When Chris Vanden Heuvel made the case to the Healdsburg Unified District School Board’s trustees in November to rename Frost Hall on the high school campus for Drew Esquivel, he acknowledged it was an unusual thing to do. Just naming a school facility after a student was unusual enough, but to rename an existing school building seemed also a bit of a stretch.
Frost Hall bore the name of someone who Vanden Heuvel described as a long-ago school board member, and there was little further discussion in the board meeting—or at the dedication ceremony last month, which saw hundreds of people show up to celebrate the impactful life of Drew Esquivel.
If it seemed as if everyone in town was there, however, that was inaccurate—no people named Frost were in the hall, despite the fact that Chester Frost’s grandson said seven generations of Frosts had attended Healdsburg schools.
“I really don’t think the school board or the superintendent really did their due diligence in trying to locate family members,” said Mike Frost, 75, now living in Graton. “The first time we heard about it was on a Facebook post.”
The local Facebook group, What’s Happening Healdsburg, soon engaged in a lively discussion about the name change, and the perceived freeze-out of the Frost family.
Finding Frost
Anthony Frost, now of Cloverdale, posted, “I’m lost for words. H.C Frost was one of the founding board members of Healdsburg unified and donated much funds to build the first gym in Healdsburg. The Frost family has been in this town since the early 1800s.”
Later, he distanced himself from criticism of the new name of the hall. “Firstly, let me assure you that it was never my intention to cause any offense or speak ill of Drew. From what I have heard, Drew was a remarkable young man who left this world far too soon… I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement that honors both Drew and Chester.”
Joanne Taeuffer, a docent with the Healdsburg Museum, also posted on the group. “It’s not easy to know how to continue to honor the historical figures in town and also acknowledge our more recent heroes,” she wrote. “I hope the school district has included a plaque honoring the Frost family as the first people whose name was on this building. It isn’t a zero sum game….or it shouldn’t be.”
The Frost Hall plaque is still installed in the exterior south wall of the building, though it lacks the context given to Drew Esquivel in the hallway outside the gym room entrance. Following its recent remodel the Hall is a three-part facility—a wrestling gym, a weight room and a small stage for school drama productions.
Drew Esquivel, Class of 2013, was a wrestler as well as an active in the drama club, so the naming of the hall seemed appropriate. He died in a vehicle-pedestrian collision in New York in 2016.
Contemporary Evidence
But the name change, which Superintendent Vanden Heuvel proposed and promoted, didn’t sit well with the Frost family once they read about it in the paper. They quickly produced documentation, much of it curated from 70-year-old issues of The Healdsburg Tribune, to make their case.
Included is a newspaper clipping from Oct. 9, 1950, that describes the proposal to build a new high school, in light of the high post-war birth rate. “The proposal was made by Chester Frost, head of the board, who stated that a school census indicates an enrollment soon of 600 pupils in the local school.” (The high school has about the same number today.)
Three years later, a photograph shows Chester Frost, shovel in the dirt, inaugurating the building of the new school. It was dedicated on Nov. 7, 1954. An article announcing the ceremony reads, “The dedication exercises will be held in Frost Hall, the school’s auditorium, which was named for Chester Frost, former member of the Healdsburg High School board of trustees.”
Frost died four years later, at the relatively young age of 50. His obituary of Sept. 25, 1958, reads, “Local educators said that Mr. Frost was a fine educational leader and that he had done a great deal for the schools in the Healdsburg area. He was influential in planning the new Healdsburg Senior high school and in setting up the new Senior and Junior high school structure.”
Finally the Frost family made contact with Vanden Heuvel, though not before the flurry of postings on Facebook. Understandably, the superintendent shies away from social media as an information source, so it was Nancy Frost, Mike Frost’s wife, who first called him.
But after speaking with Mike and Nancy, Vanden Heuvel realized he knew another Frost in the area; he just hadn’t put two and two together. Though he said he had made a few inquiries to a few Frosts, he had also missed a few.
Regardless, the three local Frosts and Chris Vanden Heuvel have smoothed their feathers somewhat, and the proposal now is to rename East Gym—which has never really had a name anyway—to Frost Gym.
“We want to preserve the historical memory,” the superintendent said. “Frost Hall was originally the gym at the high school, then we built Smith Robinson. Now we have a new gym that doesn’t have a name. It’s kind of fitting to move the Frost Hall name to it.” He said the proposal would be made at the next Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 19.
The new plaque to be installed there will be similar to the ones at Smith Robinson Gym and, now, Drew Esquivel Hall: etched stainless steel with a portrait and biographical information. The image of Chester Frost to be used—which his grandson Mike Frost found in online research—shows a determined man in his 40s, his shovel buried in the ground that became Healdsburg High.
“I take full responsibility and you can definitely print that,” Vanden Heuvel said. “We are happy to continue honoring the people who historically have made Healdsburg a better place.”
