Big Red Love Stories

My husband, Jonathan Weis (1992 BA Arts & Sciences) and I met on the first day of freshman year in what was then U-Hall 5 on West Campus. We both found ourselves on the third floor of U-hall 5, and we immediately bonded over shared interests like tennis and music. We were great pals first semester, but we secretly liked each other even on that first summer day in August 1988. We studied together at Uris, ate together at the Straight (and at Hot Truck!), and stayed up late listening to R.E.M. that first semester. By the time winter break was upon us freshman year, we were both so sad to leave the other for a whole month! Upon our return to campus, Jon asked me to go to his fraternity winter formal (the Deke Understaker's Ball). On February 12, 1989 (a day we both remember so clearly), I gussied up in my pink! prom dress from high school and off we went to our first formal together. That night, Jon asked me to be his girlfriend and, despite the fact that he had spilled beer all over my dress that night, I said yes. We dated continuously through graduation in 1992, and, after a year apart (me in NYC and Jon in Chicago), we got engaged in Summer 1993. I moved with Jon to Champaign, Illinois, where he was starting law school at the University of Illinois. I became an Illinois resident and started law school there the following year. We were married in January 1995. We have been together for 23 years and married for 17 years. We have one child - our son Samuel, who is the light of our lives. We can only hope that (1) he too goes to Cornell; and (2) he finds the love of his life there as we did.

Thanks Cornell!!!!

My husband Doug was in the Engineering School - Class of 1992. We met at a fraternity/sorority mixer one Thursday night. It was a body painting party, and he painted the word "Nice" down the front of my shirt. That was 1989. Now, it's 23 years later, and we have been married for 15 years and have two great kids! We can't wait to go to Ithaca in June for his 20th year reunion.

Though Jeff and I were in the same major (Ag Ec in those days), we did not really meet until Hotel Ezra Cornell weekend, at the end of our junior year. We worked at the same event and then spent time together at the party hosted by a professor following the event, with all the leftover food and wine. We have been married for 26 years and have enjoyed all of our trips back to Cornell, including our oldest son's graduation last year. The family tradition continues with our youngest son beginning as a freshman in the fall.

Shawn and I met freshman year while living in Donlon. We would sit in Uris library together, and eat CTB during late-night studying marathons. We both were pretty involved in the Indian dance scene as members of Cornell Bhangra, and a combination of late-night practices, the remote isolation of Cornell, and the need to huddle for warmth and survival (just kidding) pushed us together over the years. By Junior year, we were dating, and two years after graduation, he proposed. We are getting married in July, '12, and many of our Cornell classmates will be in attendance. Cornell is a special place that we will always look back on with fond memories. Cheers to all of the other Cornell couples!

Was introduced to Chad by a mutual friend freshman year. Turned out his dorm room was directly above mine in Donlon. He had come to campus with a forbidden appliance: a TOASTER OVEN. We spent evenings sitting in the hall (because it would have blown a fuse in the dorm rooms). We were both dating other people, but remained friends throughout our freshman year. Spring semester sophomore year we planned to go to Maine together for spring break with a group of friends. Turned out everyone else backed out at the last minute--which was probably a good thing as we had started dating shortly before the trip without having told anyone yet.

Fall semester junior year we went for a walk around Beebe lake (holding hands the entire time) and then he took me to a tree on Libe slope where he sat me down and proposed. I still remember skipping the whole way back home through Collegetown. It was a long engagement--we married a year after we graduated. This summer will mark 13 years since we married and we have two beautiful girls.

I was a senior in Industrial Engineering in the fall of 1965, and Kathy came as a grad student in what is now Human Ecology. When she looked for Christian friends at Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, I was the chairman, and I quickly noticed how beautiful she was (still is, at 70!), besides being brilliant (later got her Ed D from Harvard).

I was sporty, and she was arty, but we will celebrate 45 wonderful years of marriage in July, and I still think she is the most incredible woman I have ever met. Most of that time has been spent teaching in Zambia, who won the Africa Cup of Nations (soccer) on Feb 12, and we watched the whole game together, penalty shootout and all!

So Cornell gave me the greatest Valentine ever. As we say here, "Twatotela sana" (Thank you very much, in ChiBemba).

Freshman year. 1976 in U Hall 1. Jim and Margo. Married on campus in Aug 1979. Graduated 1980. Still going strong after all these years.

My high school sweetheart and I both went to Cornell in the AEM program. We stayed together the whole way through, and now work down the hall from each other! I asked her to marry me last May, and we are getting married at Sage Chapel this July! Love you AFR '10!

We met as j-frosh walking back to North Campus on a dark winter night. "Do you know where we are going?" she asked. "North campus."I answered brusquely. Even though she wasn't talking to me, she noticed the boy in the ski jacket with pretty eyes. We eventually enjoyed daily dinners in RPU, working out on West Campus, spring break trips to Miami, and many more memories made at Cornell. Bethany Marmillo '06-- I love you.

I was 16, in a Cornell summer program for high school juniors and he was 19, a Cornelian taking summer courses. It was the Fourth of July, 1973 when we met at a square dance in the Memorial room of Willard Straight Hall. Using square dance lingo, he asked me, “Will you be my partner?” We were partners ever since: married 36 years and have two wonderful daughters. Almost every Fourth of July since, we come back to the Memorial room to celebrate our anniversary with our daughters where he asks me again “Will you be my partner?”

Our story begins a trifle less Than one-hundred years ago, With the health of Miss Jennie McGraw Oh, so terribly low.

