Thomas Ferran Frist was born in Tampa, Florida, on July 2, 1945, the youngest of the four children of Dr. John Chester Frist, a Presbyterian minister, and Betty Ferran Frist, a writer. His older siblings were Jane, Charlotte, and Johnny Frist with only Johnny still surviving. Tom's father died when Tom was fourteen and due to the generosity of members of his father's church in Mobile, Alabama where Tom grew up, he was able to enroll in the McCallie School of Chattanooga, Tennessee as a boarding student.
Tom did well at McCallie and graduated in 1963 and entered Davidson College in North Carolina. While at Davidson, Tom was president of his class and of his fraternity and secretary-treasurer of the student body. He also spent one summer working at the McCallie Academic Camp and a summer in San Francisco organizing street recreation for poor urban children in the Mission District. Spending his junior year abroad at the Université de Montpellier in France, Tom had many life-changing adventures, including hitch-hiking throughout Europe and to Israel.
After graduating from Davidson in 1967, Tom taught English and American literature for a year at a college in Indore, Madya Pradesh, India on a Fulbright Grant and studied the similarities and differences in Christian and Hindu mysticism interviewing many prominent Indian personalities. Being against the Vietnam War, Tom decided to go to Vietnam to help in anyway that he could and for a year and a half, he was a UNICEF field representative in Vietnam responsible for building hospital wards in Saigon and Danang and for emergency relief and refugee feeding programs in Danang, Hue, Quang Ngai, and Quang Tri feeding ten to fifteen thousand children daily.
On his return to the U.S., Tom was tried and acquitted in Montgomery, Alabama for his opposition to the Vietnam War and for his refusal of the draft to join the US Army. For the next few years, Tom worked as an aide and counselor at the Yale Psychiatric Institute in New Haven, Connecticut while attending classes at the Yale School of Public Health. He also received grants from Yale to do six months of social research in Tanzania on the problems faced by persons affected by leprosy which had begun to interest him when he lived in India and Vietnam.
Graduating from Yale with an MPH, Tom married Clare Strachan in Costa Rica where her British grandparents had started the Latin America Mission. Thanks to Clare's sister, Cathy, who was a classmate at Yale, Tom had met Clare in Boston where she taught Spanish in a public high school. Tom and Clare then moved to Madrid, Spain for a year where Tom learned Spanish and published several scientific articles on leprosy while Clare finished her master's degree in Spanish literature.
On their return to the USA, Tom accepted invitations from the American Leprosy Missions, CERPHA, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Ministry of Health of Brazil to do a pilot study in Brazil to promote the social integration of people with leprosy. Tom and Clare therefore moved to Brazil in 1974 after first spending a three-month period in Venezuela studying their leprosy program. They lived for most of the next fifteen years in Brazil, which at the time had an estimated 600,000 persons of the fifteen million worldwide affected by Hansen’s disease (leprosy).
First of all, Tom devoted three years to social research on the obstacles impeding the social and economic integration of people affected by the disease, and then he designed a pilot project called PRO-REHAB, which was later approved by government and international agencies for implementation. As part of the plan, Tom helped transform and integrate government institutions and also founded and then directed a model NGO integrated rehabilitation program for all types of persons with disabilities named SORRI and then helped establish a national organization and new SORRI centers in seven cities throughout Brazil. He also served as a consultant for WHO-PAHO to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, helped establish the first university course in Brazil for the training of vocational rehabilitation professionals, and was a co-founder of several local and national organizations of disabled persons including MORHAN which continues to promote the social integration of persons affected by Hansen’s disease through its many chapters in Brazil.
In 1984, during their time in Brazil, Tom and Clare returned to the US for a year where Tom did further studies in the Columbia University Institute for Not-For-Profit Management and in the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School. Also, in 1984, their first child, Lisa Kristin Frist was born and in 1988, after their return to Brazil, their son, John Daniel Frist, was born and adopted.
In July of 1989, Tom returned to the U.S. to become the president of the American Leprosy Missions (ALM International), and in 1993 was appointed secretary for administration for the 14th International Leprosy Congress. From June 1994 to June 1996, he served as president of the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations (ILEP) with work in a hundred countries and was also chairman of the working group on the social aspects of anti-leprosy work. During this time, he wrote a chapter on rehabilitation for the textbook, Leprosy, and published his own book, Don't Treat Me Like I Have Leprosy!, distributed worldwide.
From 1996 until 2002 Tom was a consultant for different organizations in Central America, the USA, Brazil, and Great Britain and traveled widely to countries around the world and began writing other books that dealt with subjects and causes he was interested in. He has now published a total of four novels and six non-fiction books, most of them self-published.
From 2002 to 2005, Tom and his family lived in Nicaragua where he structured and administered a job creation and micro lending program named Adelante, which was supported by Tom's brother-in-law, Harry Strachan, and five of the leading businessmen of Central America. There he was able to meet and appreciate leaders on all sides of the political divide.
Currently, Tom and Clare live in Montreat, North Carolina where he still has many friends from childhood. Tom, and especially Clare, continue to volunteer, and in the past Tom has served on the boards of Warren Wilson College and the Dean Rusk Committee of Davidson College in the USA and the Karigiri Leprosy Hospital in India. Their current major project is to work with an international NGO to donate and turn their farm in Brazil into an ecumenical Christian retreat and study center and camp.
Among honors, Tom has received the Grayson Medal, the highest award for a student at the McCallie School; the Military History Award, a Rockefeller Theological Scholarship, two Fulbright Scholarships to India and France, and the 1992 Distinguished Alumni Award of Davidson College. He has also been given the keys to the city by the Mayor and City Council of São José dos Campos, Brazil, and designated by the City of Bauru, Brazil, as an Honorary Citizen and had a park named after him by SORRI.
