FAMILIAR FACES (21st edition)



Welcome to our 21st edition of Familiar Faces! With Detroit Waldorf School Alumni spanning the globe, we thought it would be fun to share stories of what everyone is up to! Whether you spent ten years here, or just a few, we consider our alumni vital to the life and legacy of our school 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.}

Francina Graef, French Teacher and Class Teacher

1972 to 1998

What a great pleasure it was to attend the reunion this year! It was somewhat like throwing a stone into a quiet pond and watching the concentric ripples appear. The first wave was seeing all my beloved colleagues from all those years ago. Then came many students of my very early years of teaching French. I heard so many funny stories about incidents that I have no memory of, but were certainly hilarious. First year teaching was a very steep learning curve for me, so it was gratifying to know that my students survived all of that. Then came another ripple of parents and students of the later years. Though the 90’s were not yet included in the waves of this reunion, it was just delightful to see a few of them and now to have connected to those students in all sorts of other ways. I am astonished at the many accomplishments and life stories of our DWS students. They are a wonderful testament to what this head, heart and hands education is meant to be. My thanks to those who planned this terrific event!!

Left: Francina Graef with alumni students Fiona Glas, Michelle Duncan, Angela Taylor, Renita Nesby LiVolsi, Claudia Valsi, and Jennifer Morris at the Reunion Weekend in September 2023.

Arriving in Detroit in August of 1972 was definitely life-changing. I had driven across country alone in my VW much to the chagrin of my parents. I knew nothing about Detroit, nothing about Waldorf Education and had only set foot in a classroom twice as a teacher. At twenty years old, I began what would become a total transition into a most wonderful life, solely because I had heard a lecture by Werner Glas at my alma mater, Occidental College, in Los Angeles.

In my first year of teaching the students assured me that the last six French teachers had left and they figured I would too. Something inside me said “ not so fast” and I ended up staying in Detroit until now. I loved teaching French and languages had always been a huge part of my life. I grew up speaking Dutch and learned German along the way as well.

During my years at DWS, I also taught two classes - one from 6-8 (Class of '90) and the other from 1-8 (Class of '98). Those were two fabulous times. Teaching children is a true journey in learning about one’s self, which is both enlightening and sometimes very challenging. Waldorf Education does not allow the soul to slouch.



Along the way I met my wonderful husband, Howard, and had two daughters, Johanna (Class of '94) and Martina (Class of '96). Now I have four terrific grandchildren who are the light of my life.

Class of '98, May Pole dance, May 1997. Left to right: Ben Stout, Kara Van Zandt, Sara Van Zandt, David Conti, Chris Emmerson, Adam Eichhorn, David Roehrig, Michael Fair, Jared Cantor, Emily Fujii, Kate Shoup, Jake Lalinsky (behind, tall), Kennice Halloran (crouching), Teryn Kern, Brett Anderson (behind, not visible), Eric Doktor (behind ribbon), Steven Hands.

When I finished with the 8th grade class, the next five years were spent caring for my mom who had Alzheimer’s. That too was quite a journey with this sweet, very European woman who survived a war and many other challenges. After that I completed a Master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), but after two semesters teaching at the university level, I realized it was not for me. Give me children anytime!



Now in these retirement years, Howard and I like to travel, ski, read and spend every second we can with our families. I also love to do any kind of crafts, particularly quilting. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the students I met along the way who gave me so many life lessons. I also am ever grateful to Theo Beurgin who gave that 20 year old a chance to learn what education should be, to Marianne who showed me why our hands are such a necessary part of this head, heart, hands education and Barbara Glas who introduced me to the world of color for which I am deeply grateful. To my colleagues who might read this, thank you for putting up with my foibles and showing me what love can do in this education.

Class of '98 pumpkin carving in Grade 7

Remembering Cynthia Biener Trevillion, Class Teacher and Educational Support

September 1, 1953 - October 17, 2017

Written by Mary Jo Oresti

It is a pleasure to write this remembrance of Cynthia Biener Trevillion and share a few stories and impressions of her time at DWS and our friendship. Although I can only share part of the mosaic that was her life, I hope these memories remind us of some of her qualities that endeared her to us.