The heroine of our story Was ill, as you'll soon see. In fact she was dying Of contagious TB.

The illness did not stop Cornell Librarian Mister Willard Fiske, Who said, "TB or not TB, I'll take the risk."

What did he see in her, This man so debonair? Could it be that she was A multi-millionaire?

Tho' Jennie was sick, dying And thirty-nine, The Cornell scholar asked, "Will you forever be mine?"

Willard pursued her in Europe, They were engaged in Venice, About the time Jennie's cough Became a public health menace.

At the Consul's home in Berlin, Jennie and Willard were wed. "Till death do us part," Willard merrily said.

They honeymooned in Paris And then cruised down the Nile. But the specialists warned darkly That Jennie had but a short while.

She declared, "We must return home At once! Immediately! Cornell and Ithaca are places I must again see."

Cornell had much interest In beloved Jennie's fate, As Big Red was the main taker In the poor one's estate.

As Jennie succumbed, her loved ones Called the mortician's black hearse. She was entombed in Sage Chapel, As each contemplated on her purse.

Her last Will was heard With few dry eyes, Each mourner waiting to hear the words, "I do bequeath and devise. . . ."

Fiske took much, Cornell took more, But this is where begins The jurisprudential war.

Here's some stuff for the lawyers Who love the irregularity: It seems that spouses were barred by law From giving so much to charity.

Fiske learned this, by The purest of chances, And also that Cornell tried to cover this up To improve its own finances.

It seems that Boardman, Estate's executor and Law School dean, Had hands which were Equitably unclean.

Fiske brought the battle in Tompkins County's Surrogate's Court, Where, we know, is the place That probate is fought.

Fiske lost at this low court And chose to appeal higher, All the while ranting at the dean, "Boardman! You're a liar!"

Forty-five Hun's Reports Page three-fifty-four Is where we find the appealed case "In Re Estate of McGraw."

Tho' Cornell won at the Surrogate's Court, On appeal, it came out worst. The New York Supreme Court wrote: "That decision is REVERSED."

Boardman and the Cornell trustees, Especially Henry Sage, Couldn't believe the court's report And flew into a rage.

In New York, it seems, there's a court Supremer than Supreme, So, the trustees went there To resurrect their scheme.

At the Court of Appeals, One-eleven New York sixty-six, The Cornell trustees continued to get beat And to take their licks.

After receiving the Court of Appeals' Affirming report, Boardman said, "Let's put our faith in Our US Supreme Court."

But when Boardman read, One-thirty-six US one-fifty-two, His mood turned from one of hope To one of sheer rue.

For the High Court held Against the Big Red, Tho' it took forty pages To say what they said.

Fiske took his wealth And retired to an Italian villa, Where he collected books, threw parties And was a regular lady-killa.

But if this story sounds unfair, Perhaps even cold, It's because the happy end Has not yet been told.

Willard's Will read at his death, Would everyone's respect compel, For he gave all his worldly wealth To his wife's beloved Cornell.

And now in Sage Chapel Rests the man said to have had no pride. And resting beside him for eternity, Is Jennie McGraw Fiske, Willard's only bride.

I hope you've enjoyed this Valentine's story, Which was less romantic than legal. It's been my pleasure to be your reporter, I'm Cornell-lover Seth M. Siegel.

I don't know where to begin and any possible place that I could end. It is too simple to say that I merely met someone that I enjoy every minute with. The girl I met my senior year is unlike anyone else I have ever met. From even before we said hello for the very first time I was in awe. Two kart wheels, 20 techno songs and the not so usual chitchat later I couldn't think there was any person that was a better match for me; no one ever stood a chance against her. To this day she has become more than Id ever expect from anyone Id ever meet. I constantly wish I could start everyday waking up next to her and the days that I do I think I am dreaming because only my dream girl would actually be there laying next to me. Thank you Cornell for making my dreams come true!

I never thought I'd fall in love with a Cornellian, let alone a Cornellian townie: it started with doing cartwheels at a blind date formal. And then it was our interests in music. Our walks around campus. And then it was never being able to run out of things to talk about. It became someone I could never imagine my life without, who I never would have met if we had not gone here. And even past graduation, the cartwheels/music/walks/talks/love continue. I never would have guessed that the four years I've spent here would have this effect on the rest of my life. Imagine that.

I met my boyfriend, hopefully soon to be fiance Josh at Cornell my freshman year. He was 2 years older than me and we first met at his fraternity''s halloween party. I had a very lovely cat costume, and he was dressed as a Big Red football player (how original...). We really clicked and have been together ever since. Ithaca was a great place to start a budding romance and we have created so many memories at Cornell that hopefully don't stop after I leave here.

One of the many wonderful things I have gained from Cornell is this love story:

I still remember the first time we locked eyes. He was staring over at me. I was staring down at him from that weird platform box thing at Level B; it was the worst one, right below the precarious pipe on the ceiling. Actually, I guess we didn't really lock eyes because the disco ball laser beam was shooting into my corneas. Despite the obstacles, I could tell we would be seeing more of each other.

Soon I was off the box and making my way towards him. Some would say it was the magnetic love attraction that was pulling me towards him; others would say he was in between me and the bar. He charmed me right from the start. "Hey, let me buy you a drink." "Eh, that's ok," I said. "Nononono. Here here. What do you want. We do lemon drops." <3

After that it was difficult to get my hands off of him. Those lemon drops are loaded with sugar and really sticky and it's not like there are any wetnaps at the bar.

