Dreux American High School
Alumni Association Newsletter
July 2023
Featured in this Newsletter:

  • Message from the President, Paul Krausman '64
  • Update on Yearbooks
  • Alumni and Faculty Spotlights
  • Excerpt from Bill Costanzo's Memoirs - Memories of Paul G. Francis
  • Alumni/Faculty Recently Found
  • In Memoriam
  • Treasurer's Report
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Greetings Dreuxites:

The 2024 reunion is booked for our voyage from Paris to Normandy and back, 10-17 October 2024, on the Viking River Cruise. Over 30 people signed up and the ship is fully booked! Our group is not the only group booking the cruise, so for those that may still be interested in going, I would suggest that you contact our Cruise Consultant to see if Viking has held any rooms back or if they have had any cancellations. Please sure to let me know that you are able to secure a reservation.

Walker Todd |Viking| Travel Consultant |
(Direct) 888.663.8454 x 8997  | 

We will be going during the 80th anniversary remembrance of the Normandy Invasion in WWII. We are still over a year from the sailing date, the itinerary is being set, and will be available soon. We are all looking forward to returning to France and some of our olé stomping grounds and the chance to explore new areas.

As usual, we will be electing officers during the reunion and it is time to be thinking about future positions. I need your help in generating a ballot that reflects your desires. If any of you are interested in running for any of the offices (i.e., president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, board members) please let me know so your name can be placed on the ballot.

I would also like to hear from you as to when you would like to have the next stateside reunion (e.g., 2025, 2026, other) and where (e.g., east, west, central U. S.).

Please send me your interest to be on the ballot and opinions on the next reunion (krausman@arizona.edu). Many thanks, I look forward to hearing from you.

Vicki has done an outstanding job of keeping you abreast of all things Dreux and this newsletter is no exception. This issue contains information about alumni spotlights, new finds and unforturnately additions to our In Memoriam page of the Dreux website.

Don’t forget to pay your annual dues to keep the Dreux American High School Alumni Association going and let us know other information you would like to see in the newsletter.

Thanks again and keep me posted.
Paul R. Krausman
President, Dreux American High School Association
YEARBOOKS
ATTENTION!

I recently made PDF files for each of the DAHS yearbooks that Don Wade had scanned years ago. Hopefully they will be MUCH easier to scroll through now!

Click here to access the yearbook section on the Dreux website.

(You may need to refresh that page to get the updated version of the page)
ALUMNI & FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS

Michael Faucett '66
 
Early life spent in Japan, Florida; Wash. D.C.; Paraguay; Georgia; New York; France (Parents Laon Air Base, Northern France); Florida; Calif.; Oregon; Hawaii; California; French Guyana; Paraguay; Uruguay; Dominican Rep.; Haiti; Bulgaria; Germany, Calif.; Zambia, Calif. Family scattered. Favorite bumper sticker: Not all who wander are lost!

Attended Dreux for one year as a senior, graduating in 1966; attended University of Florida; graduated from Cal State Sacramento.

Job/Career History: Early years wasted and wandered. Worked at the Aquarian Effort Drug Rehabilitation trying the save my generation, Sacramento Park and Rec, Pro Baseball Texas Rangers, Oakland A's (not as player). Journalist (Sacramento Bee). USN Officer (USS Joseph Strauss DDG-16), CIC Officer, DCA. Business Owner - Liquor Faucett and Deli. 30 yrs Jehovah's Witness - 10 years missionary work in French Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Bulgaria, Germany, and Zambia

Hobbies: Gardening No.1; Gym, swim, hike. Continually work on my 60-year old home.

Serve My Community: Preach the Kingdom of God as the solution to mankind's problems. Door-to-door in the past, preaching during COVID via letters and phone calls. Teach the Bible over Zoom.