What still lives strongly in me even now is that Cynthia had a solid way of being present, nothing flashy; however, her dedication was very deep and quietly fierce. When Cynthia's class was in middle school she became very concerned for a family in her class that was having financial difficulty, and probably would not be able to continue. Also at that time, a small tuition grant was bestowed to the school. When Cynthia found out about the grant she went after it like a dog on the bone. Not in a demanding way but with persistence. It was as if that grant had been created just for that purpose. The family received the grant and stayed with the school.

I, and I'm sure my colleagues, were often a bit in awe as we witnessed this steadfastness in so many aspects of school life. Her committee work was done with a straight forward and fair “get it done” approach and was admirably organized. She had a smart and almost intuitive approach with finances and often steered us right when it came to financial issues, and indeed there were many of those.

Back: John Trevillion, Carroll Lalinsky, Nancy Carpenter; Second: Paul Penzak, Francina Graef, Cynthia Trevillion, Beatrice Voigt, Marjorie Masoud, Mark Honey, Mary Milkovie; Front: Grace Worth, Judy Carroll, Adrienne Chapman

Cynthia opened the door to her heart when it came to not only the children's education but also to their well being and she respected who they were at their core. I have heard from class members that she “never gave up” on anyone and always helped them find their way. She observed acutely and knew the children well without judgement. Indeed I am sure that the members in that class experienced her depth of feeling for them and many kept in contact with her. She researched and prepared for her classes with diligence and dedication.

At the time when John and Cynthia were in Detroit, there was a large social group among the teachers, the community and the teacher training program here. We were often together for holidays, dinners, or an occasional ball game, play or symphony.

One important aspect of our get togethers was food. As many of you know Cynthia was gifted in the kitchen. She made a Thai soup that is a legend to this day and a very yummy shepherd's pie. At some point she also got very skillful with canning, pies and chicken soup. The food was delicious but her dishes were more than a taste treat. We always felt a deeper nourishment and comfort. One young man, a recipient of her chocolate chip cookies, described it as “ Cynthia was the feeling of home.”

Over the years, we did many things together. One of stories I remember occurred early in our careers at DWS when we went to a teachers conference in a beautiful, rural setting in the east. We started a gin rummy game on the first night and played every night for a week, giggling some and ending the week long game, believe it or not, in a tie. On some nights, finding ourselves not in alignment with the vegetarian fare, we went searching for chicken or burgers along country roads.

Cynthia loved being near the lakes. Water was her second home and she was like a seal when she submerged herself. She also liked being on the water, canoeing or kayaking. She was attracted to the beauty of nature and she loved flowers. I recall one time when, on an outing to a small, local lake, we came across a whole hillside of sweet peas which stopped us in our tracks One of our last visits included a trip to the Orchid Exhibit at a botanical garden. Other excursions included going to the theater, a past time she also enjoyed with John. And then of course there was the Tigers and then the Cubs, bio-dynamic farms, and even Antiques Roadshow.

Cynthia was taken from us very suddenly at the same time as a teachers conference was held in Chicago. Many prayerful thoughts were sent to her then and many deeply felt testimonials were made at the service in Chicago and the memorial in Detroit. She lives on our hearts.

Helen McClure

Class of '89 | Frances Altwies and John Trevillion

My younger brother, John, really struggled with traditional public school education (a boy who was reading novels at age 4 was failing reading in 2nd grade because he didn’t fill out worksheets correctly!), so after asking around and looking at a variety of options, my parents put him in Detroit Waldorf School in the middle of his second grade year, where he flourished. I was envious, but succeeding in traditional public school, so my parents waited until the next school year to move me to DWS. I started at the beginning of sixth grade with Mrs. Altwies. Alas, it was her last year, as she was off to Hawaii to join her husband, and our class was taken over by Mr. Trevillion.