We spent the next hour together. We talked. We "danced." He dropped his entire glass of whiskey down his shirt. I thought to myself, "Ah, he smells like sophistication." Before we knew it the lights were turning on and we had to figure out what the future held for us. "Come with me. I can make you the First Lady of Pakistan." I was so taken aback. I mean, I'm an engineer not an international relations major, so I didn't even know if Pakistan had a first lady. Despite the bright future I know we could have had together, I knew that I had to leave him... my roommates were leaving and they had my wallet and keys.

First "met" my future husband, Rob Hess, in BIO101, when the prof yelled at me (in front of 200 classmates) for talking during his lecture. A year later we "met" again when I was in the townhouse he shared, stalking his hot roommate! We wound up in Tom Fox's genetics class together, and went to his Skull House (phi kap) formal together, as "just friends". That was 1989, and we have been together ever since! We have two wonderful sons, Tjaden age 13 (named after the Arts Quad building!), and Maximilian age 10. Thank you Cornell for bringing Rob and I together and for 22 wonderful Valentines Days, and many more!

I met my husband, David '85, in San Diego at a young alumni event I coordinated to meet fellow alums. I guess you could say the event was a success, because 18 years later we're still celebrating our love for Cornell and each other. Happy Valentine's Day to all my fellow Big Red alums!

My husband, Neal Haber '75, and I spent the same four years on campus (our old 6-digit IDs are only numbers apart), and even took a class together (well, it was HDFS 115 in Bailey Hall, with 800 students), but we didn't meet while we were in Ithaca. I hung out with Aggie fraternity boys and he was active in the University Senate. Our paths never crossed.

But in 1978, new Cornell president Frank G. Rhodes came to NYC and spoke to the Alumni Association. At the cocktail reception that followed, I met (and gave my phone number to) two good-looking Cornell alums who had known each other since high school. I proceeded to date one of them (not Neal) and became good friends with the other. Although the dating relationship was short-lived, Neal and I saw each other often, even after he moved to Washington, D.C., and our friendship lasted for three years. Then he moved back to New York, and eight months later we were engaged.

We've been married almost 29 years and have two sons, one Arts '08 and the other CALS '12. That's our Cornell love story, and our Cornell family!

Who knew that the Ithaca Farmers' Market could foster so much love? Let's just say that, for Pat and me, it was love at first bite. Burrito bite, that is. As a burrista at the Solaz burrito stand, I woud drag my hungover body at 7am on Saturday mornings with two of my best friends to make the best darn burritos this side of the Mexican border. As a regular, Pat ('09) just had to slip me his number on that dollar bill he was paying with, and of course I called him back. We've been dating ever since that fateful farmers' market summer (I keep him around by making homemade breakfast burritos!).

Ithaca is cold, but that's why love keeps us warm. Elliott Back '06 and myself ('08 from college and '11 from grad school) got married two years ago. This is our sixth Valentine's Day. Cornell, thank you for teaching me academic knowledge, broadening my horizon of culture diversity, guiding me through the hardest period of life, granting me lifetime friendships, and most importantly the soulmate as well as husband.

I love you Elliott Back. I love you Cornell.

My husband (Dale) and I met during Chem 101 lab the Fall of our freshman year. We were assigned to labs alphabetically (both W), and I remember that we were about the only two people in our lab that spoke English as a first language. we became partners, then friends, then got married after graduation in 1981. Thirty years later we are still going strong. Our son Graham is a senior in the Hotel School, and two other children (Grace- UNC Chapel Hill, Garrett- Virginia Tech). My parents, Fred & Sue Warner were also Cornell sweethearts ('55), and they are still going strong after 57 years! Guess the chemistry was right!

I found true love at Cornell on Slope Day '09! (yes, the Pussycat Dolls played that year...)

My soon-to-be husband, Robin Bigelow ('11), and I have the Cornell Global Health department and Sheridan Reiger ('10) to thank for our wedding this June! Robin and I met in a small global health seminar class sophomore fall. I remembered him because he's very tall and cute, and there were only 14 people in the class. The first time I saw him that spring he said "Hi Emily"... not love at first sight... But thanks to Sheridan's less-than-subtle wingmanning during Epidemiology class that spring, I got to know Robin a little more.

Finally, on Slope Day '09, Robin and I ended up sitting together in a musty bowl chair on my collegetown porch. And so began our relationship. Two happy years later, a few days before our graduation from Cornell, Robin proposed to me on a beautiful evening at the Plantations.

Robin, I can't wait to be married to you in June! And am so happy that we will be surrounded by great Cornell friends on that day!

September of freshman year, 1982, North Campus 7 had a fire alarm at 1:00am. We all piled outside in bathrobes. A really nice guy struck up a conversation with me. I couldn't see his face clearly in the dark--there was a streetlight behind him--but I enjoyed the conversation and figured (hoped) I would run into him again. He seemed to come out of the same wing of Dorm 7 as I did. I never met him again.

Dorm 7 had a Halloween party. I had a crush on a senior who seemed interested in paying attention to me. But there was this guy with a sock over his head and glasses on over it--he was "The Man With No Face"--who discovered I was interested in science fiction. He kept wanting to talk to me about that. I'd run into this before, geeky guys who go nuts when they find a woman who reads Heinlein and Asimov. So I didn't get a good impression. I hung out with the senior, all starry-eyed, who the next day seem to have forgotten I existed.

