Remembering D’Arcy Mckenzie

April Quan: AHWS parent and former Facilitator:
Many of us in the Waldorf school community, downtown and in Thornhill, are grieving the loss of D’Arcy Mackenzie. He passed away peacefully in the hospital, surrounded by his family, close to a year after his diagnosis of brain cancer. D’Arcy and Leslie’s daughters, Molly and Isobel, graduated from Waldorf Academy, Molly in 2009, Isobel in 2016.

In Molly’s early years at Waldorf Academy, D’Arcy was class rep, and around 2003 he became co-chair of the Parent Council. He was already involved in other areas of the school, having demonstrated an ability to penetrate deeply into issues ranging from finance to curriculum review and revision of the governance model. His commitment, insight, and hard work served the school

well on committees, and he was a natural to join the Board, where he served terms as Chair and as President. He demonstrated leadership during a challenging period when the decision was made to purchase the properties for the Childcare Centre as part of a long-term vision for the school, and he always stood firm in his belief that Waldorf educaVon should be accessible to as many people as possible.

D’Arcy had wide-ranging knowledge and a keen interest in many subjects. He was always ready for a thoughtful conversation on history, politics, economics, or social trends, but equally equipped and willing to talk about esoteric and spiritual matters. His personal integrity and principles were deeply rooted in Anthroposophy, and those principles guided his thoughts and actions. A branch of anthroposophy, Associative Economics, was profoundly important to D’Arcy as a pracVcal means to create a betterworld. His vision of Waldorf education was that it too had the potential to bring about social change. In this, D’Arcy’s work for the school was an expression of his hopes for humanity and a way for him, personally, to make a contribution to a larger endeavour.

Another side of D’Arcy could be seen in The Christmas Story at the Church of the Holy Trinity. Anyone who attended or participated in the pageant for the past many years would have seen D’Arcy, either as Herod or as Joseph. He took his portrayal of those roles as seriously as any of his other commitments, but also with enjoyment.

Thank you, D’Arcy, for all the efforts you made towards building the school that we have today, for the long hours of consideraVon and discussion you gave, for all your care and attention. We will miss you.

April Quan

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I had the privilege of working with D’Arcy on the Parent Council and the Board of Trustees at the Waldorf Academy, or as it was known then, the Alan Howard Waldorf School, for ten years. I came to respect D’Arcy’s abilities to think deeply about issues in his commitment to the school. For a number of years he and I alternated in the roles of Chair and President of the Board. As Board members, D’Arcy and I were usually in agreement about issues, however our styles were different: I was more pragmatic and concerned with keeping business flowing, while D’Arcy was concerned with principles and making sure decisions, and discussions about decisions, were grounded in Anthroposophy and the personal work that was entailed in Servant Leadership. He took that personal work very seriously.

One perennial issue we dealt with on the Board was “how to fund the school”. There were three main pathways to do that: a) raise tuitions, b) increase enrolment, and c) fundraise. Efforts to increase our fundraising ability were ongoing, and D’Arcy had a leadership role in those, but it was the first two routes that could have the most immediate effect. I recall D’Arcy (and I) being adamantly against large tuition fee increases. This went against the ideal of having a Waldorf education open to everyone. There were heated debates in Board meetings, where D’Arcy’s principles were evident to all.

The route of growing the school body through enrolment meant a campaign to improve the quality of the education delivered by the school, which entailed examining the curriculum, revamping school governance, and building community. All challenging tasks. D’Arcy parVcipated in initiatives to bring new thinking (such as engaging educational theorists Martin Novum and Alan Wagstaff) to the faculty and administration. He also wished that we should all live the new thinking and ideals, and tried to do that himself.

As a Chartered Accountant, he was of course experienced in financial matters, and was involved in the school’s budgeting process over many years. He was also key in the decision-making around the expanding Nursery and Kindergarten enrolment by way of the purchase of the properties on Spadina Rd. This moment in the school’s evolution, I think, demonstrated his ability to act in a way that embraced risk when the principle was at stake, even if the natural reflex of the professional accountant in him was to be cautious. In carrying out the plan to purchase the properties, it fell to D’Arcy as Board Chair to fulfil his role as a Servant Leader in negotiating the challenges in uniting Board, faculty and administration around the purchase and the renovations.

