Blog

Jerry Balin – 35 years
I was born, raised, and educated in Chicago and have always been passionate about my city. My first teaching position was in Oak Park, and – bingo! – I caught the Frank Lloyd Wright “bug,” and became a docent for the FLW Home and Studio. After a few years with the Home and Studio, I expanded my horizons and became a CAF docent. As a docent, I’m still fulfilling my vocation; in a sense, I’m still an educator. I’ve also made many friends and have met interesting people from all around the world. It has been an honor and privilege to be a CAF docent for the past thirty-five years, and I look forward to many more years of service.

Roberta Culhane – 25 years
Twenty-five years! Where did the time go? I had always been interested in Chicago architecture and when I learned of an opportunity to train to become a CAF docent all those many years ago, I thought that I would learn a great deal about my favorite topic and perhaps give tours for a year or so. However, I found such joy in showing our great city to our tourees, meeting people from near and far, working with a great group of fellow docents, and continuing to learn about architecture and our city that the years just melted away. My experience with the CAF has enriched my life in so many ways. Thank you, CAF family!

Elise Daughhetee – 15 years
I’ll never forget the day I got my acceptance letter for the Docent program. I jumped up and down and screamed with excitement. Fifteen years later, I’m still excited to be a part of this amazing group of volunteers. I’ve given many hours to CAF but what I’ve gotten in return is priceless: friendships with like-minded people from a diversity of backgrounds, continuing education and opportunities to learn about building projects from the experts involved, and the opportunity to share this information with our guests. I hope to stay involved for at least another 15 years!

Rebecca Dixon – 15 years
“Rebecca! You will be bored out of your mind when you retire in two years. Let me introduce you to an architecture docent. What she does is right up your alley.” The person wagging her finger in my face was on my staff at Northwestern University, and she was right. Those all-day Saturday classes, homework, and practice tours in freezing weather were a challenge. I recall trying to draw the Fisher Building with frozen fingers, but also recall ducking into the building as it was being rehabbed into residences with Susan Osborne (another frozen trainee) and thrilling at what we discovered. Beyond the 2003 boot camp, the perfect hobby. Perfect: mentally stimulating (always) as I learn new material; ambassador for Chicago; outdoors mostly, so good exercise; terrific colleagues—the very best in friendly and helpful competitiveness. Even now, as I, along with others, am relearning tours and refreshing my presentation, I rejoice in this new-found vocation.

Linda Ewing – 15 years
I’ve been a CAF docent for 15 years and it still makes me proud when I can say that. The reputation of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s docent program is known far and wide and it’s nice to be part of that. Plus, what better way to learn about Chicago when I first moved here. I love learning and that’s certainly a perk we get — all this great education and coaching from leaders in their field. When I take the mic on the river, I never get bored of our great buildings and sharing the delights of our fair city with our fun visitors.

Karen Genelly – 40 years
I find I have been a docent for forty years. How can that be? Wasn’t it just yesterday I was interviewing to become a docent for the class of 1978? The training took place during one of the snowiest, coldest winters on record. I remember shivering in front of the Cultural Center listening to Bob Irving, the all- time consummate docent, talk architecture. Pens were frozen, my feet were blocks of ice and in that moment, I wondered if I really wanted to give tours in Chicago’s frozen tundra. I am happy that I persevered. There have been tours of Graceland Cemetery, the Chicago River, the El, the Bus, the Trolley, Sheffield, the Loop. I have loved giving them all. I have travelled with the docents learning and loving the architecture and hidden delights of Detroit, Buffalo, Boston. Thank you, Liz, Monica, Claudia and a host of other docents. I am proud to be a docent and lucky to have met so many caring, smart and lovely people. To me CAF’s strength is Docents. Thank you to all the Graceland Cemetery Docents who are like family and to all of you who have made the last forty years so fulfilling. By the way I was very young when I started so don’t count me out yet.

Steve Gersten – 15 years
It has been an amazing experience and an honor to be part of CAF. The many new friends, the learning, and the gratification of showing off Chicago to people from all over the world is something that gives me a constant sense of pride and joy. It is such a great feeling to take a bricks and mortar structure and make it come alive. I really do feel that docents are the true ambassadors of Chicago.

 

Norma Fay Green – 40 years
I came from Michigan for graduate school here and, after taking CAF tours—all six – the only thing left was train to become a docent. It has been a great way to extend my love affair with Chicago and share our built environment with a global audience. I learned to be an unflappable but empathetic guide amidst myriad distractions which also served me well as journalist and college professor. Despite full time work, broken legs, overseas assignments and interstate commuting, I’ve fulfilled 40 annual tour requirements. While Docent News editor (for five years), the best unforeseen benefit was meeting a fellow docent who became my husband!

