This conversation was recorded audio only, prior to having a studio with video. This was one of the early interviews in the podcast - I started in 2019 and this one was in 2020, just before the pandemic.
Rick Harold was an instrumental contributor in the growth of Grand Prairie as it is today. His innovation and commitment to creating a community here cannot be overstated. Rick thought outside the box, which is unique to find amongst city government employees. This interview was from February 2020, and it’s one of my most memorable, mostly because Rick was just a memorable guy. He’s since passed away and I couldn’t be prouder to get this interview on the books when I did.
In the video, you’ll hear Rick in his own cadence: reflective, sometimes funny, always sincere (a great radio voice if you ask me). I personally loved hearing stories about how he solved problems, like asking residents in The Colony to donate the use of their pools since the city didn’t have a pool for swimming lessons. “We didn’t have the budget for everything the city needed,” he recalled, “but that never stopped us from finding a way. If you asked people the right way, they usually said yes.” That was Rick—practical, creative, and bold enough to imagine a solution where others might have stopped at the problem. “It doesn’t always take money to change lives,” he said.
At one point he mused, “My job wasn’t about saying no, it was about figuring out how to get to yes.” Listening to him, you don’t just learn about city projects, you learn about how he thought, how he cared, and how he measured success in community terms rather than personal ones.
We recorded this episode in the theater at The Summit — a place Rick himself helped bring into being, as he tells in the interview. “This building,” he said with quiet pride, “wasn’t just bricks and steel. It was a promise that our seniors and families deserved something first-class right here at home.” Sitting in that very room, talking with him about how it came to be, added a kind of resonance you don’t often get in conversations like this. It wasn’t just a backdrop; it was living proof of his ideas turned real.
Rick Harold left his mark not just in buildings and projects, but in the culture of possibility he nurtured in Grand Prairie. “If you believe in people, they’ll surprise you,” he said. His way of leading was rooted in asking, listening, and inviting others into the work of building something better. His voice, his ideas, and his example remain part of the city’s foundation.
Listening again now, I’m struck by the clarity of his perspective. Rick didn’t need to speak loudly to make a point; his words carried because they were lived-in.
He believed in leaving things better than you found them:
“If you leave a place better than you found it, that’s success. It doesn’t have to be big — just better.”
He believed in resilience, not as toughness, but as a way of adapting:
“You can’t control everything, but you can control how you respond. That’s where character shows up.”
And he believed in gratitude — not the easy kind, but the kind that comes from walking through the hard seasons with good people beside you:
“I’ve been lucky. Not because everything went my way, but because I had people to walk with me when it didn’t.”
These weren’t just words for Rick; they were the foundation of his work. His willingness to innovate, to challenge conventional approaches, and to think creatively made him a rare kind of public servant — one who saw city government not as bureaucracy, but as an opportunity to imagine a better future.
