Frank Protiva Memorial
Last week my old friend Frank Protiva died when a private plane he was piloting crashed in the forest in Northern Arizona. It is hard to come to terms with him being gone despite the fact I haven't seen him since his wedding to Barb Lambros. I met Frank at Coconino High school in an advanced algebra class. He was one year ahead of me. We would talk and write notes with John Willis. This became a long friendship that proceeded to embrace my whole family. With my brother Glenn accompanying him on river and mountain biking trips and later my dad and mom. When my dad called to tell me of his death he mentioned a very special fondness my mother had for Frank. For me Frank was a passionate and extremely kind person. He always understood you and though he believed strongly in many causes he was never fanatical; always able to express his profound sense of irony. When he left University I remember him getting a job with Peabody Coal. Working for a strip mine seemed an anathema to what he b