Alberta Ternes Elder has been a resident of Lebanon, New Hampshire for quite a few years now, but she still considers herself a Detroiter. She has been a friend of the Detroit Historical Society since her mother spoke to her in 1945 about the importance of the work being done by DHS. Her mother was a member of the DHS and proud of it, according to Elder. Says Alberta, “DHS is a repository for my family’s history. I still have many relatives in the Detroit area and think of the city as home.”
Born in 1921 to Albert and Helen Ternes, Alberta grew up in Detroit, attending St. Agnes Catholic School, then St. Mary Academy in Monroe, a boarding school and family legacy. Following her graduation from high school where she was the valedictorian of science, she was accepted at Marygrove College, graduating in 1943. She wanted to do medical research.
After graduation, she took a job with General Motors in a science research capacity and, in February,1944, married Jim, a high school friend, who was assigned to a reconnaissance squadron in the Army Air Corps. After World War II, they returned to Detroit. James secured a position with Scott Paper and was transferred frequently. Alberta and Jim moved from Detroit to Great Neck, Long Island (New York), then Elma (near Buffalo), then Ridgewood, New Jersey and then back to Detroit, where they lived in Bloomfield Hills. With roots once again in the Detroit area, she became very active in the community. She served on the board of the League of Women Voters (as she had in both Elma and Ridgewood) and was the first woman president of a new Catholic parish that combined the congregations of Saint Hugo of the Hills in Bloomfield Hills and Holy Name in Birmingham.
In 1960, Alberta and Jim made their last move together to San Francisco, California. When their marriage ended, Alberta decided to stay in San Francisco rather than return to Detroit, ultimately taking a position with Blue Shield of California in the Beneficiary Services Department handling complaints and appeals for Medicare Part B claims. (Blue Shield handled these claims for the Social Security Administration.)
She was promoted several times, tracking changes in legislation and the medical field as well as monitoring hearings held by the Board of Medical Quality Assurance regarding cases of suspected malpractice. Alberta later became involved in audit systems and helped with medical and regulatory audits at hospitals. Ultimately, she was approved by the Social Security Administration to serve as a Medicare hearings officer.
In 1971, she married Crawford “Bud” Elder, Jr. at Old St. Hilary’s Church in Tiburon, California. Alberta had met Bud through neighbors where she lived in Mill Valley, outside of San Franscisco. Together, they forged a new life filled with work, community, fun and travel. In 1987, Alberta retired from Blue Shield of California and two years later, Bud retired as well. They enjoyed both domestic and overseas travel. As the years passed, they became somewhat disenchanted with California and, on a reunion trip to Hanover, New Hampshire (Bud was a Dartmouth alumnus), decided to move there. In 1994, they made the move. In 2014, just before Bud turned 90 years old, he became ill. He was gone within a week.
While she remains in the Hanover area, she has stayed in touch with the DHS. Mostly, she says, it’s because of the kids. “I think the work is very important because kids are so isolated today. What with both parents working nowadays, kids are so secluded; they need a place that can help them understand the world and the place where they grew up. It’s important to collect history so kids know where they come from. People today have missed the time when the city was so dynamic. We need for young people to see the way things were.”
Ternes Elder has sponsored Camp Detroit each of the past two years. Camp Detroit spans five days in August where kids eight to 10 years old participate in an immersive experience on Belle Isle with the Dossin Great Lakes Museum as home base where kids learn about the early maritime technologies of area Native American tribes, the innovation of steam ships and the first superhighway of our inland seas as well as the creativity and bravery of freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.
Similarly, she has expressed interest in helping to create an outdoor space around the Dossin to emphasize indigenous plants to make it look more like it looked many years ago. She is thinking that a walkway, benches and groupings of indigenous trees would be spectacular additions to the Dossin experience for all visitors, including the young people who attend Camp Detroit.
Alberta now says that she is thinking through what her estate plan should look like as her family circumstances have changed over the years as have organizations that were previously important to her. She has recently changed her estate plans to include a planned gift for the Detroit Historical Society that could not only bolster the present for DHS but be transformative for its future.
Says Ternes Elder, “I’ve been around a long time now and I remember a Detroit that few people do. I remember the beauty – all the streets were lined with big trees. The branches of huge maples and elms almost closed off the sky. Detroit had a vibrancy and energy -anything seemed possible. I remember neighborhood boys working on their Model Ts in the alleyways. It never occurred to them that perhaps they couldn’t fix them. They knew it was simply a matter of figuring out how.”
She goes on to say,” My father and Henry Ford were schoolmates and friends. They remained friends after both had become successful in their respective fields. One day the wife of one of my father’s teamsters fell sick and nobody could figure out what was wrong. Dad called Mr. Ford and Mr. Ford had her admitted to his hospital. The woman recovered and she never received a bill for the services that were provided to her. Detroit was that kind of community.
“I want people – especially children – to understand the way things were and how things really haven’t changed that much if we would just learn from history about the beauty of the past and what potential there still is in our community for the future. Oh, it might look different, and the technology has surely changed, but the people are still the people. And people who live in Detroit live in a special place.
“I hope to create a legacy for my family so that the people of Detroit remember the Ternes. I was never afraid to do a lot of volunteer work, because I was dedicated to Detroit. I was able to do creative things to help people, to spend a lot of energy trying to make people’s lives better. I’ve passed the torch to others who are now doing the same. I hope that DHS can help young Detroiters keep their eyes on what’s important. And, when they’re thinking about the past, maybe once in a while they think about the contributions made by the Ternes family.”