Metalworker-in-training receives the first 'Dignity in Direction' scholarship

Anaconda Junior/Senior High School graduating senior Tristan Frossard has received several different scholarships this year, including the first-ever "Dignity in Direction" scholarship.

Frossard was chosen out of 12 applicants for the $500 scholarship’s inaugural year.

The scholarship is the brain child of local historian and retired teacher J. Ray Haffey, who offered the scholarship for the first time this year after his book “Dignity in Direction” was published. This year, the scholarship was partially sponsored by the Anaconda Leader.

Frossard works at Wild West Iron Works in Butte, where he said he helps create high-end custom metalwork like furniture and décor.

“Two years ago I walked into the shop and I’d never welded in my life,” Frossard said.

Although he didn’t start the job until he turned 16, he said he’s been dreaming of becoming a metalworker since he was 7. He said he’s drawn to it because he loves working with his hands, starting as a child building models with Legos.

“I do a lot of forging, a lot of welding… I found the field I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to,” Frossard said.

Haffey’s plan for the scholarship is to rotate through the different career paths he detailed in his book, which are attending four-year colleges or universities, two-year technical, community and tribal colleges, going into the military, doing an apprenticeship or doing on-the-job training. He wanted the inaugural year of his scholarship to focus on what he thinks is the least recognized of the five pathways: on-the-job training.

Frossard, for his part, has dipped into multiple pathways. He’s been doing on-the-job training as a welder and as a blacksmith’s apprentice for the last two years, and he plans to go to Highlands College in the fall, which is where the scholarship money will go.

At Highlands, Frossard intends to get a degree in precision machining and work for his current boss for as long as he can. Then, he’d like to earn his business degree and open up his own metalworks shop.

Haffey said he and Anaconda Leader advertising manager Debbie Johns chose Frossard together from the applications they received, saying that they chose him because of his work ethic and what he intends to do after high school

In addition to the Dignity in Direction Scholarship, Frossard was awarded the Stupka Trust Scholarship, the Rotary Vocation Lon Zimmerman Memorial Scholarship, the Kenny Cook Memorial Scholarship and the Dougherty & St. Pierre Charitable Trust Scholarship.