Cynthia Whitsell

1933 - 2025

Cynthia Whitsell
12/10/1933 - 08/20/2025
Cynthia Whitsell, dear wife for 39 years, mother of two girls, dedicated drama teacher at the Katherine Delmar Burke school for girls in San Francisco for 29 years, and an ever smiling, gracious friend to all associated with her, died August 20 in hospice at her home in San Francisco.
Cynthia was born December 10, 1933 in Chicago to Fay and Elizabeth Whitsell and grew up in Beverly. She attended the Faulkner School for Girls in the south side of Chicago. She took her Bachelor degree, in one of the best theatre programs, at Northwestern University. She performed at Chicago's Happy Medium, and in Summer stock in a variety of locations over years. She took her Master of Arts degree in literature at the University of Chicago.
Cynthia was hired to run Burke's drama program in 1983. Cynthia did not purchase packaged plays for Burke's. Instead she adapted or created plays in order to minimize staring roles, and to give each student a broader opportunity on stage.
In a 2002 tribute to Cynthia, 10 years before her retirement in 2012, Bill Orrick, Chair, Board of Trustees, stated in part, "Twenty years of Burke's students have fond memories of treading the boards under Cynthia's direction. They have discovered gifts that they did not know they possessed, learned to enact the most amazing things and have grown in stature because of the dramatic heights to which she inspired them."
Together with her husband, Charles Dutkin, Cynthia was an avid swimmer. They often lived at Seadrift, Stinson Beach, where she enjoyed an hour in the lagoon very early each morning often wearing a burn shirt between the months of April and October, before commuting to work. Days at other times, when residing in San Francisco, usually began with a swim at the morning opening of the Bay Club Gateway.
In her calendar in May 2012, at age 79 and as her retirement from Burke's loomed, Cynthia wrote,
"I know all about
the curtain coming down
when the run is over..."
Cynthia is survived by her husband, her daughters, Aimee Nalle (Jeff) and Lucia Grauman Clymer (Mike), granddaughters Perry and Suzanne Nalle and step-grandsons Ethan and Mathew Clymer; and her step-daughter Lynann Miller (Carl) and their children, and sister Deborah Mohn (Jeff) and their children; and members of a much loved, and growing, further extended family residing in Mexico, Texas and Virginia with whom she extensively visited, traveled, and whose company Cynthia deeply treasured over her years.
A dedicated service was held on August 31 at Sacred Heart Church in Bolinas, where Cynthia and Charles enjoyed attending services provided by Father Ray when they were in Stinson, and where Aimee and Jeff were married.