It was around 8:50 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 22. Group 45 of the Pep Group gathered together to meet as school was about to start. It was the first day of class. It was the first day of Greg Frye’s journey.

“I got the position!” Frye said.

From the 17,000-person town of Dyersburg, Tenn., Greg Frye had arrived.

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) offered Greg Frye the chance to be on its committee, and, without hesitation, he accepted.

Frye did not need to say anything as he walked back into the room of 15 or so friends who were assuming the probable; his smile told the story.

“I was just grinning from ear-to-ear,” he said. “My face was just exploding with sunshine.”

But Frye is not your traditional committee member. He did not go on luxurious vacations as a child, drive a Cadillac or have daily room service. In fact, he rode tractors on a dairy farm, milking cows and grinding feed all through high school.

Between school and farming duties, that doesn’t leave much room for free time. However, when Frye could, he would harness his inner musician and before long he became good enough that he wanted to travel cross-country doing independent work.

“I started traveling and playing music at age 15,” he said. “I went touring as an independent musician after 18 and played shows with the likes of Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.”

Throughout high school and after high school, the aspiration of college would continually linger in Frye’s mind.

“I always hoped to do other things,” Frye said. “I always wanted to go to college and law school, but I did do the traditional farm thing.”

In 2008, the decision came. Frye was going to attend UT-Martin.

“I told my family that I was going to focus all my time on being a student,” he said. “I wanted to make a good go of this.”

Three weeks into school, he was in a fraternity. And a year later, doors opened up and he became senator of Student Government Association and founder and president of Non-Traditionalist Student Association.

The doors still kept flinging open. At 42, Frye was nominated and elected to THEC. Frye said the organization as a whole oversees certain legislation regarding education to approve or make amends before it is passed on to the governor.

With all the other achievements that Frye has accomplished throughout his life — the father of eight and a grandfather, a soldier in the military and a cancer survivor of malignant melanoma — he ranks this near the top.

“On a business and personal side, I would put it in the same ranking as my father and grandfather,” he said. “This ranks right there with it.”

Dr. Mike McCullough first met Frye three years ago and was immediately impressed with his poise and presence.

“He’s articulate and he has a style to him and he has long hair and he’s cool,” he said. “I think once you say that long hair guy, everybody on campus knows who he is.”

Some would compare him to musician Robert Plant because of his hair, but the long locks only tell a brief story of the education-loving man.

“He’s learned the value of education,” McCullough said. “He’s on fire for the idea of other people getting on fire with the idea of improving through education.”

Frye is proud of his accomplishments, but he won’t boast of them. He’s just a country boy from Dyer County, Tenn., hoping to change lives through educational means.

“When you meet someone, you always have the suspicion they’re not quite as good as they seem cause most people aren’t,” McCullough said. “But when you’re around him, you realize that’s exactly who he is and he is a precious commodity on our campus.

“Greg wanted this and he’s worked hard for it.”

Now, he’s got it.