A Life Well-Lived: What Bill Funk taught me about love, service and laughter
Throughout my life, I have had the privilege of having many mentors and guides. These people have come into my life at various times and showed me what I needed to learn, sometimes directly through recurring deep conversations, and sometimes through the modeling of a life well lived.
Last week, after a long road and several tough years, my friend and mentor Bill Funk left this world. His wife Gayle, another true gift in my life, had been sending me updates as the end neared, and although it was expected and I wanted Bill to find peace, I have found the finality of it jarring.
I met Bill and Gayle when I was hired as the first Foundation-supported executive director in 2009 (Sherri Breunig, an employee of City Schools of Decatur had directed the foundation from its start in 2001 to 2008). I had just had a very stressful year. I had left my previous job due to the level of stress that was impacting my health and well-being, and I heard from a friend that the Decatur Education Foundation was hiring a new executive director. I had lived in Decatur for seven years by that time, but was not familiar with the work of DEF.
In researching the position, I remember seeing that the foundation made a grant to give pre-paid cell phones to unhoused families so they could keep in touch with their children’s teachers even when they didn’t have a permanent address. These were clearly my people, so I polished up my resumé and applied for the job.
Bill Funk and Gayle Gellerstedt met later in life after both had raised children. They were introduced by a friend and both worked at City Schools of Decatur. He was principal of Decatur High School at the time and she was an early childhood educator; both passionate about ensuring that all children got a strong start to their education. While I didn’t know them then, I can imagine their connection was based on some of the things that I came to love about them: their commitment to educational equity, their belief in the power of education to change lives, their philosophy of service and giving back, and their penchant for telling hilarious stories.
I learned from Jenna Black, a longtime educator at DHS, that while the Foundation was started by Sherri Breunig and Bob Wilson working with a group of committed Decatur residents, she and Bill had discussed the idea several years before that. As a longtime educator, Bill knew that supporting Decatur’s kids was going to take more than state funding would allow. Bill and Gayle were tapped as founding board members for the new foundation which was born from a simple but profound idea: that every child, with the support of their community, could reach their full potential. That is still our guiding philosophy today.
I have so much gratitude that Bill and Gayle were part of the initial board who worked together to make Decatur Education Foundation a reality, and then went on to each serve as Chair of the Board. They helped established a culture of aspiration and flexibility that has withstood hundreds of board members, rapid growth in our city, and the expansion of the team from one to six. Our budget has grown tenfold but at our core, we are still committed to that early vision of working to ensure that every child has access to great opportunities.
After more than 10 years of service to DEF, many founding board members rolled off the board. Many of them stayed involved, but Bill and Gayle not only continued to support the work financially, they made every effort to support my professional and personal development. There were many visits to their home at the Artisan, where they would advise me on a thorny problem, or give me their thoughts on a strategy I might pursue. What I most remember from these visits though was the laughter as they both shared great stories from their time in Decatur.
As I look back on Bill’s impact on my life, I realize it was mostly in watching how he and Gayle lived their lives. They taught me to be free with words of love and appreciation — to remind the people in your life how much they mean to you: more specifically, that you can’t say “I love you” or “I appreciate you” too many times. Bill’s life was defined by service to others and in reading his obituary, I learned about how deeply service was ingrained in him from an early age.
About 10 years ago, as Bill’s 80th birthday approached, Gayle contacted me with a wonderful idea: Bill’s family wanted to create a fund in his honor that would provide funding to expand students’ understanding of the world. They called it the “Funk Morning Announcements Fund” – a strange name for sure, but one they knew would be appreciated by the hundreds of students and teachers who had Bill as the DHS principal. Every morning, Bill would be heard on the speaker to deliver the Funk Morning Announcements. The fund was meant to be a surprise for Bill’s 80th birthday, so we made a secret Facebook Group to spread the word. How wonderful it was to collect the comments and remembrances of Bill’s impact on whole generations of students, and even more wonderful to share these comments with Bill so he could enjoy them.
Funds raised in Bill’s honor have been used to support innovative programming which included a full day’s curricula for middle school students on global water issues where they learned from experts on topics which ranged from challenges developing countries have in accessing clean drinking water, to environmental racism, to the water wars between Georgia and Alabama. It also funded a symposium for students on poverty issues, and currently it funds grants for students to participate in educational experiences like Close-Up which is an annual trip to Washington DC where students learn firsthand about how our government works.
Bill’s impact extends far beyond Decatur, and his network includes friends and colleagues across the globe from his work in Borneo and beyond. In a strange way, I feel connected to these people I will never know – Bill shined his love and light on so many, and I am confident that we are all connected in our gratitude for the example he set of a life well-lived – a life of love, of service and of laughter. Rest in peace Bill, you left a legacy beyond measure.