In addition to the actual “book learning” I got from Waldorf, I also learned that there was another way of being than I had grown up with in the East Detroit Public Schools system. Even though DWS’s high school closed when I was in sixth grade, and thus I had to return to public school for high school, those three years at Waldorf were transformative. I learned to embrace who I was and lean into my intelligence and creativity, rather than trying to hide them to fit in with my public school peers. Consequently, I became the only person in my high school graduating class to even attempt to apply to a top-tier college (my high school counselor didn’t even have information to share with me on how to go about taking the SAT). I graduated high school a year later than the folks I left DWS with, due to spending 1991 mysteriously ill (it turned out to be a strep infection in my bloodstream). I went on to Barnard College and graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a combined major (one thesis instead of two) in Linguistics and Italian Literature.

While I was in college, I found myself gravitating towards activities and clubs that involved conflict resolution and equity, so I decided I would apply to master’s programs in conflict resolution, then take a few years off before I decided what I wanted to get a PhD in (I knew I wanted to get a PhD in something!). As fate would have it, one of the programs I applied to was in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at the School of International Service (SIS) at American University (AU). At that time, the director of SIS’s only doctoral program (International Relations) would look through the applications for the various master’s programs and pick out candidates he thought were particularly promising. I was one of those he selected. So, in the spring of my senior year of college, I got a phone call out of the blue from this man offering me the opportunity to apply to the PhD program by giving him a verbal yes over the phone. He said the fact that he was calling me meant I was almost guaranteed to get into the master’s program, and the chances overall were not very high to get into the PhD program. So, I figured, what the heck, and said yes. I got in!

With my husband Matt Bromeland, our daughter Kim (18), and our dog Maggie, Christmas 2022

Thus started my very (perhaps overly) ambitious graduate career. I got through all the classes for the master’s and the PhD, as well as all my qualifying exams by going to class year-round for three years. I spent the next 10 years on my dissertation, which ended up completely changing direction due to September 11. I’m proud to say I have been Dr. McClure since November 1, 2011.

While I was working on my dissertation, I was also working to support myself. I built a career over about 20 years in post-secondary education (both traditional higher education and career training), mainly as an administrator, but I also taught for about a decade. I lost my last job in post-secondary education when the school closed, so I spent about a year and a half doing consulting and working for Weight Watchers.

By fall 2015, I was back on my feet, having landed a position with the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, auditing post-secondary education and training institutions in the state for compliance with the GI Bill (this is how I found out that the VA actually relies on the states to determine which schools meet the requirements). My next job was working for DC’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, where I have been ever since, fully completing my transition from education to government. This past July, I started a detail with the DC Fire and EMS Department to help them start a paramedic school (all that post-secondary education experience finally coming in handy!). I’m still there.

Meanwhile, in my personal life, I survived stage 2-3 brain cancer in 2018 (thank you, NIH!), and during Covid lockdown, my husband and I decided to adopt a teenage girl. She was 14 ½ when she came to live with us in June 2020. The adoption was finalized in January 2021, and we are in the thick of parenting a young adult at this point. She came from a very traumatizing background, and is continuing to work through a lot of issues caused by that.

Adam Day

Class of '92 | Marjorie Masoud and John Trevillion

I was at DWS from Red Birds through 8th grade and then ended up going to Sacramento Waldorf School for high school, so that makes me a lifer! I've moved around a lot since then. After getting an MA in comparative literature at Brown and a law degree from Berkeley, I briefly practiced law in New York, but couldn't stand being on the wrong side of everything. So I quit and joined Human Rights Watch, advocating for the International Criminal Court.

Zakynthos Greece, Summer 2023

That turned into a job in UN peacekeeping and I became a political officer, working in missions in Darfur, Khartoum, South Sudan, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Luckily, my wife Wendy is in the same line of work, so we toted our two daughters around to most of those places, but once they began to get a little older we shifted gears. I joined a think tank in Tokyo called UN University Centre for Policy Research and we lived there for nearly two years before coming back to New York, just in time to put our girls in the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan. Nearly two years ago, we moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where I now run one of our think tank's offices (here) and my wife works on protection of civilians in conflict. 

French Alps with my daughters

One of my clearest memories from DWS was all the writing we had to do. First with the big block crayons, then with the pencils, then with fountain pens. I remember getting ink all over my hands and trying to blot it off my main lesson book so Mr. T wouldn't get annoyed! I still love writing and have a children's book out if you're interested (here). I also published a stodgier book about UN peacekeeping in case you have trouble falling asleep (here).

