Pat Frazier went to more concerts, plays and stock shows than he could count. But he never saw a one of them.
He was busy making sure the sound and lighting systems were working and the performers were happy.
Frazier, who died at his home in Thornton on Oct. 13, was production and event manager for Denver’s Theatres & Arenas division for many years.
He was 60 and had been diagnosed with cancer about six weeks before his death.
Frazier began working as a stagehand for the Denver Coliseum at age 17 and worked his way up. He made sure microphones, lights, staging, security, floors, curtains, concession stands and stages were shipshape.
At least once he had to make a part. A roll-up door broke at the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo. He couldn’t find the parts so that night, at home in his garage, he made a new part.
“He worked long hours and oddball hours,” said his half brother, Tim Wallace of Denver.
Frazier’s main haunts were the Coliseum, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Elitch Theatre, the Denver Auditorium Theatre (now the Ellie Caulkins Opera House), and McNichols Arena and Currigan Hall, now both gone.
He was an easygoing guy, said his sister, Sharon Bramblett of Denver.
Once in a while the demands of a star would push him over.
He found the late actress Shelley Winters difficult to work with at Elitch Theatre, said his wife, Sharon Frazier. After Winters’ last performance, he presented her with a broom and said, “Here’s your 5 o’clock ride out of town.”
Michael Patrick Frazier was born Nov. 28, 1942, in Denver and went to Abraham Lincoln High School. He didn’t finish, but later earned his GED.
When he had time he built sprint and midget race cars.
“He had the best mechanical mind I ever witnessed,” said Wallace.
Frazier was divorced from his first wife and in September 1979 he married Sharon Hock.
Years before, they had had a short engagement after which both married others, Frazier said. Each of their marriages lasted seven years. They each married again, and those marriages lasted four years.
Finally they married each other, and that lasted 27 years.
In addition to his wife, sister and half brother, he is survived by three daughters, Shanna Gilpatric of Brighton, Michelle Howder of Hugo and Denise Towers of Lafayette; two sons, Troy Mooney of Brighton and Nick Frazier of Dallas; 11 grandchildren; two other sisters, Susan Livvix of Marshall, Ill., and Evelyn Wallace of Denver; and a brother, Charles Wallace of Denver.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or at 303-954-1223.
