Bonnie Chauncey was a teacher and librarian who taught students from elementary school to college. Bonnie studied literature and loved books and poetry, Baroque music and opera. Her lifelong passion was cooking from scratch, especially excelling at lost arts like pies and bread. She loved to entertain and always provided a gourmet meal with delicious breads and baguettes and amazing blueberry pies and chocolate cakes. She loved dinner, having her people gathered around a bountiful feast.

Bonnie was athletic all her life, from the time she was captain of the cheerleading team in high school. After retirement, she loved to run, to hike and to sail. She was also active in the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry.

Bonnie, 71, died on July 15, 2016 in Brunswick, ME due to a stroke. Bonnie McCulloch Chauncey was born on January 31, 1945 to John W. and Elizabeth Epps McCulloch in Tuxedo Park, New York. She spent most of her childhood in a suburban community, Pomona Country Club in Rockland County, NY. She attended Scarborough School in Tarrytown and Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. At Dickinson, she met Donald R. Chauncey, and they were married after college in 1968. They moved to Topeka, KS where Don was stationed at Forbes Air Force Base, and where Bonnie began studies for her Master of Education degree which was later awarded from Washburn University.

In 1969 Don was re-assigned to Charleston AFB, SC where Bonnie taught, first in the public schools and later in a reading center for children in downtown Charleston. After the Air Force, the family returned to Pomona Country Club, where the family grew to include Patrick and Emily. Bonnie became very interested in the Waldorf School movement and the philosophies of Rudolf Steiner. The children went to the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Spring Valley. Bonnie later became one of the high school English teachers, leading courses such as Moby Dick, The Bible as Literature, and Parsifal. She led a poetry festival for the county at Green Meadow. She eventually decided to take on the most demanding of Waldorf Teacher tasks and became a class teacher, typically leading an elementary school class from first through eighth grade. Bonnie and Don moved to Oak Park, IL in 1994, and there she taught an elementary class in the Chicago Waldorf School. She led that class, too, through eighth grade graduation not only teaching but also writing plays for them to perform in Chaucerian verse and a rave performance of the Pirates of Penzance in their final year.

Leaving the Waldorf School, Bonnie obtained a second master’s degree, Master in Library Science at Dominican College in River Forest, IL, where she graduated with honors. She was hired by North Eastern Illinois University where she taught more library classes than any other librarian up to that point, and was promoted to an Associate Professor position. She continued at Northeastern Illinois University until her retirement in 2012.

Bonnie and Don hiked together in France (four times), Germany, Ireland, Argentina, Chile and Nepal. They always planned their own trips together but never booked ahead and always followed other hikers’ recommendations. This often meant hiking further after a long day to find a hotel or gite but also led to wonderful experiences (four of the trips are documented on the website, http://don.chauncey.org). They also traveled to Taiwan, China and India with their daughter where she was studying for her International MBA. She and Don also taught themselves to sail during vacations in Maine, which provided them new opportunities for teamwork and friendship.

Bonnie is survived by her husband, Donald R. Chauncey, her children Rob, Patrick and Emily and grandson, Zachary."