Jumah Hamilton

Class of '93 | Mary Ann Van Poelvoorde and Paul Gierlach



Passion knows no depths, community no bounds…

My time at DWS was an invaluable learning experience that laid the foundation for my success in various professional roles. The strong emphasis on art appreciation during my education has proven to be a significant asset in my career as a web developer and design consultant in New York City. In my current position as a software developer at a Fortune 100 company, I find that my art-centric perspective provides a unique advantage. While my colleagues often approach code from a purely logical standpoint, my ability to consider user flow and function design adds a valuable dimension to my work.

With my wife Tamieka and our daughters Harper (5) and Idara (19 months)

My career opportunities and choices have been driven by the community that surrounded me, everywhere I lived and traveled. My view of community, as the most meaningful and rewarding part of my life outside of my Christian faith, is directly attributable to my family and life at DWS from 3rd to 8th grade (’93). Whether working, pursuing my passions, or traveling the world with my family, I enjoy laughing and engaging others, often being unable to resist saying ‘hello’ first, and diving into the experiences of others. I perfected this approach to life at Waldorf, although it had been directly missing from my life. 

Wooden shed built in my backyard while I was living in Phoenix

Returning home (to Detroit and DWS in the fall of 2023 for the inaugural Alumni Reunion Weekend) was an inspiring and emotional walk down memory lane. While touring the campus and reconnecting with familiar faces, the nostalgia of Main lesson with Mr. Gierlach, and classes such as woodworking or basketball with Mr. Honey reminded me of the indelible mark on my life. Now, many years on, I have evolved into an analytical person, a voracious reader, and a film watcher. Beyond that, although it emerged years later, my woodworking skills learned as a child became a way to express my love and devotion to my family. While preparing for the birth of my first daughter, I spent about 12 weeks handcrafting a wooden changing table. What a beautiful struggle! It burnished my desires, and later I helped to enhance my family’s backyard by building a wooden patio bench and a storage shed. All of this and so much more will forever be due to the passion, love, knowledge and skills developed many years ago at the best grade school in Detroit.

Below: Reunion weekend with fellow classmates Chris Berry (standing behind me), Robert Watson sitting next to John Makara, and Jason Keydel (yellow shirt)

Ben Stout

Class of '98 | Francina Graef

I remember my first day attending Waldorf, part way into my third grade year. I had been doing poorly at the public elementary school near my house and for a number of reasons it was not a good fit. My older brother had attended Waldorf a number of years before me, and so my parents arranged for me to visit Francina Graef's class for a few days to see if it might be a better setting. I remember being introduced to Mrs. Graef and her shaking my hand. I remember feeling strange about that, it was thrilling really. I dont know that I had ever been treated by a teacher in that dignified way. I do not remember having been so anyway. I shook her hand in return and entered the classroom. After a short meeting with Mrs. Graef I was taken to join the other students who were in gym class. I think we were playing volleyball, or maybe dodgeball. I dont remember feeling shy exactly but it was obviously new. I remember Adam Eichhorn including me right away, handing me balls to hit, encouraging me, and handing me more one right after the other. As if he was personally delighted to be feeding someone else a joyful and inclusive experience.

When my dad came to get me on one of those first testing days, I remember telling him "I have to go here", and him replying "we will see" and I knew that he meant it. I think I sort of knew attending was something of a stretch for my family, and a privilege for me, and that working it out was part of the deal. I hoped. Indeed, it worked out, and I returned the following week, continued through the years, finishing at the end of 8th grade. I remember the walls and corners of the school were all soft, rounded brick, no sharp corners. I remember handwork class, beeswax, and the feel of warm copper rods. Morning verse, and being taken as a group into the stairwells where we would sing. Geometry class for 5th graders was compass drawings and colored pencils. Kara and Sara had the most beautiful color patterns and were fast at running. That was school. For lack of a better word, it was a blessing. More students joined and they were lucky also, to have parents who worked it out so they could be in this class. David R, David C, Michael F, Kennice, I am thinking of you. I have many more memories, and believe that Waldorf set my pattern rhythm and expectations for the coming years.

