25 Years of Serving Seniors: A History of Frontier Senior Living

A New Model for Seniors Housing

Greg Roderick founded Frontier Management on December 1^st, 2000. Now Frontier Senior Living proudly serves thousands of seniors at more than 90 Active Adult, Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Memory Care communities across the United States. But Roderick’s love of senior living began well before Frontier’s first days.  

The Roderick family is well known within the seniors housing and healthcare industry. In fact, in the 1950s, Greg Roderick’s grandparents, Lois and Clarence Roderick, entered the profession as Owner/Operators of several “convalescent hospitals” (aka Nursing Homes) in the Pacific Northwest. Partnering with close friends and senior housing pioneers, Carl and Betty Campbell, the Roderick family began work on a portfolio to operate with their four young sons.

Clarence Roderick passed away in the early 1970s and her husband left the senior living space, but their son Ronald and his wife Joyce were ready to build their own portfolio with college friends, William (Bill) and Bonnie Colson. Working as a team, they quickly expanded throughout the western United States with dozens of convalescent hospitals. Working with partners including Roderick, Campbell, and Colson, they created a new and unprecedented model of seniors housing called Retirement Homes. Together they launched over 40 of these properties in an ambitious 5-year development effort.

This concept was nothing like the traditional nursing home. Sales and marketing were critical to the effort, plus the daily life for residents shifted: modest chores and activities were offered. Many of these Retirement Homes were a tremendous success and went by the name Camlu Retirement.

Greg Roderick’s First Senior Living Job

Several years later, Ronald Roderick had launched his own business and was running nearly 30 nursing homes and several luxurious retirement communities in the western United States. Colson, meanwhile, launched a retirement home company known as Holiday Retirement Corp., which ultimately became the world’s largest owner, developer and operator of retirement homes.

In 1980, Ronald sold his business (Roderick Enterprises / Pacific Care Centers) to Beverly Enterprises. Colson went on to grow to more than 300 communities before selling to Fortress Investment Group. Sadly, Ronald passed in 1988 at age 45 in an automobile accident.

One year later, Ronald’s son, Greg, approached Bill Colson. He recalls telling Bill, “My family’s bankrupt, Dad passed away. I’m looking for any opportunity to find a job.” When he was able to secure an Assistant Manager position, Roderick said, “I got three meals a day and a bed, so I was pretty excited.” With little money, but a strong resolve, Roderick worked his way up to Resident Manager, and his ambitions didn’t stop there.

Holiday started moving him from one community to another for management and marketing assignments. This journey took him through the Pacific Northwest, into the Mountain States and Southwest, onto the Midwest, to Texas and up to Rhode Island and finally to Florida. Roderick remembers this time clearly and takes pride in the success. “I took over a bunch of defunct buildings, turned them around and continue to move onto the next opportunity, as a Transition Manager. Later, I became a Divisional Marketing Director, overseeing nearly 50 properties.  Finally, for two years, I was a Regional Manager for the Florida region for Holiday and steadily filled and fixed every property.”

During this busy time of promotion and growth, Roderick even found time to date, fall in love with, and marry a lovely woman named Jennifer.

Family and the Founding of Frontier

Roderick and his wife decided to move back to Roderick’s home state of Oregon to accept new advanced employment opportunities and start a family, a son, Joshua, and daughter, Isabelle. Never one for a break, Roderick took a position as the Vice President of Operations for Regent Assisted Living where we grew the company from three to thirty-five properties, all in a 5-year period. In 1999, he took a position as the Chief Financial Officer at Health Resources. There he reconnected with Carl and Betty Campbell, the largest client of Health Resources. During this pivotal time, Roderick acquired 10 communities from Health Resources and founded Frontier Management on December 1^st, 2000.

During this time, his wife, Jennifer, serves as the Vice President of Marketing for Health Resources. Tragically, Jennifer resigned from the position due to serious health issues, and she ultimately passed in 2003 from the effects of Cystic Fibrosis. Later, Roderick would serve as Chair of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Oregon and Washington in Jennifer’s honor.

The loss of Jennifer and reality of being a single father while running a growing business was a critical, sink-or-swim period for Greg. He put all his energy into being a highly engaged and involved parents, including coaching, homework, and meals together, while also growing his fledgling business with a great team, solid culture, a positive reputation, and an appetite for expansion. Joshua and Isabelle went on to college and to pursue passions and interests outside of seniors housing and Frontier grew into one of the largest senior living operators in the United States, with 131 properties and a footprint in 21 states.

Frontier Senior Living Today

The driving force behind the company’s success has been the operational standards known as the Frontier Fundamentals. The Frontier Fundamentals set Frontier apart from competitors and include Five Focus Points (core best practices to the daily operation), Frontier’s award-winning Spark program (a Montessori-Inspired approach to life enrichment), TEAM Rewards (enhances the career journey for team members), the Frontier Advantage Network (a carefully curated network of healthcare providers in a Value Based Care model), and Pure Solutions (a valuable relationship that maximizes best pricing, services and goods).

“The value created through the Frontier Fundamentals have become the secret sauce to generating superb results while achieving extremely high levels of satisfaction,” stated Roderick.

Another ingredient in their recipe for success is the team of key vendors Frontier partners with including Two Tree Consulting, Pineapple Academy, Safe Harbor Solutions, and CoBridge Workforce Solution.

Leadership at Frontier believes in empowerment through continuous training and consistent messaging. Frontier encourages continued learning, offering up to 40 training sessions per month on a wide variety of subjects to develop skills and confidence in its team members.

Roderick, himself, provides motivational messaging to his 800+ Team Leaders several times weekly, and personally coaches on sales and marketing best practices. Roderick’s appreciation of team members recalls the many mentors and leaders who encouraged his advancement in the profession. “It is such a pleasure to provide first-hand training programs, encourage advancement in service delivery, and inspire our team members to find greatness in their roles to better serve senior citizens,” said Roderick.

Development and expansion are in Roderick’s DNA.  He has been involved as a developer of more than 30 senior living construction properties, has acquired more than a dozen, and has been deeply involved with hundreds of managed communities, nationally. “Who doesn’t enjoy creating environments where senior citizens are able to thrive and to give a sense of relief to their loved ones?” stated Roderick.  “Removing the guilt or fear from those who are considering moving-in is a true accomplishment, but it is mostly done through a compassionate and service-driven team.”

Roderick is supported by his Executive Team including Chief People Officer, Hayley Bemis Rotenberg, Vice President of Operations, Wendy Souders, Vice President of Special Programs, Landon Miller, and Vice President of People Experience, Shari Michael, among many other fantastic leaders.

In addition to serving as Frontier’s President & CEO, Greg Roderick is an active member of several associations which represent the profession and those we serve including as a Board Member and immediate past Chair of the Texas Assisted Living Association, Vice Chair of the Board for the Florida Senior Living Association, member of the National Investment Center and an Executive Board Member of the American Senior Housing Association. Past Chair posts include the Alzheimer’s Association (Oregon & Washington), and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (Oregon). Greg has a deep sense of value for culture, systems, team development, and wants the seniors housing industry to elevate and thrive. He is also a recognized Champion of Women in Leadership through Argentum and is proud to have helped launch many women-led businesses throughout his career.  

Frontier Senior Living is honored to have earned a spot in J.D. Power’s Top 3 Assisted Living/Memory Care Providers, several Best Senior Living Awards from US News, FORTUNE Magazine, Great Place to Work, and many others. We thank our incredible team members, residents, and families for 25 amazing years – and we look forward to many more!