FAMILIAR FACES (15th edition)



^{Hello DWS Alumni from the 70's and 80's! Welcome to our fifteenth 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.}

"The Shepherds Play"

Reflection by Mary Kay Bush

Years ago, when my children started at Detroit Waldorf School, I was

told that one of the goals of a Waldorf education was for students to

“learn and appreciate from whence they’ve come.” Opportunities for that

learning were abundant and engaging. They ranged from learning and

reciting the Eight Days of Creation in Hebrew; performing a stage

production of a Norse myth; wearing togas and building columns to make

the classroom a Greek temple when learning about Odysseus.

It is in this tradition that “The Shepherds Play,” a medieval morality

play, is performed every year, during December, in many Waldorf schools

around the world. It is a tale about the profound, with Mary, Joseph and

the birth of Jesus; the simple, with the shepherds in the field; the

spiritual, with angels, blessings and sharing of selves; and the very

human, with practical, material and sometimes selfish concerns.

The Star Singer’s role, at the beginning of the play, is to lead all in blessing creation, including the actors and audience. It was such a privilege and a great honor to be invited to portray the Star Singer when my children, David, Betsy, and Stephen Bush, were students at Waldorf. Very often, at the beginning of the day, it is good to be like the Star Singer, blessing creation and all those whom I’ll meet during the day, as well as all teachers, past and present, who provide such wonderful opportunities at Waldorf schools. Thank You!

Jessica Young

Class of '86 | Carol Fulmer

I work remotely as a senior art director for Buffalo Groupe, a marketing agency based out of Charleston, SC. When I have creative energy leftover from that, I paint (https://www.jydesignpro.com/art), cook and bake, sing, hike and kayak the beautiful northern Michigan surroundings. I'm also on the board of the local credit union, TBACU, whose focus is on community giving.

I have two boys, 16 and 18, who were raised on Hawaii's Big Island, where I lived with them and my husband for 15 years until we relocated back to Michigan in 2018.

Family photo in Ohana

So many memories have stayed with me from DWS! The St. Nicholas Fest stands out in my mind as an event that celebrated the best of what our

experience there was all about. I distinctly remember the smell of beeswax candles, the array of handmade crafts, the sound of the student musicians, and the halls filled with the bustling of our extended DWS family. The warmth and love of that time and place is incomparable to this day.

PS - I just realized that the recorder behind me in the pretzels photo is my DWS recorder!!! I did not include that on purpose, which only shows how DWS wove its way into my whole life :)

Liz Sutton (Lissa McCutcheon)

Class of '83 | Paul Gierlach

Hello everybody! I’m Liz Sutton, or in my past Waldorf School days -

Lissa McCutcheon. It’s been a wonderful thing to reconnect with my classmates in the last few months, and I have so many good memories of my years at Waldorf and to have us getting re- acquainted after all these years is really fun and interesting.

I started out in kindergarten as a Red Bird and graduated from Mr.

Gierlach’s 8th grade class in 1983. I then went to Cass Tech for high

school and graduated in 1987. Right after HS I started at Wayne State

University as an art student and 13 years later I finally graduated with

my BFA.

In those 13 years I had two boys, Kellen and Dylan (they went to Waldorf

for Kindergarten and 2nd grade in the early 90's) I was married and

divorced and learning all the things that would motivate me to finish

school and point me toward what I would do with the next years of my life.

At the end of 2001 I met my husband and the following year I started

work at the Detroit Institute of Arts as an art teacher in their Education Studio.

Over the next 11 years while at the DIA I got involved with an artist collective, 555 Gallery in Southwest Detroit. I had my first art studio at 555 and following my passion for teaching I started work to develop a community art program and classroom in our Southwest Detroit neighborhood. As life often does...just when things seem all figured out my husband had an opportunity for us to relocate to San Diego for his job. It was a hard decision, but with the kids grown up and on their own and us feeling a little burned out, probably having a nearly mid-life crisis and not wanting to face another Michigan winter,

we decided to take the plunge "just for a year". So in 2013 I quit my job, we packed up our house, rented it to a friend, and drove two cats across the country to San Diego. It was a big adjustment but now we are going on ten years in Southern California and I'm so happy we did it.

