Stephen Bishop McNutt ’91 died July 5, 2019, at his home in Iowa City, Iowa, where he was a lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of Iowa. A graduate of Bucknell University, he served in the Peace Corps in Gabon before moving to Iowa City to complete his M.F.A. and Ph.D. A writer and an occasional painter, he painted several murals as part of his work as a Peace Corps volunteer. His painting skills also came in handy after the 2016 election when he created a NOPE sign that adorned the fence in his yard that eventually became a T-shirt worn and loved by many. He loved the ocean, the outdoors and fishing. He spent most of last summer in Hawaii, and was planning to relocate there. He is survived by his partner, Jessica Garlock, of Honolulu, Hawaii; his mother, Mary Beth Bishop of Durham; and his father and stepmother, Gordon and Kay McNutt of Austin, Texas.
C L Kendall, former member of the Durham Academy Board of Trustees (1984–1990) died Dec. 3, 2019, in Chapel Hill. He believed he careened from one lucky experience to another, ending up as a professor in UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School where he taught marketing and international business. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and served on a World War II destroyer in the Pacific. He attended Washburn University on the GI Bill and earned an M.B.A. and doctorate from Harvard Business School. He worked on a Harvard team that founded a university in Central America and was director of research for a new university that Stanford Business School established in Lima, Peru. After 17 moves before arriving in Chapel Hill in 1968, he resolved to stop the world and get off, which he did, raising his four children in one spot. He is survived by his wife of 32 years, Mary Anne Kendall; sons, Malcolm Kendall ’79, Blair Kendall ’81, Logan Kendall ’86; and a daughter, Kathryn Kendall ’87.
R. Wensell Grabarek, former member of the Durham Academy Board of Trustees (1955–1957) and former mayor of Durham (1963–1971), died at age 100 at his Durham home on Dec. 15, 2019. He appreciated that Durham gave him the opportunity to lead the city in voluntary commercial desegregation prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. True to his independent character, he was self-employed as a certified public accountant until his retirement at age 98. He believed strongly in the transformative power of education, establishing scholarships at 10 academic institutions and supporting many more. He was preceded in death by his wife of 73 years, Marion Prichard Norris, and is survived by his four children: Robert Wensell Grabarek Jr. ’64, Louise Norris Grabarek ’67, John Carl Albert Grabarek ’72 and David Harrison Grabarek ’74.
Alex Gallis ’87 died Jan. 14, 2020, at his home in Chapel Hill. He graduated summa cum laude from Sierra Nevada College with a degree in ski business management, then changed his career direction to become a chef with a culinary arts degree from Johnson & Wales University. After tours as chef and chef de cuisine at Acme and Magnolia Grill, respectively, he opened his own restaurant, Cypress on the Hill, in Chapel Hill in 2009. Cypress was a culinary success receiving excellent reviews, but sadly closed in August 2012 at the height of the recession. He was a talented athlete in tennis, basketball, soccer, skiing and golf. During his time at Magnolia Grill, he developed cardiomyopathy and heart failure, ultimately resulting in a heart transplant in December 2016. Despite the excellent care he received from multiple physicians at Duke he was never able to return to a restaurant position. He is survived by his wife, Sasha Tucker Gallis; daughters, Lisa Taylor and Savannah Hope; a sister, Sara Gallis; and his parents, Susie and Harry Gallis of Durham.
Waldo Cory Melrose Johnston III ’91 died Feb. 25, 2020, in a skiing accident on Mount Hood, Oregon. He spent his early years in Colorado, where he learned to ski, and developed a passion for other activities when his family moved to North Carolina in 1980. He became North Carolina’s first All-American lacrosse player and earned acceptance to Yale University, where he played varsity lacrosse. Following graduation, he heeded the call of the West, where he eventually joined the ski patrol. Everything changed one night when he and his colleagues tried to save the life of a young skier who had sustained a fatal injury. He decided to become a doctor and completed medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, residency at The University of Utah and became a surgeon at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Pippa Newell; sons, Rocky and Bode; his parents, Waldo and Caroline Johnston of Vero Beach, Florida; and a sister, Crickett Johnston Woloson ’89.
Sherry Townsend, who served as administrative assistant to headmasters Rob Hershey and Don North, died Feb. 29, 2020, in Durham of the recurrence of a cancer diagnosis she received in 1999 and was given a 5% chance of surviving. “With determination, faith and joie de vivre, she beat the 5% survival prognosis in late 2000 and remained non-symptomatic until this past November,” her children wrote in an obituary. “When a tumor was found on her liver this past December, she told the entire family, ‘I got a 20-year hall pass the last time. I promised I would make good on every minute of it and I have.’ If measured by one's ability to show and breed compassion, friendship, care, love and loyalty, with a quick sense of humor and a side of sass, our Mom was a Nobel Prize winner of the first order.” She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Bill Townsend; sons, Doug Townsend and Cab Townsend ’87; and daughter, Sheridan Townsend Van Wagenberg.