FAMILIAR FACES (5th edition)



^{Hello DWS Alumni from the 70's and 80's! Welcome to our fifth edition of Familiar Faces. With DWS alumni spanning the globe, we thought it would be fun for you to see what everyone is up to and to have the opportunity to re-connect with your DWS community.}

^{*Note: class years listed are for graduation of the 8th grade and the names following the year are the class teacher at the time of graduation.}

Ann Bickel

Teacher, Handcrafts and Art History | 1977-1992

I arrived at the Detroit Waldorf School in 1977 through an Artist-in-Schools residency grant. This grant was shared in part with neighboring public schools, and was renewed for three years. After the grant ended I wound up staying at DWS for a long time, teaching a variety of subjects from arts and crafts to history. I still have fond memories of the Buergins, the Institute, and the inspired teachers and students.

I started taking classes at Wayne State while I was still teaching at DWS, and eventually left DWS to attend Wayne State full time. I took many kinds of classes but found sciences the most engaging. I stayed on to do graduate work with the benefit of a few fellowships.

From there I went on to teach at Detroit Community High School, a new school that Bart Eddy had just opened. I also taught at one other Detroit-area school, completing my teaching certificate along the way. The certificate enabled me to apply for a lot of interesting teaching jobs, including one at an international school in Cochabamba, Bolivia which offered a job the same day. Three weeks later I was living and working in South America. This was the start of a series of teaching jobs in different countries, each with unique history and culture, friends and students, learning, and adventures.

After three years in Bolivia, I went to Bern, Switzerland where I taught at an international school and a Swiss gymnasium. I left Switzerland once I reached their retirement age limit, and went to Helsinki, Finland until their retirement age limit 4 years later. In the last six years I have continued to work in international schools, filling in for teachers on maternity leave. These temporary teaching jobs include two in Jeju-do, a Korean island in the Yellow Sea, and two in central Rome, Italy.

Currently, when I am not working abroad I live in Tacoma, Washington. I split my time between L’Arche, a farm community similar to Camp Hill, St Leo’s, a church that provides extensive services for the homeless and also runs an apiary, substitute teaching for the Tacoma Public High Schools, and at intervals, visiting Detroit. It seems sometimes as if there have been several lifetimes in this life. I am still open to opportunities to work around the world--I just don't know when, or where the next job might be.

Erin Parish

8th Grade Class of 1980 | Alan MacNair

HS Class of '84

I am a dyed-in-the-wool painter currently living in hot, flat, and breezy Miami Beach, Florida. After DWS (8th grade through 12th), in short, I earned my BA from Bennington College in Vermont and my masters from New York's Queens College. I have been selling and showing since 1984 and been reviewed in the New York Times, Art in America, and Art News. I have an upcoming exhibition in July with Winston Wachter Fine Art in Manhattan, the art dealer that has represented me since the turn of the century.

I consider Mrs. Altwies to be my most influential painting teacher, including, my time in college. She taught me more about the physical act of painting than any of my graduate and undergraduate professors. Veil painting is an influence in my work as I focus on layering and glazing. I was extremely well prepared for college in my chosen field. One of the strengths of the Waldorf system is the ease with which one can go from one Waldorf School to another. I went to the Michael Hall School in England for a term. It was, not surprisingly, the overall highlight of my Waldorf education.

I guess if I had a hobby it would be weight-lifting. I focus on the meditative aspect of a slow repetition, paced at Eurythmy's speed: slow and focused. During Covid I got a violin to take up again, as I had played in orchestra and string ensemble at Waldorf. Unfortunately, it has fallen by the wayside since Sheltering-in-Place ended.

Unlike most schools, Waldorf really encourages you to enjoy the things you are good at and not worry that you can't do everything. There is such a variety of skills used throughout the day that they won't all be your strengths. I hear countless stories of people's true misery in high school. I really enjoyed myself and count myself as fortunate that I was in a healthy curiosity-fostering environment. I feel lucky to have had separate art classes in woodworking, weaving, ceramics, painting, bookmaking, drawing, et cetera. This gave me a broader skillset to choose from and I am, decades later, going back to things I learned at Waldorf. 

Website erinparish.com and also parisheditions.com for my digital work, currently in progress.

Photo captions:

1) Stella Blue Summer Altwies

2) Charlotte Francesca Thone

Hans Altwies

Class of 1985 | Alan MacNair

After the Altwies clan moved from Detroit to Honolulu in 86-87, I attended my last two years of high school and 1 year at University of Hawaii before becoming an actor full time. 

With my interests consumed by everything theatre I moved to seattle in 1993 where I attended Cornish College of the Arts and then moved into the seattle Theatre scene as a full time actor from 1998 to 2016. Most of my time was spent doing Shakespeare but I did Mamet, musicals and new plays. In 2010 I premiered the one man show An Iliad. During this time I honed my skills as a carpenter to pay the bills. 

