What was Franz’s role regarding blood I wonder. Did he 1) come up with the idea to refuse blood transfusions 2) someone else came up with the idea and he fully supported it 3) he went along with the idea but was not enthusiastic, or 4) some other option?
The blood issue was pushed by the quack Clayton Woodworth (first editor of what became Awake!). Woodworth also preached against aluminum cookware and tried to change the names of the months and days.
Rutherford was more of a pragmatist than Franz was and didn’t adopt these silly ideas. Woodworth did outlive Rutherford by almost 10 years, so I suspect he had some influence on Franz.
One thing that is often overlooked is that disfellowshipping was ramped up after Rutherford’s death. During his lifespan it tended to happen primarily in cases of open apostasy and/or going directly against Rutherford. Knorr/Franz were obsessed with sex and so the most often abused reason for DFing in modern times was thus born. Also they cracked down on alcoholism (Hayden Covington was DFed for this) and banned smoking.
It’s a bit of a wash for me. Rutherford took the Russellite movement and created the foundation of the cult-like movement that exists today. Franz was way more of a puritan than Rutherford was and did his own set of damage, especially with the strict enforcement of DFing rules and the added set of rules that were not to be broken.