Meanwhile, Bill, the geeky guy from the party, took me out to the Pancake House (on Beebe Lake, remember?) and skiing at Greek Peak and climbing with the Outing Club. I was just generally having a good time with him, fell in love, and we got engaged halfway through my junior year. He was a senior then. He asked my Dad for my hand in marriage! After asking me first, of course. I had WWII parents so this nod to the olden days was so sweet.

We've been married 30 years this year. We have 2 terrific adult children, 20 and 24. Our son runs restaurants and our daughter is a sophomore at Cornell and told me about this web spot. How cool.

Years into our marriage I told Bill the story of meeting this nice guy at the fire alarm freshman year, wondering how it was possible I never ran into him again. He said, "That was me!"

I met my husband, Steven Krauss ILR '83, in Catherwood Library. He was working at the desk and I had to check out a reserved reading. We chatted and I gave him my number. I was a sophomore and he was a senior. For our first, and only, date we went to a Cornell football game. My idea of going to a game was to enjoy the "facetime" and have a hotdog. His idea was to actually watch the game. Needless to say, I did not accept any future invitations. Fortunately, we ran into each other four years later waiting to cross 53rd street in Manhattan. We have been married 23 years, have watched many sporting events together, and have two beautiful daughters, one who will be class of 2013!

I posted last year about how I met Joshua Novikoff '03 at our 5 year reunion almost 4 years ago now! In December we got engaged and we are looking forward to getting married where it all began at Cornell this October!

Anti-Love Story Here: I left the state to go to school in NJ. She went to Cornell, and I never told her how I felt about her. I knew that I couldn't do long-distance (rarely even going home for break), and the one terrific college summer I had with her reminded me that it just wouldn't work with me being away from her.

I've graduated and we're still hours away. Maybe the stars will align, but here's to my forever Cornell Crush.

My husband, Bob Cropf ('81) and I met in March of my junior year while I was sitting at a table collecting signatures for a petition for the Cornell Public Interest Research Group (Cornall PIRG). Bob signed my petition, started up a conversation with me, joined Cornell PIRG and, as they say, the rest is history. We've been married 26 years and have two wonderful children (and two lovable cats). Happy Valentine's Day to my wonderful husband and thanks to Cornell for geting us together.

A Cornell Legend Comes True: http://talkingthirty.com

Cornelliana legend says that about 60% of Cornell students marry other Cornellians (although according to Uncle Ezra, in reality, the number is closer to 8%). During Orientation Week at Cornell, I remember reading about this legend in the Student Handbook, but the thought never occurred to me that I might meet my future husband there.

I had met Jack briefly at a friend’s apartment one random Friday night during my junior year, but honestly didn’t think much of the encounter. You meet a lot of people everyday in college, especially when you go to a school as big as Cornell.

A few days later, I was driving through campus during a terrible (but fairly typical) Ithaca snowstorm. Who knows why I thought it was a good idea to drive through campus in my little Passat during white-out conditions! I obviously lacked good judgment during my college years.

As I tried to drive up a hill near the Engineering Quad, my car got stuck in the snow. I tried every trick I knew to get my car to move, but it simply would not budge. There I was stuck in the middle of the road with not a single person in sight. How was that even possible at a school that big in the middle of the afternoon?

Of course, the cell phone that my Dad had given me just for emergency situations like this had a dead battery. And the only person I would’ve called, my housemate, Josh, wouldn’t be done with his shift at the Statler until the wee hours of the morning anyhow. I sat in my car thinking that someone HAD to come along eventually and hoping another car wouldn’t plow into me while I waited. There was literally not a single person in sight in any direction. Just as I was about to break out into hives and have a full-on panic attack, I spotted a person walking towards me. I remember wondering if I’d be bold enough to ask a stranger for help and then thinking, “Wait… I think I know this guy!” It was Jack.

After I awkwardly flagged him down, he got my car unstuck with so little effort, it made me feel foolish. I forget where I was going that day, but I never got there. Jack safely drove me back to my apartment, and we’ve been best friends ever since. Five years of marriage and one beautiful baby boy later, I now know that there are some upsides to those grueling Ithaca winters.

In retrospect, it’s pretty remarkable that of the nearly 20,000 people in Cornell’s student population, Jack was the one person walking through that part of campus that afternoon. I’d like to think it was fate. Either that or he was stalking me…

Carl Torrey '83, MBA '05 and I first met as student workers in the Campus Store in the summer of 1982. You could call us friends, but most of our free time at The Store was devoted to getting one another in trouble and arguing over which one of us hated the other one more. True love indeed.

Fast forward to my graduation in the spring of 1984. My roommate and I decided to host a graduation party -- Carl chipped in for the costs but was a no-show. He apparently "needed to study" or "finish a paper" or some similarly lame excuse. Everyone knows that Carl never studied and probably never finished a paper -- but that's another story entirely. I left the party to search for him in C-town and on campus, but I couldn't find him; he'd abandoned all of his usual "study" places -- the bars on Stewart Ave, the bars on Dryden road, etc. Still, he paid $10 and I wasn't about to let him pass up on his opportunity for a lobster party.

He was scheduled to work that Saturday at the Store, so I waited for him at the loading dock after his shift. I convinced him to join me for lobsters that evening and we watched the Knicks in the NBA playoffs. After that, we began to hang around together regularly and we had a great time. Our first official date was after graduation. We had champagne to celebrate at Oliver's downtown and during the toast, Carl said, "Just wait, one day I am going to show up at your doorstep and you are going to marry me." I didn't take him seriously -- he was always kidding. Besides, he would be off to Geology field camp soon and he would likely forget about me during those six weeks.

