Ralph Frisch, a certified New York State school bus driver instructor and operations manager for school bus contracts in the Rochester area for more than 30 years, died last month from a form of leukemia, wife Betty said. He was 74.

Frisch came to Rochester from Buffalo in 1974 as the operations manager for what was then Golden Arrow Line, Inc. The company changed hands three times in his first tenure, first to National School Bus, then to Laidlaw and, as its known today, First Student Inc. He was often responsible for managing as many as 14 district contracts at a time, as far north as Lisbon, N.Y., and as far south as Auburn, N.Y. He retired in 2007.

Frisch was a certified NYS School Bus Driver Instructor and annually shared presentations with the area's transportation directors.

An avid golfer and an active and contributing member of the local Zion Episcopal Church, Frisch seved in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.