Ray Frisch Family

The Ray Frisch Family Fund Scholarship is in honor of the Frisch teaching legacy that has spanned two generations, four family members, several institutional name changes and continuous family teaching contributions at this institution since 1957.

Raymond Frisch, a Brainerd native, first was associated with the college as a student. He attended Brainerd Junior College in 1948, graduated with his Associate of Arts degree in 1950 and went on to receive his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in English from St. Cloud State University. He started teaching at the college in Brainerd in 1957 and stayed here for 38 years. When he retired, from the then called Brainerd Community College, he had the highest seniority of any employee in the State Community College system. During his tenure here, he taught mainly English and Humanities courses with a few Public Speaking classes thrown in there towards the end. He advised the school newspaper and annual yearbook, directed some of the first plays the college ever produced and held numerous faculty leadership positions including Chair of the Humanities Division, a position his daughter now currently holds. Ray started the college’s first honor society “Phi Theta Kappa (PTK)”, which is still active today. He was also the co-founder of the Alumni Association and served as the first president.

Kari Frisch, daughter to Ray and Carolyn started her full-time teaching career at Central Lakes College in 2001, although she had done some adjunct work for the school before that. She teaches in the Speech Department and is the Chair of the Arts & Humanities Division. Kari has also held several leadership positions for the school and has received national recognition for her work with eLearning and online education. She has conducted several national webinars and has given numerous international presentations on eLearning topics. Kari also first started at the college as a student graduating with her Associate of Arts degree in 1990 before continuing on to receive her Master of Arts degree in 1995. She says one of her fondest memories of her time at the college in Brainerd was when she graduated with her A.A. and had both her parents walk her across the stage to receive her diploma. The only parents that were allowed to walk their child across the platform were faculty at the college and at the time, both her father and mother were instructors so that is why she was able to have them both by her side-being one of the only graduates in the college’s history to be able to do so.​ Ray and Carolyn’s sons, Brad and Brian, are also CLC graduates as well as three of their grandchildren.

Carolyn Frisch worked at the college from 1986-1994. She was a field supervisor for the Child Development Program. This was not her first time teaching. Carolyn had many years of previous teaching experience in area elementary school systems. Their daughter-in-law Connie was also an instructor for many years at CLC. Her most recent time at the college was as Dean of Allied Health and Director of Nursing.

So teaching is definitely a family business for the Frisches. It is for that reason that they started this scholarship fund in order to help future generations of students at CLC pursue their educational goals.