At Often Wander with some of my recent textile pieces

I've had some interesting jobs in San Diego and one of my favorites was working with the Oceanside Museum of Art as the education coordinator and art teacher for kids classes. I also loved the volunteer opportunities I’ve had with art galleries and community art projects here, the best one was for Balboa Park, I found myself sewing anatomy on to “nude” suits for a performance that recreated a nudest colony that existed in Balboa Park in the 1930’s - who knew? I've expanded my art abilities as well since our move, learning copper enameling, printmaking and textiles, that I occasionally exhibit and sell. Currently I work for Often Wander, a small company with stores in San Francisco and San Diego, as the jewelry production manager and candle maker. Often Wander has also been a good outlet for the colorful pillows and enamel pieces I make.

Anza Borrego desert, January 2022. We have a New Year’s Eve tradition of camping and dune buggy/dirt bike riding with friends

We seem to move houses a lot here and with each move I’ve hit 3 of my San Diego bucket list items: living on a canyon, seeing the ocean from my window and in this current house having a wood burning fireplace, it really is the little things in life for me. But the best part of Southern California has been our Sportsmobile Van we bought in 2015 and the dune buggy we got a few years later. We've crossed the country several times in our van, and this past summer we took a month to drive to NY then Michigan to visit family, taking the long way there and back. Closer to home we love to camp in the nearby deserts and mountains and a van makes it easy to get out and have some adventures. Some of our favorite places are in the Anza Borrego desert just east of San Diego, and the desert near Joshua Tree and anywhere by the ocean in Baja Mexico.

So many aspects of Waldorf influenced who I am and I'm grateful for this

foundation and the way it manifests in how I experience the world and

encourage other people to experience it, whether they are my children,

my students or friends, I know my early years at Waldorf are at the root. 

Maureen McNulty Saxton Class of '80 | Michael Blair and Alan MacNair

I consider the eight years I attended a Waldorf School among the happiest and most transformational time of my life (grades 1-7 at DWS, grade 8 at Pennsylvania’s Kimberton Waldorf School.) I often still dream about the Detroit Waldorf School: the Albert Kahn designed building, with its deep windowsills that we could sit on, high ceilings, staircases and, of course, the amazing auditorium.

After my 8th grade year in Kimberton, we returned home to Detroit – but it was late in the summer of 1980 and all the Catholic high schools in the area (where my seven brothers and sisters went) had waiting lists, so I ended up attending Lutheran High School East for three years. I spent my senior year in Jerusalem and graduated high school from the Anglican School Jerusalem. I worked my way through UM-Dearborn at the Detroit Free Press, ending up with bylines there and at the college paper, which helped me land my first professional reporting job at the Erie (PA) Daily Times. After one more newspaper reporting stint back in MI, I jumped from “hack to flack” and became a communications director, press secretary and spokeswoman for multiple state departments and department directors under the Engler administration. I also was that governor’s press secretary and deputy campaign manager for his third term campaign. I met my husband, Tom, while working in Lansing and we’ve been married 26 years, living north and south of the city. Following my state government years, I started my own PR agency, picking and choosing clients and workload so that I also could care for my children, Emma and Jack. In 2018, I joined a Detroit PR firm, headquartered in the Fisher Building, and opened their first Lansing office. Which brings my history to today, where I am once again in transition, leaving the agency world, and telling friends and family to “stay tuned!”.

The arrival of spring always makes me think of my Waldorf friends -- Alia, Shawn, Kristine, Ruthie, Denise, Melody, Matthew, Cyril, Kirk, Kraig and so many others -- baseball season starting, the fun we had playing ball across the street, and climbing the junk trees that grew around the spokes-exposed-chain-link fence surrounding the lot. (Yes, indeed there was at least one hospital visit for a puncture wound and tetanus shot!)

With Kristine Altwies at Second City in Chicago, October 2013 (YIKES! I thought it was like 5 years ago!)

Our third-grade classes (there were two) built the A-frame playhouse and created a gigantic garden adjacent to the school wall, near the playhouse. We tilled the garden, planted the many varieties of seeds, weeded and harvested from it. Everyone at the school ate what we grew, prepared for our hot lunches by Rashid, one of the best and most cool chefs the world could ever have. My best friends in those early years were Alia Newman and Matthew Howell. We played “Rockford Files” (I’m sure we took turns being James Garner) and played anything that involved doing something daring! As I grew older, I also became close with Kristine Altwies and Shawn Ritchie, who both lived within bike riding distance of me. Kristine remains my oldest, closest dearest friend today, despite the miles between us.



