Story by Dwain Hebda
The roster of alumni from the Clinton School of Public Service is laden with people who have interesting and unusual backstories. Ben Grimes’ (’20) public service journey puts him near the top of the list.
The son of a U.S. Air Force airman, Grimes’ childhood followed the familiar pattern of many so-called military brats, moving often and living all over. His father, a C-130 pilot, was assigned to Little Rock where he ultimately retired.
“I graduated high school in Little Rock at the performing arts high school (now called Parkview Arts & Science Magnet High School),” he said. “Then I went to my undergrad where I pursued acting pretty heavily at a theater conservatory in St. Louis.”
Following graduation, Grimes worked steadily in theater for more than a decade, first moving to Chicago and then to Texas and finally to New York where he also directed and formed a theater company. It was there that the story takes a fascinating turn as Grimes accepted the role of a lifetime.
“Living in New York, I decided I wanted to do something a little bit greater or a little harder,” he said. “So, I walked into a recruiter’s office and I joined the Army. The original plan was I was going to do four years, and then I was going to pay for graduate school with the GI Bill. That four years quickly turned into eight years.”
Grimes not only signed up, he attended U.S. Army Ranger School and in 2007, deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, as an Airborne Infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division. In 2014, he joined the National Guard and in 2017, he deployed for a second time to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Following the conclusion of his second deployment, Grimes rediscovered his former life in theater as having the potential to serve a much higher calling than just entertainment.
“After my last deployment I started to get back into theater as a way to deal with some of that stress and anxiety and depression, common mental illness issues that service members have,” he said. “I found that it had a therapeutic positive effect on my mental health and that led me to think about studying theater for veteran populations and how theater could be more of a service that is looking to change a community or heal a community.
“That led me to kind of look around and I when saw that the Clinton School had the Capstone project, and they were just launching their online program, it seemed like a perfect fit. That’s how I got there.”
Grimes admitted to not knowing what he’d be a part of or how he’d be received by his Clinton School classmates, given his lived experiences.
“I thought that I would be the old man of the group. I really did,” he said. “I was in my 40s and I thought it would be me and a bunch of 20-year-olds, but that wasn’t the case at all. We had a woman from Australia who was in her sixties. We had such a diverse group of people that we were all unique little flowers. It was very comforting to not be the old man or the odd student out, because everybody was ‘odd’ in their own way.
“I also found everybody was very receptive and very respectful to everyone else. We were having discussions and there were times that we talked about the pedagogy of the oppressed or something like that and I’ve seen real oppression and what real oppression is from being in Iraq, you know? I would offer my thoughts on it, and I never felt disrespected or challenged or anything like that.”
For his Capstone, Grimes examined drama therapy techniques at organizations across the country, especially those engaged in veteran outreach. He took what he learned about the success organizations were having treating PTSD and depression among service veterans and developed a program that utilized group meetings, performance and the texts of William Shakespeare. He put that program to work with the Riverside Actors’ Theatre which he launched in Little Rock.
Following graduation, Grimes worked for Arkansas Repertory Theatre and currently works as artistic director for Market House Theatre in Paducah, Kentucky, as well as continuing his mission with veterans in Arkansas. He credits his logistical training in the military and the refinement of public service skills from the Clinton School with helping him stay on top of everything, but the drive to help others, he said, is born not made.
“Empathy, I think, is so basic, but it is really at the core of public service,” he said. “If you’re going into service, you have to care. There are long nights and it’s not something that people go into to make a dollar or make a name. It’s about the work and the positive impact that you can have.
“If you don’t have a good core empathetic streak, I think you’re going to be off the map. We lose our way when we stop thinking about who we’re serving.”
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