Parting Thoughts: Educator turned entrepreneur ‘wore his success quietly’
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In our Parting Thoughts series, we remember everyday Minnesotans.
Richard Fontaine’s life had an unexpected trajectory from educator to entrepreneur. But one thing never changed: He was a voracious reader who always had a book in his hand.
“It was like his arm,” said his daughter Laurie Fontaine Junker. “He always had a pile of books. He really just couldn’t get enough.”
His love of reading all kinds of books — from mystery to science — reached into every part of his life. As an English teacher at Central High School in Minneapolis, he’d bring his students paperbacks, magazines and even comic books. To make extra cash for the family, he stocked shelves at the first B. Dalton bookstore. Eventually, the pull of the bookstore led him to leave teaching and become a full-time retailer.
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Fontaine rose to leadership at B. Dalton, becoming the company’s president and chief operating officer. His success there led to Barnes and Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio recruiting Fontaine, and that experience led to Fontaine co-founding GameStop stores.
Junker said her dad always had a strong business sense — even as a kid growing up in the small town of East Grand Forks, Minn.
“He used to collect lost golf balls at the golf course and then sell them at the driving range,” Junker said. “And he would go into the potato fields after the harvester went by, gather up the loose potatoes and sell them door to door in town.”
That entrepreneurial instinct was a key factor in GameStop’s success.
“He was really good at the real estate part of it, so he knew where to put stores,” Junker said.
But despite his business success, Fontaine didn’t change over the years. She said he wore his success quietly. The song “My Little Town,” by Simon and Garfunkel perfectly captures her dad, she said. “Because my dad, in his heart, was just a kid from East Grand Forks.”
Richard Fontaine died recently Alzheimer’s disease. He was 82.
To listen to the Parting Thoughts interview and hear the song, click the player above.