Love and Law Matt Bonner, a different kind of attorney. K. Hervey

Small towns have one unifying problem: we have long memories. Whether it's “how things have always been done” or “oh, I know that family,” or "oh lawyers? Stuffy". We remember. Sometimes remembering is a good thing. It's what unites us. Our branches can reach for the sky because our roots remember the earth. Frontenac likes to remember. Yet, the apple? It’s nothing like the tree, even if it remembers where it came from.

That's the case with the new city attorney, Matt Bonner. I admit, I had a lot of ideas about who Matt Bonner would be. The son of an Army vet/cop (who gave me a ticket a lifetime ago), I expected the new city attorney in town to be like many young lawyers: gruff, direct, definitely smarter than me, and possibly a little arrogant.

However, as the new city attorney and a small business owner, I wanted to interview him for the community even if it meant feeling foolish for an hour or so. The man I had coffee with, though, made me ashamed to have made such rash generalizations.

Matt Bonner is not what you expect if you read his résumé nor are his career ambitions. Matt has a gentle manner and a warm smile. If you'd asked me to guess his job, I'd have said a beloved pediatrician. He lights up when he talks about his talented wife and beautiful son. His love for Frontenac radiates, and you quickly realize most of the choices in his life come from his devotion to those two things: his little family, and his hometown.

In short, Matt Bonner is a Frontenac success story, one that it's incredibly hard to get him to take any credit for. Instead, he heaps the praise on his community, his wife, and his hopes for his son's future.

A few years ago, he married his wife Elizabeth, a librarian and special education para whom he adores. They recently had a son, Robert, who Matt is crazy proud of. He immediately whipped out photos of a chubby-cheeked little boy with beautiful blue eyes, with the kind of pride only a doting parent has.

Within minutes of sitting down with Matt, I had to ask what he was doing back in Frontenac. It just didn't add up. Matt is a doll. You want to talk to him. He's the type you can tell cares and likes to listen. A former police dispatcher and Washburn graduate with experience in a prosecutor's office, he should have been moving on to bigger, better jobs in Kansas City or St. Louis, right? Chasing the big bucks at the big firm. Not if you ask Matt.

The city attorney position in Frontenac? His DREAM job, and he's thrilled to have landed it. For him, it's all a matter of perspective. When asked why he came back to such a small town, Matt says:

“I'd rather my slice of the pie be the most delicious than the biggest. I want to give back as much as I was given.”

Over and over, he points to Frontenac's commitment to its kids' futures as a big part of his success, and how he's committed to giving back to the town that helped build him. He clearly feels that it's not an obligation but a type of honor to be able to continue that tradition of community service. A calling of caring.

It's a dream Matt might have never imagined growing up in Deplue’s trailer park, except, according to him, in Frontenac all things are possible.

He is so quick to point out the support and care the town gave him, and his desire to pass that on.

“I want every kid in Frontenac, regardless of their situation, to have every opportunity at a full future.”

As he went to leave, I asked Matt the same question I do all the small business owners I meet with: How can HF help? Even after such a great meeting, I expected at least a small pitch for his new law office, school board run, an appeal for new clients or a plug for a city policy. At first, he seemed set to decline completely, but then seemed to remember something. .

“My wife's elderly cat has been missing for two weeks. Would you mind posting about it?”

Of course he did. When given an opportunity to elevate himself, Matt Bonner thought not of his ego but of his wife, and an elderly lost cat. Of course.

*****Matt Bonner’s law office is open for business and located in downtown Frontenac.

P.S. Within days of posting, Frontenac had found Elizabeth's beloved elderly cat.