Kevin Griebenow – 25 years
Autodidactic and a Funeral – A Word and an Event Lead to Becoming a Docent. The first time I remember hearing the word “autodidactic” was at a CAF lunchtime lecture, circa 1992, in the Monadnock, second floor (if memory serves correctly). Who uses words like this? I needed to know more about this organization. Working nearby, I became a regular at the lunchtime lectures. They were fantastic, exposing my mind to a wide spectrum of talks by architects, authors, and art critics. How do I get to be a part of this? I attended a funeral and meet Ethel Zitnik. She tells me I have to become a docent. 25 years later here I am.

Sandy Guettler – 15 years
Once I was winding down my tourism industry marketing career, a portion of it marketing Chicago, becoming a CAF Docent allowed me to continue to share Chicago with visitors.
Collaborating (& testing routes with Maurice Champagne in my old Volvo) to create Skyline Vistas and Holiday Lights trolley tours & more recently Emerging Chicago are highlights as was the opening of Millennium Park in 2004 and leading tours of the Park during its early years (including tours for the blind), leading Deco tours and currently the River Cruise and Pedway Tour. Another true highlight: advocating for a docent marketing Committee, seeing it evolve from a task force to a standing committee with strong docent & staff participation, chairing it for years and then turning it over to a capable successor, Lance Friedmann.

Jean Guritz – 20 years
Celebrating 20 years! At CAF I found marvelous colleagues and staff. Chicago architecture and history have become more and more interesting. In 2001 as Tour Director I had the unique opportunity of organizing a group of docents to give the first public tours in French. One French family had an uncle who graduated from the same engineering school in Paris as William Le Baron Jenney and Gustave Eiffel. I liked playing a role in advancing the public’s interest in Chicago’s architecture and the importance of design in daily life. For good reason CAF is considered a model volunteer organization. I am grateful for the experience.

Jill Lowe – 20 years
“Oh I’m a docent with the Chicago Architecture Foundation”
…….What a reaction this elicits in so many people wherever one is in the world. It is such a respected organization. The business model has been copied in other parts of the world. The partnerships with many, many organizations in Chicago is breathtaking. The opportunities explored for such a wide range of tours results in a current and worthwhile organization with which I am so proud to be associated. What a pleasure it has been to be a docent for 20 years. What a privilege it is to meet our tourees. They are from EVERYWHERE!… places familiar and places one has never heard of! How wonderful to be part of the body of docents under the guidance of Lynn Osmond who has furthered the organization to the level we all enjoy today. It has meant the world to me.

Bette McAvoy – 40 Years
Wow, 40 plus years as a CAF Docent! In that time I got married, took a six month trip around the world, had/raised two daughters, engaged in two careers, worked as an artist, and I continue to travel. Now as a retired art teacher and humanities professor, being a CAF Docent always fit into my mission in life…bringing the visual arts to everyone. CAF Docents are kindred spirits with great energy. It’s been fun!

 

Chris Multhauf – 15 years
For me, being a Chicago Architecture Foundation docent is like having been admitted to the coolest club on earth. The knowledge and passion of every docent for Chicago, its built environment, and its history have made CAF a very special place. I have learned so much over the past 15 years from every docent that I have met. Particularly from my wife, she’s a docent as well.

 

Jonelle Niffenegger – 15 years
Being a CAF docent for 15 years has been such a wonderful experience. I love showing off the city and our fantastic architecture, and I also love meeting people from all over the world. There’s nothing better than geeking out about architecture either with fellow docents or out on the street with a curious tour group for a couple of hours on a beautiful summer day. It’s an honor to be part of such an amazing group of docents, and I look forward to giving tours and watching how the city changes and grows for many more years.”

Lynn Osborne, 20 years
I took docent training when I became CAF president. I am proud to be a docent, and of the rigorous training, certification and monitoring processes that all of us go through. In 2003, when my fiancée (now husband) was completing his docent training he returned from his certification tour looking dejected, explaining that he failed because he didn’t give the tour just like his certifier did. I asked him to tell me exactly what his certifier had said. When he told me, I told him that his certifier was right, he should have been failed. (P.S. He did eventually get certified.)

Susan Osborne – 15 years
Becoming a Docent for CAF has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It is thrilling to not only educate others, but also to continually learn about our ever-growing city. While docent training added many work hours to my full-time work life, it felt like a treat and not a burden. I treasure the enduring friendships I have made here. In addition, my photographic cards and prints of Chicago are now sold in the Chicago Architecture Foundation Shop. It’s an enduring joy to introduce this beautiful city to people from all over the world.