Favorite Memories from Dreux:
  • Traveling for and playing sports. Crossed English Channel twice, often traveled to Germany and other high schools in France. Once traveled over the Pyrenees to Spain by bus. Made All-Europe in Football. Suffered heat exhaustion playing at Torrejón Air Base Spain. Passed out in ambulance. Woke up in hospital in Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany.
  • Being suspended from Dreux High School for a week for graffitiing the outside of the boy's dorm. (Never gave up my co-conspirator). Graduated without attending gym classes. Told the Principal (liked him) playing three sports was enough.
  • Living away from home was liberating; good preparation for dorm life in college.
  • Roommates were Andy Guzowski and Doug Simmons. Now those two I will never forget! Characters! Fond of them both!
  • Dated Suzanne Brandt. Spent my whole life wondering what might have been with Suzanne.
I grew up in countries with few American kids so I never really sought out friends; I was fine by myself; was friends with whoever I was with at any one time. I considered the Senior English teacher at Dreux a friend. She was on sabbatical from UC Berkeley. Other friends I recall were Suzanne Brandt and Maj-Britt Danielson. I had a nice friendly relationship with a senior girl in study period. Sorry, I don't recall her name, but I believe it was Lee.

I have struggled with amnesia. With 28 chemo-radiation treatments and three cancer surgeries, my memory is not the best. I do send my love and greetings to all I knew at Dreux.

Steve Felice '65
 

My parents were from New York & Rhode Island. They met at a USO dance in Cape Cod during WWII. We lived in New York, Alaska, Norway, Northern & Southern California. Dad was stationed with NATO in Oslo, Norway when I attended Dreux.
 
Attended Dreux during my sophomore and junior years (62/63 and 63/64), graduating in 1965 from La Quinta High School in Garden Grove, California.
 
I received my BA degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Southern California. I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1970 to 1971. Received my Secondary Teaching Credential in 1972 and taught math in the public schools before attending the Southwest University School of Law (74-78).
 
Work life: Attorney, Real Estate Broker and Espresso Bar owner. 
 
I have been married 3 times, raised 4 sons with. my second wife, am now retired (semi-retired) living with my current wife, Donna, in Manhattan, NYC. I am a recovering addict/alcoholic since June 1988.
In my spare time, I like to read; listen to my vinyl, (really loud), go to movies & the theater, serve espresso and visit with interesting customers at my favorite Italian espresso bar in Manhattan where I am a part-time employee. I regularly attend AA meetings and offer my time and service for community outreach to enhance public discourse about mental illness and addiction/alcoholism.
Fond and cherished memories from Dreux include, without limitation:
  • playing with and traveling with football team
  • celebrating our "private" '64 prom while on restriction with Nancy P, Kathy R & Mike T
  • the many field trips to Paris and the French countryside
  • dances at the teen club
  • math class and local French dining with Mr. Kassy
  • roommates: Larry Lahusen, Mickey Doak, Ron Martin, Barry Ybarra
  • best friends: Larry Lahusen, Gretchen Edwards and so many other Dreux pals, teammates and fellow pranksters, all who contributed to my becoming who I am today
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William V. "Bill" Costanzo '63
 

My dad was stationed at Evreux Air Base while I attended Dreux (1961-1963) with my younger brother Richard. My four sisters continued school on Long Island, married, and moved to other parts of the country, including Virginia, Florida, Chicago, Arizona, and Oklahoma.
 
Following graduation from Dreux in 1963, I attended Columbia College and Columbia Graduate Faculties. 
 
I taught at Westchester Community College in New York from 1970-present
 
Favorite Memories from Dreux:
I enjoyed publishing "The Bars and Stripes" with my like-minded schoolmates
My favorite teacher, Mr. Francis, was a big influence. I was saddened to learn of his passing.
Roommate: Paul Sapp
Friends: Good memories of Bill Flake, Paul Sapp, Bill Willis, Alan Miller, Cheryl Knudson
 
Not so favorite memories of Dreux:
The training ditches around our dorms
Today, I have two grown boys and live in Mount Kisco, north of Manhattan, with my wife Diana. I still love to travel (Europe, China, Africa, Peru) and do so often with my wife.

