A frank resurrection

Thinking he was walking into a wedding reception at the skating rink in Mamou back in October, a former parish educator and coach found himself immersed in a retirement party after 41 years of service.
“When I arrived, there was a crowd of people yelling surprise,” said Donald Frank who retired from the Evangeline Parish School System on June 14. “This surprise retirement celebration was shared with family, friends, and former students.”
According to Frank, the celebration included a blessing from Archbishop Allen Celestine and praise dances by his granddaughters. It continued with him receiving a plaque in recognition for his service from Mamou’s Mayor Ricky Fontenot and Councilman Freddie Matthew.
Frank said of the event, it was an “expression of love by my children. Expression was also given by family, friends, former co-workers, church members, and former students and athletes.”
He continued, “Special thanks to former students and athletes, Blaine Grimes, Myron Guillory, and Laterryal Savoy for their beautiful expression. I would like to thank all of my family, friends, students, and the St. Luke Baptist church family that came to share in this celebration. I would like to thank those who traveled as far as Atlanta, Georgia and Houston, Texas. I would also like to thank everyone for the gifts that were given to me and my wife. I would like to thank all of the principals, faculty, staff, students, and parents for the time I spent working with them in the school system at Mamou High, Mamou Upper, Vidrine, and Chataigner.”
Frank began his time in the school system as a teacher in 1976 at Vidrine Elementary. “I always likes social studies,” he expressed, “and I knew one day I wanted to be a social studies teacher. From there, I went to college at Southern University, and I just figured by teaching I could help somebody either in the classrooms or out of the classroom.”
“That’s what made me want to become a school teacher,” he continued. “It was in my heart to be a teacher to teach students the facts of life and what life is all about. The majority of the ones I taught are doing well, and some are lawyers and doctors. It makes me feel good when I see them doing so well.”
After one year in Vidrine, Frank spent two years teaching social studies in Chataignier before receiving a phone call from Coach Turling Deville, who was the principal at Mamou Upper Elementary. “He called and wanted me to come to Mamou,” Frank said, “He had an opening and wanted me to coach and teach at the school.”
He continued, “I always did like basketball. I played basketball and always watched it on TV. Coach Deville said I could be a good coach. He wanted me to take over the junior high program at Mamou, and I said I would give it a try, and I did. We were successful and had some winning years at junior high.”
Years later, Frank went to coach at the high school ranks in Mamou for several years. He stated, “That was back in the 1980s when the program was kind of down a little bit, but we brought it back up while I was there. We brought basketball back to Mamou, and from there Coach John Jack came in after I left. Basketball at Mamou High has been good ever since.”
After coaching at the high school, Frank went back to the junior high to, as he said, “keep the program going.”
Frank coached a total of 15 years in Mamou and continued working in the school system as a physical education teacher and as being over the detention clinic.
“I enjoyed it because it was a good feeling to work with the kids,” Frank commented. “To me it was an honor to work with those kids and get everything I could get from them by motivating them, and that’s what kept me working with those kids even in junior high coaching football, track, and all the other sports that I did.”
For Frank, though, his biggest feeling of accomplishment comes from the impact he had on the lives of his former students. “It was very special for me,” he said. “It made me feel good when a young kid would appreciate what I did for them. Some of them say it changed their lives and helped them out a whole lot. The kids felt it was something done for them, and it was a positive thing. When I see them now when they are grown up and married, they thank me for encouraging them and motivating them. I tried to make them a believer in the things they could do.”
He concluded, “It was a joy for me to do what I did, and I thank God for it. I appreciated the 41 years in the school system. It was an honor and a privilege to work among good people.”