Frankie Bordeaux Opens Up About His Formative Years

Frankie Bordeaux

With a career that has spanned several decades and several professions, Frankie Bordeaux knows the value of hard work. With powerful lessons imparted by his mother and father about honesty, integrity, and belief in a job well done, Frankie Bordeaux has lived a well-rounded professional life. To learn more about how he got where he is today, we asked Frankie Bordeaux about his upbringing.

Q: What was your family like growing up, Frankie Bordeaux?

Frankie Bordeaux: We were a typical working class family. I was the middle child of six siblings—two younger siblings and three older siblings.

Q: Where are you originally from?

Frankie Bordeaux: I grew up in the Jervay public housing neighborhood in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Q: Did you live there your entire childhood?

Frankie Bordeaux: No, when I was in third grade my family moved to a middle class area in the city.

Q: What lessons did your parents teach you when you were a child?

Frankie Bordeaux: I learned from a very young age that to succeed in life, you must have a quality education, work hard, have integrity, and be ambitious.

Q: Why do you think your parents stressed those traits?

Frankie Bordeaux:  Because my parents moved us from public housing and into a middle class neighborhood, they had   to make a lot of sacrifices for my siblings and myself.

Q: How are some ways those lessons affected you?

Frankie Bordeaux: It helped me to realize that nothing in life is handed to you. You have to go out and work for the things you want. It’s a philosophy I’ve carried with me my entire life.

Q: How did you apply those lessons in school?

Frankie Bordeaux: I strived to be the best in everything I did. In high school and college, I applied the hardworking attitude that I learned from my parents.  My hardworking attitude contributed to my success in academics, football, track, and wrestling.

Q: Where did you attend college?

Frankie Bordeaux: I attended Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I graduated with a bachelor of science degree in   Physical Education in 1980.

Q: What did you do immediately after college?

Frankie Bordeaux: I began working with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America in 1981. I spent the next twenty-five years of my career with the Boys and Girls Club where I served as a program director for two years with the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club and two years with the Boys and Girls Club of Winston Salem.  I then served as executive director for the Boys and Girls Clubs for Nash and Edgecombe Counties for my last 21 years of service.   I was able to use that experience to make the same impact on children’s lives that my parents’ made on my own life.

Frankie Bordeaux is an active member of his local community in Greenville, North Carolina. A former member of the United Way and the Rocky Mount City Board of Adjustment among many others, Frankie Bordeaux believes in giving back to his city and his local community in as many ways as he can.