I realized as I grew older just how lucky I was to have had all those unique experiences. None of it would have happened without the tremendously wise foresight and solid gut instincts of my Mom who, with no direct knowledge or experience with anything other than parochial education, decided the last of her eight children (me) would not attend Catholic school. My Dad died in the spring of 1972, and she enrolled me in 1st grade and my brother Patrick in 6th grade at DWS that fall.

My client was the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, and I helped them with media for their annual  “Above and Beyond” dinner event, honoring Detroit’s finest at DPD and DFD.  I always got to hang out with Pat, Detroit’s arson chief, at this event.

Mr. Alan MacNair was our 7th grade teacher, my last year at DWS, taking over from Mr. Blair. We were a very “rowdy” (to say the least) class. I’ve always wanted to apologize for any role I played in that disruptiveness. Mr. MacNair prepared me well for a very academically challenging 8th grade year at the Kimberton Waldorf School and high school at Lutheran East in Harper Woods.

Mr. Michael Blair was our main teacher from grades 4-6, combining two 3rd grade classes (I was in Mrs. Ritchie’s grades 1-3 class.) Mr. Blair holds a special place in my heart, having twinkly eyes and being such a kind person. I remember him reading us “The Headless Horseman” in our darkened 4th grade classroom around Halloween. When it got to the point in the story where the headless horseman appeared out of the dark, Mr. Blair snapped open one of the window shades and we all had little 4th-grader-heart attacks. He would sometimes play with us at recess too, softball or kickball games.

Mr. Bruce Weinberger is, to me, emblematic of the high standards and expectations that Waldorf always had of each child (see photo below). He had a standard of excellence and expected that we would reach it – and we did. He was never mean or insulting but he made sure we knew where he wanted us to go, what he wanted us to achieve. He was also a teacher who was more than happy to show little wiseacres like me exactly where the line was that I was apparently seeking! I remember frequently wearing gum on my forehead during his music class. One of my most memorable laughing fits was during Mr. Weinberger’s orchestra practice, trying so hard not make a sound or look at Kristine (my music stand partner in the flute section) because there would be consequences – which of course made the laughing fit all the worse.

With Pam Michael and Kristine Altwies, December 2019

Pam Michael was my flute teacher and a favorite and beautiful human being who the world recently lost. Pam arranged for me, Kristine and two other flautists to play at Detroit’s inaugural (I think) Noel Night, playing at the iconic Freer House. I fondly remember that warm and wonderful night, playing many festive Christmas carols, including The Holly and the Ivy. To this day, I think of Pam whenever I hear that carol.

Madame Graef, who was Mademoiselle Begemann when I started at DWS, made me love learning foreign language. She will remain eternally young in my mind. I also loved learning German with Frau Landis, a language I continued through high school and college. Mrs. Fulmer taught me how to knit and crochet. I remember making hats, slippers, scarves, and cases for our recorders. I loved woodworking and remember making a letter opener and a candelabra. Whenever I smell a Halls cough drop, I still always think of Mrs. Barnett, our first PE teacher (before Mr. Shook).

I loved how DWS teachers read to us – from Norse mythology to the Chronicles of Narnia. It didn’t matter that we learned to read on our own as we got older; they continued to read to us. Those are treasured memories. Mrs. Cosgrove, the school librarian, told my Mom that I had made my way through all the books there and that she needed to make sure I got to our city library on a regular basis.

With Jack (20) and Emma (22) last Christmas in downtown Detroit

The auditorium, the stuff of dreams (literally), and where we watched and performed in so many plays and musical performances. In plays, I remember playing Thor, Cassius (or was I Brutus?), and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. And so many orchestra performances – I remember Bela Bartok in particular; I think Mr. Weinberger really liked him. I loved December at DWS: having St. Lucia Day with someone selected to wear a crown of lit candles (did that happen? Or was it lights?) around her head, dressed in a white dress. And in 4th grade, hearing a loud banging on our door, and Mr. Blair answering it to St. Nicholas and… Krampus! Yikes! But so funny. And I loved the Christmas play, with the shepherds being startled and scared by the angel Gabriel and then making their way to the manger scene. I always wished the huge Christmas tree on stage would have something more on it than red cloth roses – like electric lights – but even as a kid, I knew that wasn’t exactly the Waldorf aesthetic.