I do a lot of writing (seven books so far) and try to keep up with languages. I'm afraid that my tennis and soccer days are over, but I try to stay fit by walking, lifting weights, and keeping up with my active wife.

Suzanne Burke - Dorm Counselor

I graduated from Grants Pass High School in Grants Pass, Oregon in 1955. I came to France via Guam where I taught Art for a year after a year teaching World Geography in Grants Pass. I was a dorm counselor at Dreux from 1961 to 1964.
 
After leaving Dreux, I retired to Ibiza, ran out of money and became a counselor in the UK, first at Lakenheath, then at London Central at High Wycombe
 
I am also connected to the London Central group which went on for much longer and where I last worked until 1993 when DODDS made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I would have continued working until my actual retirement age as I loved my job but an early exit into the sunlit uplands of retirement was irresistible so off I went.
 
Favorite memories from Dreux
  • The Senior prom on the Bateau Mouche and on the Eiffel Tower.
  • Friends: Sue Hoskins, Dee Hill, Dave Weissman, John Kalamaras, Bill Appleton, Alice Duffy and Don Page
  • Dated: Bill Appleton
 
Not so favorite memories of Dreux:
  • There were so few trees.
Today, I live in London and Paris and go back and forth, enjoying what both have to offer. I am still traveling though COVID put a two-year hole in that activity. I was in Laos in January and will be in Oregon all of September - for the first time since 2017. My health is good and I remain culturally active - going to the theatre, opera, ballet and generally keeping up. I'm lucky to have younger friends since, in my 86th year, there aren't so many of my cohorts as there used to be. 

Would love to hear from any former staff or students who remember me.
MEMORIES OF PAUL G. FRANCIS
by Bill Costanzo '63
Whenever I think of Mr. Francis, his image always pops up with a smile: that wide-brimmed grin of his, those twinkling eyes, the slip of hair aslant his brow, just starting to turn gray. How old was he in 1961? Late-thirties? Mid-forties? At sixteen I could hardly judge the age of anyone past twenty. But I could judge the man, who cared about us all as students and as individuals.
He was the first Harvard graduate I ever met, a school I later got to know quite well during the nineties when my two boys were enrolled, but he was modest about his education and intelligence. It was clear to us that he was several heads above the other teachers. He knew everything, it seemed, about the subject that he taught and loved, and we came to love it too, because history in Mr. Francis’s class was something living, teeming with treasures and adventures, something to explore whole heartedly. The old religious battlefields near Dreux were part of history, and so was the chapel where pretenders to the throne of France lay buried in their sepulchers. Mr. Francis knew the history of every stone, and his curiosity was contagious. Once, to entertain himself on a flight to Morocco, he passed the time listing everything he knew about that country. The idea that you could do this, could summon up your memory of a place or an event, intrigued me and stayed. Years later, I’d find myself doing the same on flights to Shanghai, Accra, and Geneva.

Paul Sapp, my dormitory roommate, was another member of the Dr. Francis Admiration Society. The two of us talked about him constantly, speculated wildly about the mysteries of his private life. What could make this gifted individual, this Harvard man, move to a remote place like Dreux and waste his talents as a teacher? We students had no choice. We were prisoners confined by training ditches and barbed-wire fences, but Mr. Francis had elected to be here. He even seemed to enjoy it. Not far from the base, he made a comfortable home in a renovated barn and called it “La Maison de Lilas.” He had a flower garden, another mystery to me. Why would anyone willingly spend hours bent over with their hands in the dirt? Back home near the base at Evreux, under my dad’s command, I had spent two arduous weekends planting barrels of seed potatoes in the bone-hard ground behind our house. But Mr. Francis actually enjoyed this work. It made him feel connected to the soil, he said, with a touch of mock grandiosity, connected to time and growth. Then he cut through the intellectual extravagance with his hearty laugh.