Carl finally called me from someplace in Wyoming that summer and we kept in touch. We arranged for me to visit him when he returned to Ithaca in August. We had a great time and I soon started falling in love with him. Time went by quickly and then it was the end of August and my birthday. This time the plan was for him to visit me at my parents in Merrick, Long Island. Carl visited the first week of September, and on September 8th, in my parents' backyard, he asked me to marry him. I said yes. A year later on September 7, 1985 we were married in Merrick, LI. We celebrated that day with friends from the Store who drove from Ithaca.

More than 25 years later and we still feel so lucky to have found each other. We have three wonderful children and love to spend time together as a family. Recently I underwent Deep Brain Stimulation surgery to help improve the symptoms associated with early onset Parkinson's Disease. Carl was there with me cheering me on, nursing me back to health and generally taking care of me just like he promised he would on that September night in 1984 in my parents' backyard.

Tim ('07) and I met during orientation week of my sophomore (his freshman) year in 2003. I was immediately attracted to the tall, funny kid who played guitar, was a Townie, and claimed he had 8 siblings all the way down to a toddler sister. The next week at church he pointed them all out to me (except his brother who was studying at West Point) and be soon became inseparable--"running into each other" on the Slope, him skipping math class to have long lunches with me at the Big Red Barn, runs through campus, and late dinners in the dining hall after his crew practices ended. His dad is an Engineering prof and his family became my second family during my remaining years at Cornell. We went on hiking trips to the Adirondacks, spent the Fourth of July in Treman Park, traveled to many many crew races, and kept our relationship alive long distance while I did a semester in Spain. I graduated a semester early and moved in with his family while looking for a job, and started at Cornell University Press when I was supposed to be goofing off during senior week. Tim proposed that summer and we planned our wedding during his senior year. It was my dream wedding, with the ceremony at Sage Chapel and a lamplit tented reception on the Arts Quad one perfect summer night in 2007. We now have a beautiful daughter and visit Ithaca as often as we can from our new home in the Pacific Northwest. Cameron '06

I had done poorly in the housing lottery after my freshman year. Though I had trepidations, I decided to check out a coop located at 517 East Buffalo Street. At that first meeting, a tall, blond young man with a sarcastic sense of humor caught my eye. When I joined the coop in the fall of my sophomore year, I learned that, lo and behold, I was assigned to be his cooking partner! And the rest is history....We have been married for 30 happy years and have three children who are the light of our lives.

Legacy of Big Red Love! My paternal grandparents, George and Mary (Whitson) Warren, met when he was studying under Liberty Hyde Bailey, and she was a student of Anna Botsford Comstock, a little more than 100 years ago. My parents, Stanley and Esther (Young) Warren, met as undergrads at Cornell in the 1920s. I met Boyd Herforth, the future father of my children, when we were undergrads at Cornell in the 1960s. My daughter, Anna Whitson Herforth, 4th generation Cornellian, met her future husband during her first week of freshman year. They now have a sweet baby girl whose Grammie is now plotting for a fifth-generation Big Red Romance!

I was an undergrad at CU for three years, but met my husband here 30 years later. Having returned to Cornell as a Ph.D candidate in Romance Studies at the age of 40, I met Bob Stundtner, now Director of Project Management at CU, while he was managing the Sage Hall renovation. The story of coeducation at Cornell, and of the amazing renovation project that transformed the former women's living facility into the home of the Johnson Graduate School of Management are the subjects of our forthcoming book, "Sage Hall: Experiments in Coeducation and Renovation at Cornell University." Thanks Uncle Ezra!

Victor and I met at a Halloween Party at a lake house via a mutual friend; we were both dedicated to a very fun final year at Cornell. Our romance continued all year and post graduation pursued our professional goals in separate cities in the North and South. After 2 years we reunited in NYC. We are approaching our 34th wedding anniversary this month with 3 wonderful children (none are Cornellians). It all started in Ithaca, a Cornell gift forever!

I was the only girl in my organic chemistry lab - and I had a big crush on this tall, blond guy with wire rimmed glasses. I saddled right up to him during our chlorophyll extraction lab and asked what I thought was a very intelligent question, "what part of the spinach has the most chlorophyll?" I can't remember what Joe said - he was not too impressed. I used to head him off coming around Risley and walk to lab with him. I guess I chased him until he caught me - we've been married 39 years.

I met my husband John Signorelli('69) at Cornell while we were undergrads. It was 1968 and I was living in Comstock House next to his fraternity, Theta Xi. I was dating one of the Brothers from Theta Xi and used to see John walking to class occasionally. My roommate told me he was a "loner" and made the girls who visited the frat house cry. When I finally met him at a party, I found out that thru the rough exterior, there lied a funny,smart guy who I fell in love with. We were married in Sage Chapel in June 1969 and 42 years later have 3 children( one a Cornellian, Jean '91) and 2 grandchildren. The outfits we wore in our wedding were even part of a costume exhibit at the Johnson Museum in 1991 and are still part of the Cornell Costume Collection today.

Daniel '08 and I were hallmates in Jameson Hall freshman year. Though I'm Singaporean, whatever cultural differences between us did not get in the way of us clicking instantly. We soon became best friends, and eventually started dating Senior year. His proposal at Zaza's in Spring '08 was such a natural progression to our relationship, even amidst the uncertainties that laid ahead after graduation. After being apart for a year, with him working in Texas and me back in Singapore, we finally got married in Mar '09. Now living in Singapore, we hope to visit Cornell again soon and eventually move back to the US to a community as vibrant and beautiful as Ithaca.

