RICHARD DYER: Now, you have to remember Bob Deil as a colleague and a friend. What was he like as a your immediate supervisor, as you boss on the campus?

MAC FROST: Bob Deil is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Bob and I became very good friends. Bob was my mentor—always extremely supportive of everything I was trying to do. Always included me in any planning that was being done. Talked about the things that we were trying to do and what we were going to do and he was very supporting in every way. I felt he was a very good administrator. He was rally fair, and was very humanistic in his approach to his administrative duties and as well as his faculty and staff.

DYER: It sounds like the Bob Deil that I remember. Just was a real asset as well as a fine person. When about grant money that came in? Now, Bob was a good PR man and also a good grant getter too. Can you recall any specific grants that you secured?

FROST: No, I can recall no specific grants that were received. You know, they are in Bob’s tenure here. Other then mainly excess equipment that we got through he military.

DYER: No special programs? No special programs or outside funding that you can think of?

FROST: Not to my knowledge. We did a couple of projects. We did one project which was the IVEP (the Individual Vocational Educational Program). That was to provide vocational training for the ethnic group in Tuolumne County which were the Indians. And that shows was grated through some type of federal grant. There was a vocational program that was written and taught by the vocational instructors on campus at the time. …the segment in fire science which I write and taught in forestry and one or two others.

DYER: Now, the other president you’ve worked most closely with would be Dave Wilson; and can you tell us where he came from and when he came?

FROST: Dave Wilson came from Sonora High School. His background was in automotive; and he came on board as the second instructor in heavy equipment. I can’t recall exactly the year that he came here, but it must have been ’76, ’77, somewhere in that time period.

DYER: Okay, his position was to assist in the courses that you were teaching then, or did he open up a whole new area?

FROST: He was originally hired to assist with the heavy equipment. So we shared the load in heavy equipment between the two of us. His goal, of course, was to teach automotive when the automotive program was going to be starting here. He was going to move into that area. So, as time went on and we were offering fewer and fewer heavy equipment courses, then we started instituting the automotive courses into the program and Dave taught those.

DYER: Well, lets change our subject a little bit, Mac, before we run out of time now, you retired just recently and didn’t really completely retire.

FROST: That’s correct. Um, in 1985 the district came out with an incentive program for persons that want to retire early. I was in a position where my health was impaired. I was also in a position where my program had been reduced. So I was offered the alternative of early retirement or a split assignment between Columbia and Modesto.

DYER: Which would have meant commuting four time a week.

FROST: …commuting to Modesto for 70% assignment. And consultation with my doctors, they felt that this would not be a good idea to be trying to do that in my physical condition. So I elected the early retirement incentive. I miss Columbia. I miss it very much. This wasn’t a job to me, this was my life. But, in the lines of the circumstances, I felt at the time that that was the wisest thing to do.

DYER: But you are still teaching some courses at Columbia.

FROST: Yes, I am currently teaching all the welding that is taught at Columbia which consist of two courses that are taught two night a week. So I’m still a part-time teacher and I’m hoping that that will continue. My contract is going to be up this June. But I’m hoping to continue as a part-time instructor.

DYER: What about your pleasure of life when you have free time. What are those things that you and your life or family members partake in?

FROST: Well, at present time we really aren’t doing anything too exciting—let me put it that way. It has been quite a transition period for us. My wife was living in the Bay Area, so in the last two years we are getting moved up here and settled in as a resident of Tuolumne County.

DYER: it’s different that in the Bay Area for women?

FROST: It’s quite a transition period for her. She, of course, is used to living in the city, and now she is living in the small town in different climate conditions and those types of things, but we do plan to do some traveling and do some sightseeing.

DYER: You were doing some art work in…as a welder too. Have you perused that at all, or…?

FROST: I have perused it to some extent, and this is one of the area I want to get into. I want to get more equipment and I want to spend more time with artistic welding, if you will, and doing some custom welding in the neighborhood and the community.

DYER: Can you describe the kind of art work that you were doing?

FROST: the type of art work that I was doing was…I was doing some trains—I just call them trains—and some ships and boats and those types of things. One time I had an agreement with one of the gift shops in Jamestown that they would take my work on consignment and I would put these together and they would sell them in one of the local gift shops. So I hope to get back into that and spend more time in that area.

DYER: Sounds exciting, you know, I’m looking forward myself to the pleasures ahead. Well, Mac, we really do appreciate the fact that you’ve come out here to talk with us again and we will preserve this innumerable people that will want to reminisce in the future with you and with us in our history of Columbia Community College.

FROST: Thank you, I appreciate it.

END OF TAPE

General Information:

Interviewer: Dyer, Richard L.

Interviewee: Frost, McKinley (Mac) (Welding Instructor Emeritus)

Name of Tape: Faculty Interviews in the History of Columbia Junior College (CC_hist_12_1)

When: Early 70s

Transcriber: Ariella (September 2008)

Transcriber’s Note: n/a