estate, oil and gas, automotive, rental and recreational businesses.</p>.<p>Only five of about 20 of the companies made him money, which his brother contends is actually not a bad average.</p>.<p>“He probably lost most of what he had made in Pizza Hut,” Dan Carney said. “He was not depressed. He was just aggressive to build something different.”</p>.<p>When PepsiCo decided to move the Pizza Hut headquarters from Wichita to Dallas — a decision Frank Carney thought was a mistake — it solidified his decision to become a Papa John's Pizza franchisee in the 1990s and compete against his former business associates in the Wichita market.</p>.<p>Frank Carney had one of the largest Papa John's franchises and kept working until Alzheimer's struck. </p>