But while Tom is thankful for this recognition, he is most thankful for and proud of his loving family and friends and to have been given by God the unique opportunity to try to serve him in fascinating jobs and places around the world.
Tom did well at McCallie and graduated in 1963 and entered Davidson College in North Carolina. While at Davidson, Tom was president of his class and of his fraternity and secretary-treasurer of the student body. He also spent one summer working at the McCallie Academic Camp and a summer in San Francisco organizing street recreation for poor urban children in the Mission District. Spending his junior year abroad at the Université de Montpellier in France, Tom had many life-changing adventures, including hitch-hiking throughout Europe and to Israel.
After graduating from Davidson in 1967, Tom taught English and American literature for a year at a college in Indore, Madya Pradesh, India on a Fulbright Grant and studied the similarities and differences in Christian and Hindu mysticism interviewing many prominent Indian personalities. Being against the Vietnam War, Tom decided to go to Vietnam to help in anyway that he could and for a year and a half, he was a UNICEF field representative in Vietnam responsible for building hospital wards in Saigon and Danang and for emergency relief and refugee feeding programs in Danang, Hue, Quang Ngai, and Quang Tri feeding ten to fifteen thousand children daily.
On his return to the U.S., Tom was tried and acquitted in Montgomery, Alabama for his opposition to the Vietnam War and for his refusal of the draft to join the US Army. For the next few years, Tom worked as an aide and counselor at the Yale Psychiatric Institute in New Haven, Connecticut while attending classes at the Yale School of Public Health. He also received grants from Yale to do six months of social research in Tanzania on the problems faced by persons affected by leprosy which had begun to interest him when he lived in India and Vietnam.
Graduating from Yale with an MPH, Tom married Clare Strachan in Costa Rica where her British grandparents had started the Latin America Mission. Thanks to Clare's sister, Cathy, who was a classmate at Yale, Tom had met Clare in Boston where she taught Spanish in a public high school. Tom and Clare then moved to Madrid, Spain for a year where Tom learned Spanish and published several scientific articles on leprosy while Clare finished her master's degree in Spanish literature.
On their return to the USA, Tom accepted invitations from the American Leprosy Missions, CERPHA, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Ministry of Health of Brazil to do a pilot study in Brazil to promote the social integration of people with leprosy. Tom and Clare therefore moved to Brazil in 1974 after first spending a three-month period in Venezuela studying their leprosy program. They lived for most of the next fifteen years in Brazil, which at the time had an estimated 600,000 persons of the fifteen million worldwide affected by Hansen’s disease (leprosy).
First of all, Tom devoted three years to social research on the obstacles impeding the social and economic integration of people affected by the disease, and then he designed a pilot project called PRO-REHAB, which was later approved by government and international agencies for implementation. As part of the plan, Tom helped transform and integrate government institutions and also founded and then directed a model NGO integrated rehabilitation program for all types of persons with disabilities named SORRI and then helped establish a national organization and new SORRI centers in seven cities throughout Brazil. He also served as a consultant for WHO-PAHO to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, helped establish the first university course in Brazil for the training of vocational rehabilitation professionals, and was a co-founder of several local and national organizations of disabled persons including MORHAN which continues to promote the social integration of persons affected by Hansen’s disease through its many chapters in Brazil.
In 1984, during their time in Brazil, Tom and Clare returned to the US for a year where Tom did further studies in the Columbia University Institute for Not-For-Profit Management and in the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School. Also, in 1984, their first child, Lisa Kristin Frist was born and in 1988, after their return to Brazil, their son, John Daniel Frist, was born and adopted.
In July of 1989, Tom returned to the U.S. to become the president of the American Leprosy Missions (ALM International), and in 1993 was appointed secretary for administration for the 14th International Leprosy Congress. From June 1994 to June 1996, he served as president of the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations (ILEP) with work in a hundred countries and was also chairman of the working group on the social aspects of anti-leprosy work. During this time, he wrote a chapter on rehabilitation for the textbook, Leprosy, and published his own book, Don't Treat Me Like I Have Leprosy!, distributed worldwide.
From 1996 until 2002 Tom was a consultant for different organizations in Central America, the USA, Brazil, and Great Britain and traveled widely to countries around the world and began writing other books that dealt with subjects and causes he was interested in. He has now published a total of four novels and six non-fiction books, most of them self-published.
From 2002 to 2005, Tom and his family lived in Nicaragua where he structured and administered a job creation and micro lending program named Adelante, which was supported by Tom's brother-in-law, Harry Strachan, and five of the leading businessmen of Central America. There he was able to meet and appreciate leaders on all sides of the political divide.
Currently, Tom and Clare live in Montreat, North Carolina where he still has many friends from childhood. Tom, and especially Clare, continue to volunteer, and in the past Tom has served on the boards of Warren Wilson College and the Dean Rusk Committee of Davidson College in the USA and the Karigiri Leprosy Hospital in India. Their current major project is to work with an international NGO to donate and turn their farm in Brazil into an ecumenical Christian retreat and study center and camp.
Among honors, Tom has received the Grayson Medal, the highest award for a student at the McCallie School; the Military History Award, a Rockefeller Theological Scholarship, two Fulbright Scholarships to India and France, and the 1992 Distinguished Alumni Award of Davidson College. He has also been given the keys to the city by the Mayor and City Council of São José dos Campos, Brazil, and designated by the City of Bauru, Brazil, as an Honorary Citizen and had a park named after him by SORRI.
But while Tom is thankful for this recognition, he is most thankful for and proud of his loving family and friends and to have been given by God the unique opportunity to try to serve him in fascinating jobs and places around the world.