Writing about my memories of childhood and Waldorf remind me of a Detroit Free Press column by Mitch Albom, one that resonated so deeply with me that I sent it to Kristine. Albom wrote: “There’s a line from the movie 'Stand By Me,’ by Stephen King, which says 'I never had any friends like the ones I had when I was 12 years old.’ 

Albom continues: "Experiences were new. Emotions were fresh. And we discovered them with our friends. We learned to fear the teacher with our friends right beside us. We learned the thrill of snowfall with our friends right beside is. Our first boy-girl kiss games, our first concerts, our first time driving the car without Mom or Dad — our friends were right beside us. We can look at them today and burst out laughing, or crying, or just shaking our heads at the simplest thing. Because when we see them, we see ourselves.

"I’ve made many friends as an adult. They are, in my eyes, wonderful people. Great senses of humor. Admirable. Compassionate. But I realize this: I have never wrestled them in the basement. I have never locked their arms and rolled down a grassy hill. I have never grasped them from behind on a bicycle seat, or lain on top of them on a sled. I have never really touched them, except to shake hands or pat their backs. I am restrained. I am polite. I am an adult. I keep my distance."

He ends his column with: “Stephen King wrote a follow-up sentence to that quote I mentioned: 'I never had any friends like the ones I had when I was 12 years old. Jesus, does anyone?'

"I know the answer. The answer is no."

That is exactly how I feel. For me, Waldorf is seamlessly woven among all those sweet, cherished memories of friends and experiences and will continue to live in my dreams.

With classmates Cyril White, Kirk Williams and Kristine, Summer 2022

Remembering Guy Thompson

Class of 1974

Written by James Rose and Linda Williams

It was always a pleasure and joy to be around Guy Thompson. From my earliest memories as a boy I knew Guy and his family extremely well, we were linked in so many ways. First, our fathers worked together at Ford Motor Company. Mckinley Thompson and my father James Rose, Sr. were some of the first African American men, professional hires into the management ranks at Ford Motor Company in the early 1960’s. These men’s lives and exceptional careers, along with other elite black families, facilitated our being able to attend private schools and provided the economic backbone for the school in its earliest days.

Mrs. Juanita Thompson and my mother Mrs. Carole A. Rose became friends as a part of the community of African American wives of the Black Automotive Managers in Detroit. Always the pioneer, Juanita Thompson found the Detroit Waldorf School while attending Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit - the original home of the Detroit Waldorf School - and sent Guy to the school along with their daughter Wendy. Our family were also members of Central United Methodist Church, hence when it was time for me to leave public school, I was immediately placed into Waldorf in the same class as Guy, where we became life-long friends. Theo Buergin was our class teacher through 8th grade.

Though Guy has made his transition, I think about him every day. The paintings we created as boys hang on the walls of my office, the first fish we carved sits on my desk and I hold it in my hands while in meetings and calls all day, and the spoon we made at ten years old sits on the mantel in my living room. I loved Guy Thompson as one of a few men whom I call my brother in this life. Guy was unique, articulate, kind, and brilliant in so many ways, it would take many pages to describe. But suffice it to say here briefly, he was to our class the great integrator when someone new arrived, the great peacemaker when children got at odds and most important the great friend who was there for me all the days of my life.  - James Rose

Photo: Theo Buergin with Guy Thompson and William Richardson (writing at the desk) in the first class he took through 8th grade.

I met Guy when he served for many years on the Detroit Waldorf School Board. When I think of him, I remember how he volunteered with such compassion, joy, and faithfulness. Guy had a special twinkle in his eye that sparkled when he told a joke, and his lovely booming laughter was contagious and could lift the mood at the sometimes tedious board meetings. But Guy’s warmth was not his only contribution. His perspectives as both an alum and a social worker were extremely helpful. He really had a sense for the students, the families, and the teachers at his Alma Mater and he often suggested practical solutions that could support and nourish families and faculty alike. In addition, Guy just always showed up. He was there for assemblies, concerts, festivals, and fundraisers – bringing his warmth, his interest, his positivity and pure joy. He is deeply missed at the Detroit Waldorf School. - Linda Williams

Orchestra photo from 1977-78. I’m front row center right. Pat is back row center - the tallest guy. Mr. Weinberger is back row, second from the left.

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