In his kitchen, a large iron pot squatted on an old-fashioned stove. He showed me how to make a pot au feu, blending leeks, carrots, and potatoes into a week-old stew. I still remember the word he used for leeks, poireaux. His dining room was rustic, country French I suppose, though I only learned about antiques much later. The room that fascinated me most was his bedroom. A great, four-poster bed with a brass headboard dominated the room. If you keep the window open, he said, a swallow will fly in during the morning and circle round the bed. Hirondelle was French for swallow. Somehow it sounded more graceful, like the bird itself.

I followed Mr. Francis everywhere, like an adoring puppy, because he seemed to understand the secrets of life as well as history. One day, he let me tag along while he ran errands. This was a new concept for me. If I enjoy doing the laundry today and buying fresh fruit at the market, it’s probably due to my high school history teacher.

Three years later, during a summer break from college in New York, I paid a visit to La Maison de Lilas. Mr. Francis was there to greet me. He was teaching another cohort of unruly teens, but he had not changed. I had, in just a few years, passed from adolescence to adulthood. I was meeting him, now, as one man to another. Yet I still called him Mr. Francis, and so he will always be.

He wanted to know all about college, about my summer project, my future plans. His listening made me swell with pride. He gave me tickets to the Paris opera as a gift, a rare performance of Lalo’s Roi d’Ys. He had seen it earlier and thought I would enjoy the grand finale when the flood overwhelms the stage. I did, feeling very much the adult. And there was another gift. On the eve of my departure, he let me use the bed while he slept on the couch. The next morning, I was awakened by a fluttering around me. It was the hirondelle flying circles overhead.
COMPLETE OUR DAHS ALUMNI SURVEY!


We have put together a survey that we would love everyone to complete. It will give us some great bio information for the Alumni/Faculty Spotlight section of the newsletter and perhaps the Dreux website. It will let us know your thoughts about the newsletters and suggestions for improvements. There are also a couple of questions in the survey that might help us to locate some of your former classmates that have not been found yet!

Clink on the blue link to access the survey. Alumni Survey

A total of 38 alumni have completed the survey which is fantastic! I plan to include at least two bios in each newsletter. (This newsletter has four!). Please remember to send a "NOW" photo of yourself to Vicki Key if you complete a Bio Survey. Thanks!

We would like to have more bios! Complete yours today!
RECENTLY FOUND ALUMNI/FACULTY!

Below is a list of alumni/faculty that have been located since the November 2022 newsletter:
Note: Unfortunately, some alumni/faculty that were on our "missing" were found to be deceased

Faculty:
Bernard P. McCormick (deceased)

Alumni:
Harrison Hugh (Ozzie) Green III '61 (deceased)
Pamela Houck '63
Barbara Lee Wagner '64
David Vandeveer '64
Nancy Henderson '65
Peggy Kleinertz '65
Leon Hudson '66 (deceased)
Linda Kozlowski '66
Jana Martin '66
Kathleen Scoville '66
Janice Ivory '67 (deceased)
Donald Palmer '67
Graymond Martin '68

A full list of those located can be found here on the Dreux website!
‌

Sadly, we discovered the loss of some of our fellow classmates and a two of our former teachers since the November 2022 newsletter.

Faculty/Staff:

Coach Lee Frank Mawby - November 2021
Bernard Patrick McCormick - November 1984

Alumni: 

Class of '61

Harrison Hugh "Ozzie" Green III - May 1998

Class of '63
Brent Fjelstad - July 2023
Carol Harper (Bonner) - May 2023

Class of '64
Lesley Cave (Klishis)- June 2023

Class of '65
Bruce Nance Blake - February 2021
Richard Joel Davis - September 2017

Class of '66
Leon Hudson - May 2008

Class of '67
Janice Ivory (Crawford) - May 2001

Our sincere condolences to all their families and friends! 

A full list of those who have passed, along with links to many obituaries,
are available on the Dreux website.
BECOME A MEMBER OF THE DREUX ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AND SUPPORT OUR EFFORTS

Dues are $40/yr and are based on a calendar year. You can pay for one year or for multiple years if you would like to do so.

