Cranbrook Honors President's Award for Excellence Recipients

On Monday, a celebration was held in honor of this year's recipients of the President's Award for Excellence. Established in 1989, the award recognizes individuals who epitomize Cranbrook's dedication to achieving excellence and working collaboratively within the Cranbrook community.

Each year, as a permanent reflection of their contributions, award recipients design one leg of a bench later installed on Cranbrook's campus. Retired Academy Metalsmith-in-Residence Gary Griffin executes the designs in bronze.

President Emeritus Lillian Bauder and her husband Don established the Bauder Fund for Excellence to endow the President's Award for Excellence program.

Please join us in congratulating this year's recipients - Beth Beadle, Jeanne and Ralph Graham, Drew Miller, and Frank Norton - and read on to learn more about each of them.

Beth Beadle

Beth Beadle is more comfortable talking about "we" than "me" and she frequently uses words like "service." This seems especially appropriate given her position as Director of Human Resources for the Cranbrook Educational Community. The diversity of jobs and wide range of skill sets and talent on campus never cease to amaze her. "How many places could I work where I'd get to hire a zamboni driver?" she asks.

Although no one on the campus is untouched by Beth's work, she credits her team for Cranbrook's success in attracting the very best employees. "We have a department of professionals without egos who pitch in to get the job done and do the right thing, deal with tough issues, work to respect differences and promote individual skills. Above all, we try to be 'Happy Helpers,'" she says.

Beth studied business and employee relations because she knew she would be happier working with people rather than products. Her original plan was to be a nurse, but chemistry was too challenging for her. When she started at Cranbrook 14 years ago, Beth had hoped one day to be recognized as a 20-year employee but never expected to be a recipient of the President's Award for Excellence. "I am so humbled to have been chosen and was truly shocked. I now understand Academy Award winners who get up there and say 'I do not have a speech prepared,'" Beth adds.

Beth and her husband Hank live in Troy and have three children, two of whom, ironically, are great at chemistry and pursuing studies in healthcare.

Jeanne and Ralph Graham

The impact Jeanne and Ralph Graham have had on Cranbrook is so broad it's hard to summarize. Student, board member, committee chair, donor, member, Schools' parent and volunteer are all labels that could be used to describe their Cranbrook associations. They have touched virtually every institution within the Community in some way.

"I love being at Cranbrook and kind of think of it as my own," says Jeanne. This is not a sentiment anyone could deny a Kingswood graduate who played on the grounds as a child and considered the lion sculptures leading up to the peristyle her pets.

In the 1970s, Jeanne's association grew to include co-chair work on an interracial day camp called Awake, a cooperative effort between Brookside School and Pontiac Schools. She also has worked on Giftorama, and served a three-year term on Kingswood's board. By 1985 Jeanne had joined the House and Gardens Auxiliary and for 13 years was head gardener on the library terrace named for Ellen Booth. Today she is on the endowment committee and is a passionate worker in wildflower rescue.

Ralph is also closely involved with the gardens and, in addition to serving on the Board of Trustees and several committees across campus, he has been responsible for the Oriental Garden for 12 years. "I am sometimes an Oriental Garden widow," Jeanne jokes. Ralph laughs and agrees that he always finds something to be done on campus and also speaks enthusiastically about his various roles on campus.

"Cranbrook is a special place. You have architecture from the Saarinen stamp that is so highly prized, to the building of the new wing at the Art Museum building. It's a beautiful, unique place," Ralph says.

With stewards like the Grahams, it will continue to be.

Jeanne and Ralph Graham live in Bloomfield Township. They have two sons.

Drew Miller

Listening to Drew Miller talk about Cranbrook would make anyone want to attend school here. His enthusiasm, affection and belief in the Cranbrook experience are so genuine that he can't help but smile when he talks about it.

As Director of Admission, he has seen many changes in his 16 years. The pool of younger-aged school children is smaller and more students are applying to the upper schools, a reverse of what was more common when he started at Cranbrook. But it's that type of change, and the diversity of the student experience at Cranbrook, that keeps him enthused. "At Cranbrook you get to work with kids ages 3 to 18, which is really challenging and really exciting! I can't imagine doing this job at a school where you are working to fill certain grade levels," he says. He gives credit to the Schools for giving his position more than just a "fill the seats" authority, instead allowing the Admission Office to have a true impact on the meaning and quality of each student's Cranbrook experience.

"It comes down to the Community," he says. "There are great people here who love the place, believe in the mission and don't take it lightly or for granted. Cranbrook may be the only place in their educational experience where students are among teachers who genuinely care about and challenge them," he says. Drew believes the Cranbrook experience gives students an opportunity to grow and express themselves, which produces a different kind of student and ultimately makes his job a little easier. "In some places, learning is the challenge. Here, challenge is learning. Cranbrook lives up to its billing. It's the real deal," Drew says.

Drew and his wife Nancy live on campus. They have two sons, both Cranbrook grads.

Frank Norton

Frank Norton has spent 41 years teaching physics at Cranbrook but he's equally well known for what he affectionately calls his "spare time project," coordinator of Cranbrook's Wilderness Expedition Program, an annual 10-day backpacking and wilderness camping trip that takes about 75 sophomores into the forests of the Great Smoky Mountains. Participants are accompanied by two adult leaders and current junior or senior student leaders. It's not unusual for a Cranbrook graduate to return as one of the adult leaders to share their past experience.

"One of the reasons this continues is because the school recognizes the experience has a maturing effect on the students," Frank says. "Wilderness really encourages students to learn about themselves." Sometimes the lesson is that "at some point, we all need to ask for help." This can be a tough and valuable lesson for some students, especially high-achievers who take pride in being independent.

The program is designed to stretch and challenge in unexpected ways, such as the method of assembling students who don't know each other very well into groups. "Keeping the students grouped with other kids they may not have a long history or friendship with allows for greater individual expression because there are no expectations," Frank says.

Many of the Wilderness students end up in Frank's physics classes leter on. "This," he says, "adds to the 'multi-dimensional relationships' students and teachers at Cranbrook have. I get to know the students in multiple roles as teacher, coach or in the dorms. You don't get that at other schools. I really appreciate that because, for me, that is the 'calling card' for Cranbrook."

Frank lives on campus with his wife Kim and son Kirk, who currently is a junior at Cranbrook. Frank has two other sons and a daughter.