GREEN BAY - Even after he was afflicted with dementia, Max Frost planned fundraisers he could no longer execute.
"He always lived with a purpose. I'm going through all of this stuff he'd done. God, he had purpose," said Susan Frost, his wife of 51 years. "He was never going to retire."
Frost, 83, died Dec. 2 in Green Bay. A memorial service will be held in spring.
Frost owned Max Frost & Co., a financial planning company, and before that managed Citizens Securities, and was affiliated with Smith Barney. Which was barely the tip of the iceberg.
Frost began his adult life as a Jesuit Brother until, after 12 years, he married Susan and had two children, a son and a daughter. He had a bachelor's degree in business with a minor in economics. He held a master's degree in theater.
"He was really a brilliant man," Susan said. "He was a man who believed in possibilities. He always had Plan A, Plan B and Plan C."
Frost was a board member of Bellin College for 11 years. He was involved with UW-Green Bay Theatre and Dance, the Czech Slovak Voice Competition, and events sponsored by the UW-Green Bay Founder's Association.
He was a founder of Evergreen Productions in Green Bay, and president of both Green Bay Community Theater and Pamiro Opera Co. He did fundraising for the Civic Symphony of Green Bay.
"One year in particular, there were some problems at the top (at Pamiro)," said Jeff Entwistle, professor emeritus of theater design at UW-Green Bay. "When we were trying to figure out how to solve some of those issues, it was Max and Ed Watts who took a lot of that on."
Entwistle said the Frosts and Watts were key supporters of theater at the university through its First Nighters organization.
"There were many times I felt our theater program would go under for lack of funding if not for our First Nighters, including those four," he said. "They were politically astute. They were really ardent supports of the arts."
Frost was on the board of Einstein Project, a science and technology program for younger students, for 10 years, and enjoyed dressing as Albert Einstein for fundraising events.
For nearly three decades, he wrote a column on investing for the Press-Gazette.
Jane Muhl, president emeritus of Bellin College, considered Frost a friend and one of her most supportive board members.
"He had the ability to think outside the box about how to work on or conquer challenges or problems, and he would never give up," Muhl said. "He would assist in helping find ways to do things you would never think of before."
Frost was a driving force behind the college's capital campaign for construction of its campus in Bellevue. The campaign began in 2007, just as world financial markets were melting down at the beginning of The Great Recession.
"Max said, 'We can do it. We don't care what is happening in the outside world,'" Muhl said.
Bellin College opened its new campus in 2009.
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Frost's concern for health care showed itself during a return from a UW-Green Bay theater department trip to New York on March 23, 2010.
"It was the day that (President Barack) Obama was able to sign the Affordable Care Act. I'll never forget the excitement and urgency in Max's voice when he announced it to the whole bus. He said 'Now, everybody in this country will be able to get health care,'" Entwistle said.
Frost loved anything financial. He kept the books when he was with the Jesuits. When the family lived in Iowa and owned a laundromat, he would take the kids down every morning to count the change, and later in Green Bay would help them with their Sunday paper route.
"To him, that was a business education," Susan said.
Frost was active in theater, even filling non-singing and chorus - 'spear carrier' - roles in musical and opera productions. Entwistle said Frost loved the stage.
"In our lives, we all have have-to-dos and want-to-dos. The things you want to do is the stuff that really makes you happy. When Max was able to get on stage, it was such an exciting and fun time for him," he said.
His last role was as Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life" in November 2015 at the Weidner Center on the UW-Green Bay campus.
"We needed this old crotchety Mr. Potter. We approached Max to ask if he would be possibly interested in playing Mr. Potter. He was thrilled," Entwistle said. "That experience hung the moon for him."
Susan Frost said he told her he started acting when he was five and never quit.
"He was on every stage in this community," she said.
The Frosts hosted a host of international students and opera performers and he often recruited actors - more spear carriers - for operas and musicals.
Susan said Max knew what he wanted, "which is why our first date was on 1/8/70, he proposed on 2/26/70, and we were married on 8/22/70. He didn't believe in wasting time.
"He could do anything, and he taught me to do anything," she said. "He just saw possibilities. He was man who never had regrets."
Contact Richard Ryman at (920) 431-8342 or rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Finance, theater, education and more: Max Frost never stopped trying to solve problems, make life better