Frank Reeves is fairly new to Grand County, but he has wasted no time in getting involved in the community! A former social studies teacher, he is now the superintendent of the East Grand School District.  Frank is a huge sports fan and loves to be outdoors.  Thank you, Frank, for sharing with us your journey to Grand County.

Questions:

Q: Are you a Grand County native? If not, where are you from and what brought you to Grand County?

A: I am not a Grand County native, but nearby, actually.  I am from Wyoming and I grew up in Laramie. Since birth, we’ve been coming to Grand County for various reasons, either through Grand County or visiting here. I would say for 20-25 years, I’ve had family who had a second home in Grand County or we’ve camped at least 2-3 times a year and then ended up moving here when I got the job as superintendent in 2015.

Q: What inspired you or led you to your current career?

A: It’s education, and  I’ve been in education since I graduated from the University of Wyoming. I started out as a teacher and after 5 or 6 years, I thought wanted to become a principal so I moved back to Colorado to go back to school and get my masters so I could become a principal. I thought that will be the end, that I would always be a principal and that would be it. After gathering the principalship, I saw behind the scenes of a superintendent, what they do and how they can really have a positive impact on the kids in their district, and even more on the state and even at the federal level. Specifically on education policy and those things that have an effect on kids. It is to make things more positive and provide a better education than I was provided, not that I had a bad education, but we can always get better. Q: Do you miss the classroom? Yes, tremendously. The favorite part of my job, still today, is getting out into the classroom. I think I scare teachers somewhat because “the superintendent is in the classroom” but the kids get used to it.

Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Grand County, and what do you love there?

A: I am going to give you a few.  My favorite pizza place is Elevation and I love the “Adam Bomb”.  Not just because of the pizza, but Adam, the owner, I also love because of his support for our school district. He is phenomenal–to the point that he closes his restaurant for a week so he can guide our Junior River trip, wow! But, the pizza is really, really good, too! For casual food it’s Squeaky B’s in Grand Lake, I just love their burgers. For fine dining, I like Tabernash Tavern, it’s fine dining but it’s still a casual atmosphere, that’s why I like it there. I have to dress up every day, I don’t want to have to dress up to go out to dinner.

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Grand County?

A: There are so many interesting people here. From the 75-year-old who has lived here all their life and seen all the changes to the folks who chose to retire here or own a second home that you meet events, they each have their own story. The coolest thing about meeting these people is finding out what brought them to Grand County. Often they came here to ski and wound up staying or buying a second home.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?

A: I really want to go to India specifically to see the Taj Mahal. It always fascinated me, the story behind why it was built and the way it was built. India has a massive culture, from the crowdedness and to the thousands of years of history. I want to experience that and be part of something so different than anything I have ever seen or been accustomed to.

Q: What is your favorite movie OR what is the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?

A: I can’t remember the first movie but my favorite movie is Field of Dreams. I am a  sports guy and sports movies. It’s a movie about baseball as a background, but, truly, when they put dreams in there it’s just about hope, ambition and following through with things and taking risks. It’s such a cool movie, I can watch it time and time again.

Q: What advice would you give someone moving to Grand County?

A: Just be open to experience everything. What we have learned up here is while it’s still a small town, and we came from a small town in eastern Colorado, there’s so much activity and so much to do. Whether you do that alone, go hiking at the backcountry, or find an event every weekend, there is always something to do in one of our communities, usually multiple things. So just experience it. For most people, I am guessing it’s tremendously different from where they came from and you meet visitors here on vacation, they are usually more laid back and I think that causes us to be more laid back.

Q: What is something on your bucket list?

A: As I said, I am a sports guy, so I want to attend every collegiate national championship of major sport in the same year. That would be so much fun!

Q: What is your favorite music/ 3 bands you would like to see (dead or alive)?

A: I like pop music, usually it has a positive message. I love the lol ’80’s pop music, but I think we all love the music we heard in high school and college. For bands, my wife and friend of ours went to a concert just recently, we saw Pink in Phoenix. She’s fantastic, I love her energy and her message. I love to see also the Rolling Stones…who wouldn’t?

Q: What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

A: In Grand County that’s really easy, it’s being outdoors. Hiking, snowshoeing…my wife and I bought a four-wheeler. People who know us ask, “You bought a four-wheeler?” because I don’t seem like that kind of person. It’s funny, we bought it for a practical reason, to plow the snow. Then we took it out one time and played and haven’t stopped since. We are in a mecca for being outdoors!

Q: What is one business or activity that you would like to see in Grand County that currently isn’t here?

A: This is a tough question because it’s kind of a double-edged sword. Because I think I am like most here because we love not having the Walmarts or Targets or the other big boxes, but at the same time, the convenience of those is nice. So, maybe an Amazon warehouse where we get daily deliveries? Just kidding. This is a tough one, how about a minor league baseball team?

Q: Choosing anyone alive and a non-relative with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? And where in Grand County would you take him or her?

A: I want to have lunch with Nelson Mandela because he experienced everything, from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. He was a sports guy, a politician and probably the most worldly person I can think of. He could give you a story about probably anything. If Mustachios was open I would take him there just to sit and look out that picture window of the views of Lake Granby and the Indian Peaks. If not there, Azteca, because there is a place that has its own unique culture and offers good food.

Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Grand County?

A: My favorite thing is the outdoors and to literally have them right out my door. From our house, it’s less than a quarter-mile to be on a trail. One unique thing about Grand County and I don’t know how many counties there are like this besides Summit and us, is you can’t get here without going over a mountain pass. You can get here from Summit County, without going over a pass, but you had to go over a pass to get to Summit and vice versa.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

A: Hopefully, retired. I see myself here. My dream retirement would be mowing greens or mowing tees at one of our local golf courses early in the morning, playing a round of golf and then playing outdoors for the rest of the day. That’s for the summertime. Wintertime, I am not so sure I would be here year-round for that, I might head south for a bit.

Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?

A: Unless they have been with me a lot and know this, I cry at movies. It’s not sadness crying, I get emotional for greatness. I will cry at a basketball game if someone has put forth an exceptional performance. I was watching a show just last night and I cried. Even though I have done so many, I cry at every graduation. I hide it as best I can because I am sitting on stage, but these kids have accomplished something tremendous.

Q: What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?

A: Family. Warmth. Security. Security is foremost on my mind these days because the grant we passed is for security. We had a meeting with our design advisory group and the assignment we had was to name or draw your safest place, I drew the deck on our home because you just feel so comfortable and relaxed and safe at home.

Q: If you had a full-time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose? Chef, Housekeeper, Driver, Coach, Physical Fitness Trainer, or Nanny?

A: I don’t need a nanny right now, except maybe for me; and I obviously need a physical fitness trainer, but I still probably wouldn’t be motivated to do that. So, think either a chef or housekeeper. The housekeeper would be nicer because sometimes I like to cook, but I never like to clean the house.

Q: If you were cast into a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your co-star, who would you choose?

A: I would choose Henry Kacik as my male co-star. He is a student at Middle Park and is on the statewide thespian board, and he just dominates the stage. For such a small school we sure produce some really great kids. My female co-star right now would be Maddy Ruttenberg. If you know her and see her in the hall, and then see her on stage, that is a completely different human being. Both are really cool. She has a pretty quiet demeanor and you don’t really notice her except to say hello, then she gets on stage and she blossoms into this person who can sing and act. I would love to be on stage with our students in a major motion picture because that means they are doing what they dreamed of doing!

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