I met my husband to be freshman year in Cascadilla. Mark was an engineer looking for an intramural volleyball player. Despite having hurt my ankle halter-breaking stubborn heifers, told him I could fill position at least! The rest is history... got him to show a goat even at the livestock pavillion (in which he took a blue ribbon) and today we have three handsome boys!

I met my husband David freshman year through work at Mann Library. I was a backpack checker (remember those?) and he worked at the front desk (I thought wow, that's a big job). We became friends after repeatedly leaving Organic Chemistry class the following fall, him walking to the Ag Quad and I hoofing it to the Food Science building for Microbiology. We would chat on the way, and then I asked him to go to the movies - Gandhi. Wonderful memories of walks around Beebe Lake, Cornell Plantations, and fabulous sunsets. We were married for 19 years after graduation, and had three wonderful sons together. In Michigan now so our sons are going to Michigan State University. We were lucky that David's parents live in Ithaca - we got to visit campus every year. David got his PhD in forestry at UW-Madison and is now a professor in Australia now. I have worked as a dietitian, and now have a new business with Rodan and Fields in addition to that work, which is exciting. I will always have fond memories of Cornell (there are seven alumni in my family) and miss my Beebe lake walks daily.

On a Saturday night in January 1947 I went with my roommate to an openhouse at the Straight. I was sitting in one of those overstuffed chairs in the Memorial Room. Out of the crowd came a man who asked if I would like to dance. We dated for a year and a half, became engaged in 1948 and married in 1949. We both graduated in 1950. Our marriage lasted two weeks less than 60 years until Phil died. We had five children (four Cornellians with two Cornellian sons-in-law), nine grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. I have many happy memories of the years at Cornell.

Elaine and I had met during our years at the Bronx High School of Science, since we live near each other and took the same bus across the Bronx. I was all set to go to Cornell, and she expected to go to Barnard, but Elaine was awarded a Cornell scholarship, and she changed her mind. Two years later, we were married, as Cornell undergraduates, and the rest is history. I stayed on to get a masters degree, and Elaine worked as a Chemist for the Pomology Department. Many years later, our middle daughter, Robin, got a masters degree from the Cornell Ag School..

Steve and I met in 1994 during a snowball fight, about midnight, during our first semester of exams. We had seen each other all over campus for about 3 months and started saying hi - even seeing each other in really random places at 3am. Mutual friends led us to hang out often, and we started dating that spring. Both being in civil engineering helped, too. Long story short, we were married in 2000 and have two amazing little boys.

It was second semester senior year (2004), and the semester was almost over. I heard from a friend about a guy named Steve who had a crush on me in one of my classes - a class I had stopped attending weeks before (senioritis, perhaps?). The next day, I decided to go to class. He sat next to me, introduced himself, walked me home, asked me out, and from that point on we were inseparable.

We were married in September 2008 and are looking forward to spending our third wedding anniversary in Ithaca this year...and going back to John Thomas, the scene of our first date!

For the rest of my life, I'll always be thankful to Cornell for uniting me with the love of my life. Tommy ('05) and I met early in our freshman year one night at a party- but as I was in a long-distance relationship we remained friendly acquaintances the rest of the year. Come sophomore year, I auditioned for the same a cappella group he was in- giving me lasting recognition at callbacks as "Tommy's friend." So it went until junior year, when the stars finally aligned and we admitted our feelings- and had our first "date" in Jantzen's dining hall! Having to say our goodbyes the last day of senior year (jobs in 2 different cities) on the bench behind the Cornell Store is a memory I'll always have...particularly after 5 long years, mostly apart, and him proposing on that very same bench last April! We are thrilled to begin planning our wedding now, and thank Absolute a Cappella, that bench, and a good bit of liquid courage for playing a pivotal role in our Cornell romance!

Jim '60 and I met in September 1958 at the first meeting of our section for Mario Einaudi's International Government 103. We started talking, and when it was announced that the section would not meet that day, Jim invited me for coffee. I told him "thanks," but I had to go buy a book I was missing for another class. A few days later, his fraternity, where he was social chairman, invited my house for what used to be called a "tea dance." Thus we met again, and 50 years later, will celebrate our 50th anniversary this June. So, you see, you can get more than government out of Gov. 103.

Neela ('08) and I (also '08) actually met in high school in Kansas. After graduation, he went to Cornell and I went to the University of Kansas. We couldn't stand the time apart, so I applied to Cornell as a transfer student, and was accepted. During the next three years together at Cornell, Neela and I fell more and more in love. Our experiences at Cornell helped us grow and develop into adults in whom we discovered even more to appreciate and explore. During our senior year at Cornell, Neela proposed marriage. We were married shortly after graduation, and each year since then has brought increasing happiness in our relationship. We both fondly remember our days at Cornell in which this love blossomed.

February 4, 1953 was the culmination of the romance that started in the back of the Westminster Fellowship open truck when we were married in Anabel Taylor Hall. It's also the day that Martha got her bachelor's and Doug got his master's degree. Still going strong in Asheville, NC, with 4 children, 7 grandchildren and 1/3 of a great grandchild.

