Kennewick entrepreneur Dan Frost dies at age 93

F. Daniel Frost, a well-known Kennewick philanthropist and entrepreneur who likely gave the city of Kennewick its largest donation, died Wednesday.

But the donation of the Dan Frost Municipal Services Complex is hardly the only legacy that Frost leaves.

“Dan has left a legacy everywhere he has been,” said his wife, Sue Frost.

She and her husband were in Tucson, Ariz, where they typically spend the winter, at the time of his death at age 93.

Both Dan and Sue Frost have invested a lot of hard work and passion into the community, said Kennewick Mayor Steve Young.

“He will be sorely missed,” Young said. “Our hearts and our prayers go out to Sue and the rest of the family and friends.”

Frost, a World War II Army veteran, was a well-known Southern California lawyer. He joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 1950, became a partner in 1956 and a senior partner in 1961.

He and his firm represented Walt Disney during the days Disney was struggling to open Disneyland.

The law firm was small when he joined, but had expanded to several offices in the U.S. and overseas by the time he became an inactive member, his wife said. Now it’s among the larger international firms.

Frost moved to the Tri-Cities to open a fresh-food processing plant. Sue, who was then the Port of Kennewick’s executive director, met with him one Sunday morning to show available industrial sites.

He really wanted to open a company that would provide entry-level jobs but allow every employee the chance to move up, she said.

“He cut square corners,” she said. “He was honorable and all business.”

Frost liked a property in Kennewick the port was buying from the Union Pacific Railroad, she said. But he laid out what communities in other states could offer as incentives for him to locate his business there instead. She told him the port could sell him the land for what the port had paid.

“Other than that all you get is charm,” she recalls saying. He laughed, and agreed.

Cascade Columbia Foods’ nearly 60,000-square-foot packing plant opened in June 1989 on the 27-acre site purchased from the port.

He started a number of food-processing businesses, one of which was sold to Tree Top.

Frost closed the Cascade Columbia Foods carrot and asparagus packing plant in 1993 and leased the building to Welch Foods Inc. after workers organized into a union, walked out and threatened to strike.

After Welch Foods ended its lease, Frost donated the 8-acre complex to the city in 2004. At the time, what became the Dan Frost Municipal Services Complex was valued at about $6 million. The city decided to name the facility in his honor.

The city invested about $3.1 million to raise new partitions, build walls and add an elevator to make the two-story building compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and bring it up to local codes.

Being able to remodel the facility saved taxpayers more than $12 million, city officials estimated in 2007. About 120 employees and the city’s Municipal Services department moved into the building in 2007.

Dan Frost really wanted to help young people whom he knew had the drive to work hard, his wife said.

He was active in creating and supporting the Hispanic Academic Achievement Program in Eastern Washington. He personally funded college educations for more than 20 young Hispanic students.

He also was active with the San Xavier Mission School on the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation near Tucson. He and his wife helped students remain in school by funding basic education needs and also helped pay for the expansion of the school and recreation facilities.

In addition to his wife, Frost is survived by their children — Polly Frost and her spouse Ray Sawhill, Matt Watkins, Raney Enga and her spouse Mark Enga — as well as grandchildren Jakob Enga and Elisa Daus and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by a son, Daniel Blackburn Frost, brother, Thomas Rickey Frost and sisters, Barbara Harkness and Alice Kennedy.

A memorial in the Tri-Cities will be announced at a later date.

This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Kennewick entrepreneur Dan Frost dies at age 93."