Cal Frazier, 'leader of leaders' in Colorado public education Cal Frazier, 'leader of leaders' in Colorado public education

The Rocky Mountain News has an obituary titled: "Cal Frazier, 'leader of leaders' in Colorado public education" dated February 1, 2006. While it gives the bare bones of Cal's life, it doesn't do justice to the man and his impact on education in particular Colorado, but also, nationally.

I knew Cal reasonably well from church. My parents were fairly close friends of his. At his service, our minister started by telling a story about going through old records and finding his certification as a teacher. And who signed it? Cal did, as Commissioner of Education for Colorado. And he wasn't the only one at the service who had a teaching certificate signed by Cal. He was the preeminent public educator in the state of Colorado for more than a quarter of a century, with one of his last achievements being a pay for performance contract for the Denver Public School teachers. He was the guy who both the school district and the unions trusted.

Cal was one of the most exceptional people I have ever met. For one thing, he had an uncanny ability to dig your stories out of you. If you met him, you wouldn't know that he had counseled presidents. Rather, you would talk about yourself. Someone asked me at the service what Cal had taught after retiring as Commissioner of Education. I remembered talking to him at DU shortly after then, but don't know what he was teaching there. All I got out of him was that he was teaching there, and the rest of the conversation, as usual, was about what I was doing there.

One story that I will remember of his he told my daughter and me right after President Reagan died. Apparently, Reagan's staff had been trying to get the two of them together for awhile, with no success. Then, they called up one day and asked if he could show up a couple of days later for a short talk with the president. It was supposed to be a 20 minute conversation, and Reagan was, as are all presidents, booked solid. So, his aides kept popping in and reminding him of the time and his other committments. Yet, it kept going on and on, running over an hour. Cal indicated that one of the prouder moments of his life was when president Reagan gave his education speech and concentrated on systemic problems with public education, while noting that teachers were typically highly motivated and hard working. Cal took some credit for changing the president's mind on the later, so that the emphasis was on the system, and not on the teachers.

I, along with all those thousands whose lives Cal touched, will miss him, his constant humor, and incisive mind, dearly.