The Dreux website reflects those that have paid dues for 2023 on the Dues page. For those that have paid for multiple years, that is reflected on the list as well so you will know how far out your dues are paid. (You may need to refresh the Dues page if it doesn't show the 2023 list when you first access the page)

Remember that you can pay dues by using a credit card through PayPal. Just visit our Dreux AHS website at www.dreuxalumni.org and click on the Dues/Donations button and you will see the Dues menu for PayPal.

If you prefer to pay by check, you can mail your Dues payment to our Treasurer:

Marilyn Hutto Turner '62
2015 Mount Forest Dr.
Kingwood, TX 77345

Dues paying members will receive a copy of our current Dreux AHS Alumni Directory via email.  

As always, we GREATLY appreciate any and all support! Your support is what keeps our association going and helps fund the costs to find information on former classmates, maintain the database, website, newsletters, pre-reunion costs, etc. We can't do it without you! 
 
THANKS to everyone for your past and hopefully your future support!! 
   
TREASURER'S REPORT
NOTE: The board decided years ago that it was important to maintain a minimum bank balance of at least $10,000 so that future reunions can be planned.
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UPDATING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION
As always, if your contact information has changed (i.e. email address, postal address, area code or telephone number) and you haven't notified me, please email that information to Vicki Key. I want to be sure that your contact information is correct in the Dreux AHS Alumni Directory and that we don't lose touch with you!
COME JOIN US ON FACEBOOK!
The Dreux American High School Group page on Facebook has been a lot of fun! We have 586 members in the group right now. Former friends have reconnected, uploaded photos from Dreux, and have general discussions about their time spent at Dreux. We also do New Find Alerts when we locate former classmates that have not yet been found as well as Sad News Alerts when we discover that former classmates or faculty/staff members have passed.  
 
I have the group as a closed group so that only those people associated with Dreux are involved. If you are interested in joining us, just use the "request to join" feature on the FB Group Page or send me a friend request and I would be happy to add you!

If you are on Facebook and have not already joined the group, here is the link to our page so you can request to join:Dreux American High School Facebook Group
Missed a prior Dreux AHS Newsletter?
 You can view them on the Dreux website
In case you missed receiving any of the past Dreux AHS Newsletters for whatever reason, they are archived and available to view on our Dreux AHS website. There is a link on the front page of the website to access them. 

(Note: It looks like the older newsletters that have been archived, did not retain the photos that were originally in the newsletter. Might have happened when Constant Contact changed the way they are now archived. Sorry about that!)

PLEASE remember that you can always opt out of receiving the newsletter if you would like, but PLEASE do not tag or report it as SPAM. That really hurts our ability to continue to do these newsletters using Constant Contact and there are many people who enjoy getting them. We certainly hope you don't opt out, but it is certainly your choice. I try not to overwhelm everybody with them, but keep in mind that just prior to Reunions, we may do them more than we normally do. 

For those that may have opted out in the past, you can always rejoin anytime by visiting the Dreux AHS website and clicking on "Join Our Dreux AHS Mailing List". We would love to have you back in the loop!
Dreux AHS Alumni Association Board of Directors

President - Paul Krausman ‘64                         
Vice President - Charles Brantley '68 
Treasurer - Marilyn Hutto Turner '62
Secretary - Shari Murphy Koziol’64                
Alumni Affairs - Vicki Key ’67                                  
Advisory Board Member- Carol Hutto Krausman '64
Advisory Board Member- Sally Downing Thomas '64 
Reunion Coordinator - Helen Council Miles '61
                    
Dreux American High School was open from 1960-1967. The first graduating class was 1961. The school closed in January of 1967. We have a very active Alumni Association. There have been 11 major reunions since that first get-together organized by Reunions Unlimited in Dallas in 1993. The last reunion was held in March of 2022 in New Orleans. Upcoming Reunion is France in 2024!