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Seminary professor explores the world

Dr. Frost meets the Queen of England while visiting London over spring break

A handful of people waited on the plush lawn beneath the overcast London sky. The air was crisp and chilly. A shiny limousine pulled up with a police escort. In a few moments, an elderly woman alighted. She was elegant, with shoes and a hat that matched her red coat. As she passed the crowd on the grass, she stopped to greet each one. "And where are you from?" she asked a man with sandy brown hair. "America. I'll be here for a week. I picked a good one at that." Her response was laughter. Multnomah Biblical Seminary professor, Dr. Ron Frost, had just met Queen Elizabeth II.

Dr. Frost spent his spring break in England. He has lived there for three years while completing his doctoral work. Dr. Frost went back to visit friends and ended up meeting the queen. The time he spent living in London was not Dr. Frost's first taste of Europe. He has been there several times. Once, he and Dr. Scalberg traveled in Europe together. Another time, he toured Europe by train on his way to Israel, where he lived in a kibbutz working for room and board for a year. One of his Multnomah professors, Dr. Ed Goodrick, gave him this idea.

Dr. Frost returned to Israel later to work on an archeological site. He worked in Caesarea with a team from the University of Maryland. There he was part of an underwater excavation as well as a group digging on land. "My curiosity level is high; I don't want to travel just to travel. I want to travel because I have questions, and I want to check things out," Dr. Frost said.

Israel really piqued Dr. Frost's curiosity. One thing in particular he wanted to check out was Hezekiah's water tunnel, which he had the chance to go through. Dr. Frost would like to go back to Israel someday. "A lot of the sights in Israel really make the Bible come alive," Dr. Frost said. Because of his Swedish roots, Dr. Frost would also like to go to Stockholm some time in the future.

Among his hobbies while traveling, Dr. Frost enjoys scuba diving. Once while diving in the gulf of Aqaba, he discovered an ancient shipwreck that had never been explored before. Dr. Frost was snorkeling there one day. It was sunny and beautiful with porpoises swimming around him. He was really enjoying it, when he heard his friends back on the boat shouting to him. A hammerhead shark was circling only 15 feet away. Dr. Frost was able to swim safely back to the boat,"with a good story to tell."

Someday, he'd like to learn to fly a plane. He has two brothers who are pilots and his dad was in the Air Force. Growing up as a military kid, Dr. Frost lived many places, including Japan and Hawaii. Dr. Frost himself was in the Army for two years after attending Multnomah.

Being a professor at Multnomah Biblical Seminary was not something Dr. Frost had originally planned on. At various times, he considered being an architect, a Navy pilot, and a high school teacher. After graduating in 1971, Dr. Frost became Multnomah's first student recruitment officer. Dr. Willard Aldrich eventually asked him to come back and teach.

Dr. Frost and Dr. Garry Friesen have shared a house for two years now. "We're very compatible, and we both like the Trailblazers," Dr. Friesen said.
Quite a few times, Dr. Frost, Dr. Friesen and Dr. Scalberg have taken vacations to the Oregon coast together. "All three of us enjoy reading, watching sports and eating, so it works out great," Dr. Friesen said.

Occasionally on weekends, Dr. Frost goes on retreats with God. "I like to just bring my Bible and a blanket and take off for the coast," Dr. Frost said. He said there he can pray, read and think in the serene beauty of God's creation. "I like to make sure that in my relationship with God, I think of him as a real person," Dr. Frost said. "I love spending time in God's word because I get to see what God thinks."

One thing that Dr. Frost has really been thinking about is how the central issue in our Christian life is loving God. "So often we get the idea from our studies that God is more concerned with our obedience and duties," Dr. Frost said.

The sun is shining through the window into Dr. Frost's cozy little office, upstairs in the seminary building. The walls are lined with books leaning this way and that in a topsy turvy fashion, giving the room a homey feel. Dr. Frost sits at his desk, under a picture of Multnomah Falls, talking about his time in England.

"It is wonderful to say that I've met the queen, but something that has really struck me this past week since it happened is that I know the living God, and that's what is worth bragging about," Dr. Frost said.