It was fall of senior year and I was recruited to be a wingman (wingwoman?) for my friend Tricia. We headed to Dino's (does that place still exist??) where she planned to meet up with Jon, a guy she was interested in. Jon had his own wingman that night too - Craig. Craig and I hit it off but didn't see each other again until the following February when we happened to ride in a mutual friend's car with a group heading to Boston for a Cornell / Harvard hockey game. We had a blast - kindred spirits from the get-go. We started dating soon after and finally (finally!) got married 7 years later in 2003. Here it is, 15 years later and it seems like no time has passed at all. We have 2-year-old son and another boy on the way (due May 2011). Cornell is always in our hearts! PS: Jon & Tricia are married now too! :-)

I met Jess Walden while running with High Noon from Teagle. She was finishing up her undergrad degrees in biology and entomology and I was finishing my PhD in biological engineering. We were married in May 2010. Thanks High Noon!

Saturday, September 20, 1969 was the day I met my Cornellian wife. I walked into the living room of my fraternity, Delta Chi, on the night of my senior year "Freshman Tea," and immediately saw a girl, standing alone at one of the tables where the usual lame hors d'oeuvres were set out. What struck me first was that she was alone, not surrounded by a bunch of my fraternity brothers, not even one. I immediately concluded the reason for that, and gave voice to my brilliance by uttering the first words that ever passed between Sue and me, "Are you with the band?" Probably Sue gave me that look of disdain that beautiful girls can bring to bear with withering effectiveness on the poor imbecile they have had the misfortune to encounter. Fortunately for me, I was immune to that. We had our first date the next morning at Annabel Taylor Hall, at the Catholic mass. After Sue finished at Cornell and I at Notre Dame Law School, we married in June of 1975 and have raised three wonderful children, all of whom are Cornell graduates. There is not much good in my life that I cannot trace back in a straight line to my time at Cornell, and that is certainly true for the love of my life, my wife, Susan ('73).

I met Cory '66 in the newly created "Commons" in Anabel Taylor Hall where he offered to help me out in a chemistry course I was taking. I was never a stellar student in this area, but I guess there was a lot of chemistry between us. Married, we have been through a lot of life together, and I'm still crazy in love with this Cornellian. We live in Ithaca and if you walk across the path on the top of Libe Slope at sunset, you might find us still holding hands.

My wife, Danielle, and I met at Cornell during the COSEP summer program. We spent a few hours in Risley Hall talking instead of studying and started hanging out constantly. September of that year we started dating. Now, ten years later, we're getting ready to celebrate our sixth anniversary.

My husband, Mark, and I met on a blind date arranged by the short-lived Campus Connections Dating Service in 1982-83. (The application fee for the service was $2.50, which along with the fact they hand-matched the dates, I am pretty sure was a major reason that it didn't survive.) Mark was a MechE grad student and I was a senior in CompSci in Engineering. We met right after the Holiday break on a freezing cold January evening at the Nines in College Town.

We broke the ice by finding a mutual friend at the Nines' bar, a Glee Club member - as Mark was also in CUGC, and I was a huge fan and always attended their concerts and afterglows. Mark and I are sure we had met at an afterglow or two, but were too shy to talk to each other. We also had most likely met in an Upson Hall computer lab where we both spent many hours, and/or at an Engineering Co-op activity - as I was a co-op and Mark was a TA for co-op classes in 1981. So I guess it was fate, but we just needed a little help.

We spent the term getting to know one another and fell in love. I interviewed for jobs around the country with an eye on California, where I had been a co-op, primarily because it met with Mark's long term plans. After dating for the remainder of the year followed by my graduation, we continued a cross country relationship for another year and a half. After Mark received his MS, he followed me to California where we continued our relationship. We celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in August.

I met Peter Cooper '80 my 2nd day on campus. We both had student jobs in Balch Dining and we were assigned the Pot Washing job. Those Cornell Dining jobs and being the prep team for Cross Country Gourmet taught us each how to wield a chef's knife and cook with industrial strength cookware for large crowds. Peter gave me my first corny valentine that year and by the next fall, we had started dating. Peter proposed to me his senior year and in 1982 we were married in Sage Chapel by Jack Lewis and regaled with a chimes concert following the ceremony and a reception in the Memorial Room at the Straight. 28+ years later we are still cooking together (often for very large crowds!) and we are still washing pots together!

My life with Idell has been wonderful since we met at the Straight in '74 and simply "got it on".Thank you Cornell.

Bob Weggler and I met at the very first practice of the first ever Cornell Women's Rugby Team. He had been recruited to coach by his then girlfriend, and I showed up out of curiosity. We were both sophomores. We developed many mutual friendships through rugby and crossed paths many times over the next two years. In Fevruary of our senior year we began dating. Our first date was "The Goodbye Girl," with Richard Dreyfus, and our second date was "Saturday Night Fever." By Valentine's Day of that year we were officially "an item," and 33 years later are still together, with four children (one is a Cornell grad), two dogs, and a lifetime of memories to keep us warm.

I remember going on the Cornell campus tour with my mother when we were looking at schools, and when we walked past Sage Chapel, the tour guide said that 30% of Cornellians marry other Cornellians. I have no idea whether or not that statistic is correct, but my mother and and I both thought it was a goofy thing to say.

Several years later, I went to a party at a friend's house off-campus and chatted with a friendly grad student. I was about to start my senior year, and he was in his first semester of grad school. The next day, he emailed a friend who lived at the house to ask for my phone number. I invited him to a potluck at my apartment, and he brought an apple pie and did all the dishes. That was good enough for me!

Jack and I dated for 6 years, got married in July 2008, and are expecting our first kid in about 2 months.

I met my wife-to-be, a Swedish scholarship student by the name of Birgit Janson, on a blind date at Wells College. Two years later, in 1960, we were married in Gothenburg, Sweden. Last summer we celebrated our 50th anniversary with our four kids and their families. We hope to celebrate our 60th over in Sweden.

