On a recent day, Mr. Frist spoke by Zoom from his office in Nashville, surrounded by photos and mementos. A map of Tennessee, rendered in green thread on reclaimed barn wood, to symbolize conservation, hung behind him. On his right wrist, he wore a wooden beaded bracelet from the Loisaba Wildlife Conservancy, north of Nairobi. Mr. Frist has visited Africa about 20 times, mostly for medical trips: In the Senate, he was crucial to the passage of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, which funneled billions of dollars into the prevention and treatment of H.I.V. and AIDS abroad.
But one photo was especially important, he said. It was a portrait of his wife, Tracy Roberts Frist, and their Border collie, Bonnie, sitting on a woodsy ridge. The couple married in 2015 — it was his second marriage — and live on a working farm outside of Nashville, along with eight sheep, nine horses, three herding dogs, geese, goats, chickens and two donkeys.
They also have a 995-acre farm in Virginia that includes an arboretum and federally protected wetlands, where they raise grass-fed cows, and regularly host environmentalists, scientists and 4-H students. In 2024, they donated $1 million to fund an initiative for planetary and human health at The Nature Conservancy, the nonprofit where Mr. Frist chairs the global board of directors.
Mr. Frist said his wife helped him connect with the wild, natural world. She did her graduate studies in animal and human behavior, and oversees riparian and wetland restoration along with regenerative agriculture at their farms. “She is born of nature, is part of it, it is written into her soul,” Mr. Frist said.