Ben with Francina the younger, February 2023

After graduating from the 8th grade class I attended Cranbrook, an academic setting that was a major change. I remember knowing how to be in school, how to connect with teachers and classmates, and being willing to connect. Maybe the spirit of Adam. I dont know. I did not do well in my studies, save for music and studio art. Chris Emmerson taught me to play guitar after Ms. Lalinsky gave me an old one she had for me to pluck on. Thank god for both of them. After Cranbrook I went to the Kansas City Art Institute to study ceramics, an art form I picked up at age 16, and again I fell into the rhythms and patterns of dutiful attendance despite the dignified challenge that it really is to learn something closely.I learned to formulate clay, glaze, and fire kilns. It was a rigorous technical education where we learned to refine material, transform it from liquid into stone by controlling heat and water content. After college I lived in Colorado for two years as a resident artist at a small clay studio where I taught classes, ran the studio facilities, and made my own work. I enrolled in Ohio University for an MFA in ceramics, where I promptly dropped clay as a material and learned what it meant to let ideas drive the work and the formal properties of a piece of artwork. After two very frustrating years I got a hold of what I was doing, and began a project where I used tape to make large scale site specific molds of thoroughfares, like tunnels. I fell in love with spaces that existed because earth had been removed, sometimes blasted away, to make way for people and our movements. I used tape to make large format sticky weavings, made by pressing the tacky side onto tunnel walls and then removed as if it were a woven rubbing. Tape represented adhesion, and adhesion was a form of devoted attachment which hit home. After graduate school I became a teacher. First in Ohio, then Richmond Virginia. I loved to be in the studio with students and teach them how to form the material correctly while also unpacking the ideas they thought were most important. I still love doing that.

Francina Graef meeting her namesake Francina Stout (6 months), May 2019

Teaching ended after about 4 years when I moved to Philadelphia where I still live and work. I became an art handler which is sort of like being a general contractor but for packing, installing, and transporting art. I had no experience in that trade but I did have portfolio artwork and exhibitions. In my interview with the company I now work for, I wondered if there was some relation between making plaster molds for ceramic production and the crating and packing that is required for art work. I thought there might be a connection, but really I needed a job too. I was hired at the entry level, and I spent my first 4 years driving trucks from Philadelphia to New York and all points between Miami delivering and installing art for museums and private clients. After some time, I was able to join the teams of people who actually pack art in museums, and I learned that careful trade. I now specialize in packing design, crating, and high volume museum relocations where I devise the means and methods by which large volumes of art and artifacts are packed and relocated. I work not only with art, but also artifacts, some of which are many thousands of years old.

In the winter of 2017, during a long stint of packing art in Brooklyn, I received a phone call from my girlfriend Suzanne telling me a baby was on the way. The following fall a baby girl was born. We named her Francina, after the one and only Mrs. Graef who I still loved so much after that many years. Francina the-younger, Suzanne, and I all live together in a small but mighty row home in North Philadelphia. We see Mrs. Graef on holidays but it is never ever enough.

Make a gift to Detroit Waldorf School's

Inaugural Alumni Giving Day

On Wednesday, May 1st, DWS will celebrate Alumni Giving Day and the 50th anniversary of the first 8th grade graduating class with Theo Buergin. Our goal for Giving Day is to encourage all of our incredible Alumni (students, parents, grandparents, and teachers) to make a gift in honor of their time spent at DWS and to have 100% participation. No matter the size, every gift makes a difference for our school.

A special thanks to our Alumni Resource Panel who collectively donated $2,250 to launch this campaign! Thank you to Kristine Altwies, Michelle Duncan, Jumah Hamilton, Renita Nesby LiVolsi, Jennifer Morris, Neal Newman, David Olmstead, Maureen McNulty Saxton, Claudia Valsi, and Chris Vaneman.

Join your fellow classmates, parents and teachers by making a gift today!

WANT TO SEE MORE FAMILIAR FACES?

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