John Rappel – 15 years
Giving a tour while standing at the end of an “L’ platform during winter is my definition of commitment. How did I get here? Having enjoyed participating in many CAF tours, I became interested in becoming a docent after I retired. I was invited to join the 2003 class and my docent journey began. Being a fourth generation Chicagoan, I knew the city well, but at CAF I learned a lot more about Chicago and, of course, its great architecture. The journey has been very rewarding.

Charles Stanford – 15 years
Fifteen years have certainly flown by! I was inspired to become a CAF docent because of several experiences with excellent docents in various travels I’ve made – the Alhambra in Spain, historic house museums in Charleston, SC and others. I wanted to share my enthusiasm for Chicago and our interesting architecture and history. CAF is great because, as a docent you don’t learn information on only one building, you have opportunities to learn information on a virtually endless number of buildings and tours.

My time at CAF hasn’t been only about tours however. I was honored to serve on the Docent Council with two years as the council president. I’ve also served on various other docent committees, with the longest service as a member of and now co-chairperson of the docent Standards Committee. But, no matter the committee work I’ve participated in, leading tours for guests is by far the most enjoyable part of being a CAF docent.

My schtick that I say at the beginning of all my tours is “Docent is a fancy word that means ‘tour guide.’ However, the root of the word ‘docent’ means ‘to teach’ or ‘teacher.’ So for the next hour you’re in class! My goal is that when we say our good-byes at the end of the hour each of you will know something then that you don’t know now. And that you’ll have had fun learning that new information. Let’s get started!”

Tina Strauss – 25 years
It certainly has been an interesting experience over the last 25 years as a CAF docent. So many things have changed including the CAF HQ–from the Monadnock to 224 So. Michigan and now to 111 E. Wacker. Staff has come and gone–from Kate Shantz to Allison Hutchinson to Charniece Polk and now Caroline, all truly terrific. The best part is the camaraderie of the docents, a group of wonderful, bright, articulate, passionate, entertaining people. Some of my best friends are docents I met in Docent Training at Glessner House. Finally, I always remind myself why I do this– because of the fantastic architecture in the fabulous city of Chicago.

Robin Simon – 20 years
Robin is one of the few remaining “dinosaur docents” – trained in the last millennium. Her favorite building types are big old hotels, big old train stations, big old department stores and big old theatres and she is also a fan of college campuses, cemeteries and public transit. So it’s not a coincidence that she leads the following tours: Historic Treasures, Downtown Deco, Elevated Architecture: Loop by L, Graceland Cemetery, Bohemian National Cemetery, Union Station, Palmer House, University of Chicago Campus. Robin developed the Chicago Board of Trade Building tour in 2004 and is the Tour Director for Must Hear Chicago: Tour for the Visually Impaired. She has been a sponsor and certifier, member of Tour Committee, co-chair of Standards Committee and served one term on Docent Council. She would like to take this opportunity to put in a plug for a few other tours that she is certified for that she hopes will come out of the vault or get started again someday: Auditorium Building, Razzle Dazzle: The Loop Theatre District and Uptown neighborhood tour.

Jill Tanz – 15 years
It’s hard to believe that 15 years have gone by since I sat in the Lecture Hall to hear Jason teach us how to be docents! I have enjoyed serving in many roles at CAF from Docent News editor to Docent Council President. My favorite role, however, is being a Tour Director and having the opportunity to create new tours and teach them to my fellow docents. I look forward to many more years in our new home.

 

Lindy Trigg – 15 years
In 2002 when a girlfriend suggested we apply to become docents for the Chicago Architecture Foundation, my reply was “What’s a docent?”. In early 2003 after hefty reading/writing assignments and all-day Saturday docent training sessions, my thought was “What have I gotten myself into?”. Now in 2018 I’m thinking “What could be better?”! Wow…what a ride! Thank you, CAF and awesome fellow docents: I now know more about why I get goosebumps when I see that skyline and there’s no better outlet to share my love for Chicago!

Dave Utech – 15 years
I was a recent retiree when I joined the class of 2003. My professional life had revolved around students, teachers, parents, and psychologist colleagues. At CAF I found a whole new group who shared a different love – the built environment of Chicago. Over the years I have made many friends I would never have crossed paths with before, including designers, city planners, engineers, bankers, etc. I continue to be amazed at the international visitors attracted to Chicago because of our architecture. For instance, a recent tour group of nine people included guests from Taiwan, Germany, France, and Holland. Being a docent with CAF has given me the opportunity to develop and direct two ongoing tours, and to collaborate with my co-director Joanne Linzer as we create an entirely new Churches by Bus tour every year. My friends at CAF laugh with me when we describe ourselves as “architecture nerds” but it’s been very rewarding to study, learn and appreciate with this great group of like-minded docents. I am so glad I happened to wander into the CAF shop 15 years ago, saw a tour depart, and asked, “How do you get to do that?”