In 1997 I married a fellow actor, Amy Thone and we bought a house in a sleepy neighborhood south of the city and became the theatre center of our community; our lives were soaked in parties and theatre gatherings. We had two beautiful girls, Charlotte Francesca, now 22, and Stella Blue, 14 forever. Both our girls attended Bright Water Waldorf School, from Preschool on, and Charlotte (now pre-law at UW) finished out at the Seattle Waldorf High School. 

When I think about my favorite DWS memories they quickly get superseded by memories of my own girls at BWWS. I think I’ve seen or been in 30 or more May Day celebrations. At DWS one of my favorite memories is a repeated image of coming in from recess, standing in line at the front door and that smell of the duff on the playground. 

In 2012 I started a construction company which I still run today (LCM Builders, for Lord Chamberlains Men); yes, we hire and train actors and artists, it’s a delight. I suppose I’ll act again but I enjoy the work of home building where I can foster a work environment of equity and compassion while providing excellent craftsmanship.

I am now a bereaved parent, however, and am navigating a life 2.0. In February 2020, my daughter Stella Blue died in her bed after a 10 month trial with cancer. It turned the world upside down a month before Covid turned it upside down again. I spend much of my free time writing when I’m not with my new partner Barbi, or spending time with my brave, strong eldest daughter. I am beginning the work of being a trauma and bereavement volunteer hoping to focus on parents who’ve lost children. See more writing by Hans on substack.

Jason Fisher

Class of 1983 | Theo Buergin/Paul Gierlach

I attended DWS from grades 2-6, Theo Buergin was our class teacher grades 4-6. At the time I lived in Windsor and commuted to DWS every day. I spent 7th grade in Italy where my mother was doing a teacher training course, and at the end of grade 7 moved to Toronto where I attended the Toronto Waldorf School grades 8-12.

I am currently the owner and manager of the Indie Alehouse brewery and brewpub in the west end of Toronto. I first got into home brewing at age 16, for a Gr. 10 science project cleverly titled “the life cycle of yeast” as a cover for brewing beer as a school project. Home brewing became a hobby for a long while, but with no real prospects of opening a brewery at the time, I chose to pursue a diverse education first at Dalhousie University 1992, then University of Toronto in Geology 1994, Chemistry, Physics and Business, before attending brewing school solely as a hobby with a dream that someday I would be able to get into the brewing industry.

As an executive in marketing and business analytics for 15+ years with Bell Canada and American Express, I spent any free time homebrewing, traveling, and working on business plans for how an independent brewery could be built and run on a small budget within the archaic liquor laws of Ontario. On frequent work travel to the US, I saw new small breweries popping up all over the US, those initiatives inspired me to start my own business. The Indie Alehouse opened in 2012 and now has 3 operating locations including a production facility and a small on-site brewpub inside Eataly Toronto.

I am thrilled to reconnect with my DWS alum and hear how well everyone is doing, and have nothing but the very best memories of my time at DWS and can still recite most of the poems we did on stage in grade 5. In German. Mostly.

Remembering Al Railsback

DWS Facilities Manager 1960's-80's

Written by Ann Bickel, followed by Alan MacNair

Al Railsback was the custodian at Detroit Waldorf School for many years.

He was part of the school family and took on the many tasks, with

perfunctory care, as they arose. Two bells meant that somewhere in the

school Al was needed.

It is becoming typical that businesses, even schools, do not have a

custodian on site. Instead they hire a corporation to send in a few

people for a couple hours after dark. It is all very impersonal. But Al

took a quiet pleasure in knowing as much as he did about the school and

its occupants, although I suspect he was almost invisible to some.

He considered himself an inventor. I recall one of his designs was a

dust pan that left no dust on the floor. "Inventors are lazy people, and

that is why they design things to make their lives easier", he would

say. He had a daughter who was studying to be a pharmacist and he was

extremely proud of her.

I think the school lost touch with him after he left. I wish you all the

best wherever you are, Al Railsback! - Ann

When I first began teaching at DWS, I taught in the music room on the first floor. The first day I arrived, I couldn't get the door open. I had a key, but it didn't seem to work for me. So, I searched the building, found Al Railsback, and asked him to help me get in my room. He was happy to do so, and when he fiddled with the lock, of course it opened right up. 

The next day, same thing. Once again I found Al, and he helped me get in my room. I think he was getting a bit annoyed, but he didn't let on. The third day, he didn't wait for me to find him, but actually met me at my door. He handed me a small screwdriver, on which he had placed some masking tape with "Alan's Key" on the tape. He showed me how to use the screwdriver to open the lock without even needing the key. I think we bonded over the makeshift "key", and he was always happy to help with whatever I needed after that - and I still have the screwdriver! - Alan

Do you know other alums who might like to join this group?

Can we feature you in an upcoming edition? 

Contact: Claudia Valsi, DWS Alumni Outreach Volunteer Coordinator