I was fortunate to have had D’Arcy’s friendship, which began at the school as class parents and Board members, and I shall miss him greatly.

Christopher Sumpton

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I was saddened to hear of the passing of D’Arcy. He was truly ” A Good Man ” and I can’t think of a better epitaph nor one better suited for D’Arcy. He was certainly good to me and to the Waldorf movement.
As Board chairman of Alan Howard he hired me as Interim Facilitator and was a loyal supporter for the nearly four years I was there. His dedication to his wife Leslie, and daughters Isobel and Molly impressed me greatly. His commitment to Anthroposophy was constant and led to some wonderful conversations and insights. I believe he is One with the Light and I am grateful for knowing him.

We Are One

Peter Griffin

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I have many wonderful memories of D’Arcy over the years but in particular, there are two that stand out for me that demonstrated his caring for others. When my daughter finished her grade 8 project presentation he asked her a very challenging question and that demonstrated to her respect for her intellectual capacities. He then approached her later to congratulate her and to further discuss the topic. Caring adults in our community enrich the lives of our children and D’Arcy made my daughter feel like an equal and I appreciate him so much for doing that. She will always remember him for that. Secondly, after an event, D’Arcy went up to my husband and let him know how much he appreciated the work I was doing. Working in a Waldorf school does take away from family and those words allowed my husband to not feel jealous of the time I was spending at the school but supportive. Thank you D’Arcy for seeing, caring and being interested in all human beings.

Jennifer Deathe

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We lhave ost to an important member of the Waldorf community. Surrounded by his family, D’Arcy Mackenzie died peacefully in the early hours of Monday morning. D’Arcy was more than a part of the fabric of our school, he was one of the weavers of that fabric. D’Arcy and his wife Lesley brought first their daughter Molly, and then her sister Isobel to the Waldorf Academy to join the Nursery class. Both went on to Grade 8 graduation: Molly with Mr.Teuwen and Isobel with Mr. Singh. D’Arcy was actively involved in the parent community and deepened his commitment to the school by joining the Board in 2003. He later served with the TWS board as well.

I first met D’Arcy at a Christmas Party hosted by his mother. D’Arcy turned out to be person who wanted to have a deep conversation about the meaning of life over eggnog. D’Arcy was a thinker. He thought, he considered, he went deep, as they say. D’Arcy didn’t operate at the surface of things, he sought for the deeper meaning, the hidden layers beneath. I will admit that this didn’t make for short Board meetings, but it did lead to thoughtful ones. No decisions were made lightly, no action taken without carefully considering what was right and good for the school.

D’Arcy invited me to join the Board and taught me, and I believe everyone who served on the Board with him, about service. He once referred to it as adopting an attitude of servant leadership – the leader is servant first. Servant leadership strives to enrich the lives of individuals, build better organizations and ultimately to create a more just and caring world. D’Arcy explained that the servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. He strove to meet the school’s needs, not his own. In that way, his approach was profoundly generous.

D’Arcy could fool people: he was quiet, didn’t draw attention to himself. But I came to see him as a deep river: a smooth, gently flowing surface, but great power hidden in the depths below. For many years, D’Arcy performed in A Christmas Story at Holy Trinity Church. He conveyed the love and quiet courage of Joseph beautifully – as one might expect given his character. But D’Arcy’s portrayal of Herod was astounding. In a few gestures and one tremendous strike with his staff, D’Arcy brought Herod to terrifying life.

We were fortunate to enjoy D’Arcy’s visits from his cottage to ours on Stony Lake. Last summer, when D’Arcy was very ill, he made the trip in his runabout. He came to talk, even though that was difficult, to share, to connect. It was a beautiful afternoon, sunny and warm and full of generous love.

Chris Farano

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