by Clara NiiSka

On the evening of May 18, 2001, Richard Fairbanks graduated from St. Paul Technical College.  He was honored with the Outstanding Student of the Year award, and earned straight-A grades in his coursework, focusing on auto body repair, at the technical college.  He is the first in his family to earn a postsecondary degree; only one of his extended family has graduated from high school.  Rick is also the first of his peer-group to have graduated.

Rick Fairbanks, 30, is reportedly the only American Indian to graduate from St. Paul Technical College this year.  He describes himself as an “urban Indian”—his father is from Red Lake and his mother from White Earth—who grew up at the Little Earth housing projects in south Minneapolis.  He dropped out of high school in the eleventh grade, and although he earned his GED, worked at “dead-end jobs.” 

Then, as Rick told Press/ON, “I had a very good friend of mine die about a year ago—tragically, a heroin overdose.”  His friend’s death was a wake-up call, and Rick realized that, “my life was going nowhere.  I decided that I needed a change, a different path to follow.”

Rick decided to go back to school.  He had heard about St. Paul Technical College, and with the help financial aid staff Norma Renville, he found the scholarships, including Indian scholarship funding from Red Lake, which he would need to pay the $10,000 in tuition, fees, tools and other educational expenses.  He “made it a priority that no matter what,” he would stay in school.

Rick’s fiancée, Angela Muesing, explained to Press/ON that Rick “loves cars,” and that he is a top-notch mechanic.  “He said, ‘I want to find something I really like’.”  As the Auto Body instructor at St. Paul Tech, Doug DeRosier, put it: “If you love what you’re doing, you’re not going to work another day in your life”—a job that you love “is not ‘work’.”

Rick enrolled in the one-year Auto Body program at St. Paul Tech.  He had “setbacks,” including that his car was stolen, but he “didn’t let it set me back—I said, ‘oh, well.’  I saw where I was going to be—I had to keep going.”

Rick’s instructor, Doug DeRosier, is also a graduate of St. Paul Tech, and his mentoring and encouragement is a significant factor in helping Rick and other students succeed.  DeRosier let Rick arrange to “make up” missed class time so that he could attend expectant-parents’ classes with his fiancée, and be present at the birth of his and Angela’s son, Richard Fairbanks, Jr.

DeRosier is a classic car enthusiast, and a member of the Minnesota Street Rod Association.  He encourages his dedicated students to develop their artistic abilities, including the meticulous restoration and detailing work involved in building a street rod.  Among the masterpieces proudly created by this year’s class is a gleaming and artfully “flamed” ’41 Hudson.  DeRosier also lets his advanced students work on their own projects; when Press/ON visited St. Paul Tech, Rick Fairbanks was finishing up the body work on his brother’s car.

DeRosier discovered that Rick had a talent for public speaking, and apprenticed him to help in making presentations to high school students, and in working with the evening classes at St. Paul Tech.  Rick says that he encourages students to stay in school.  “They need to turn off the TV and the video games, and pay attention to school,” and, he says, their parents and the community “need to talk to them, encourage them to study and go to school.”

Rick Fairbanks hopes to start his own auto body repair and custom-work business.