My husband Krishna and I met at a mutual friend's barbeque in Sep '07 when he was in his first semester, and I was in my third [of Graduate School]. We slowly became friends, which turned into late night 'study' sessions either in Duffield Hall or the Lounge in Willard Straight Hall. In June of 2010 we got married and are still in Ithaca, working on finishing our individual PhDs. I often wonder if I had not come to Cornell... or if he had not come to Cornell... or if we had not intersected our times here... would we have met? My belief in fate tells me we would have, but meeting at Cornell makes it all the more special.

Ken and I met at Mann (he's told our story below), but the first time I *saw* Ken, he was dressed in full chain mail regalia with yellow-and-red tabard to promote the Cornell Gaming club during Freshman Week.

He's been my knight in shining armor ever since.

Brad and I met as freshmen in 1975--it was very romantic as we were in non-major Biology lab (think dissecting fetal pigs!). Through the next four years we took many social science courses together and participated in many extra-curricular activities. Quite a few were surprised when we became engaged in Feb. 1979 since they didn't know we were in love, too!

My boyfriend and I met in a Human Development Early Childhood Development Play Class. It was not love at first sight, but walking to class together, spending time playing with kids and being kids ourselves .... brought us together through laughter, long walks around ithaca, late study nights and lots of cooking dates.

Thank you Cornell & thank you Human Ecology!

Chris and I met at a rush event for Phi Sigma Pi at Jansen's in 2005. He later became my "big" in the fraternity and we got to know each other as friends. It wasn't until the fall of my Junior year when we started dating, after a first date to the Four Seasons in Collegetown (which I of course didn't realize was a date until he paid for my dinner). Even though he graduated in December '06 and I didn't graduate until May '08 he stayed in Ithaca until I graduated and could begin a PhD program at Cornell. After adopting two dogs, buying a house in the area together, and getting the happy news that Chris would be attending Cornell Law School, we got married last July. Although Chris likes to point out that he'll graduate from law school 2 weeks before me, we'll at least be getting our second degrees from Cornell in the same year!

My husband, Christian, and I met through a mutual friend during our sophomore year at Cornell. We dated during our junior year, but after graduation we went our separate ways - me to California to Teach for America, and him back to his hometown of Toronto to pursue a Master's degree. Three years ago we reconnected via various online methods... two years ago we got engaged and I moved to Canada... and last summer we were married in Sage Chapel. We are now enjoying life as a married couple in Vancouver, BC. The lesson in our story: long distance relationships can work out, but only if you're both Cornell Alumni! ;)

We were both freshmen - I was from LA and she was from Brooklyn. We first met when she was visiting with friends at Ujamaa, and from that moment, I was struck right over the head with the love stick. I worked up the nerve to call her, and asked her out on our first date. We agreed to go ice skating, and being that I had only ice skated once before (and it was not a pretty sight), I accepted that I was not going to score many cool points on the ice. And on that fateful day, while I proceeded with my stumbling exercise all over the rink, I watched my dreamgirl float like an angel on the ice. Whatever personal embarassment I may have endured by a few chuckles and laughs from some of the more seasoned skaters, was completely relieved when my soon to be sweetheart told me on our walk back to North Campus: "you looked pretty cute out there." She agreed to go out with me on another date (no winter athletics allowed this time), and the rest is history... A few short years later (relatively speaking), I made Cherissa my wife, and today we have two beautiful daughters, who are each the living embodiment of our eternal bond.

My wife and I didn't meet at Cornell, though we are both Cornellians (I'm '00, she's '05). We met in my living room (in Virginia) during a get together at my place. To bring things back to Cornell, it turns out that I lived in the apartments above the restaurant where she would eventually work... we had our rehearsal dinner at that restaurant, got married in Sage Chapel, and had our reception at The Statler.

It all started with the Pre-Freshman Summer Program (PSP). On June 26th, 2004 all of the program advisors (something like an RA, but for the summer program) were to meet with the students on their floor and review the rules that were to be followed for the duration of the program. That's when I saw Juan for the first time, he was the PA for my floor and immediately caught my eye. Unfortunately, one of the rules was that program advisors were not to fraternize with the pre-freshmen (my thought at the moment: "there goes that idea")!

During the first couple of weeks Juan would make his rounds at night and every time he saw me in the common area he would try to make small talk, but it wasn't until about two weeks into the program that we had our first real conversation and you can imagine I was blushing like a 14 year old the entire time! After that first conversation we learned that we had a lot of things in common, including our faith. From that week on we would walk over to Mass (from North Campus to Sage Chapel) and during those walks we got to know more about each other and became close friends.

At the same time, Juan's father was battling cancer and Juan confided in me and relied on me for comfort away from home, further strengthening our friendship. Juan left the program for a few days in order to spend time with his family and that's when I realized that it was something more than friendship that was developing. It turns out that he felt the same way and we couldn¿t wait till the program ended to make it official!

Fast forward 6 ½ years and we're still together. We just got married on December 3rd and can¿t wait till we have little ones who will hopefully continue the Cornell tradition :)

To this day, Norine (Ng) denies meeting me on the 2nd day of Orientation in Fall 1979. I kept trying to talk to her and she kept ignoring me - no wonder it made no impact. Fortunately, fate smiled upon me and she turned out to be a good friend of Andy Sosa, fellow pledge and my future Best Man (and I was his). So, we did meet, just later Freshman year. At one party at the Quill/Dagger room, we danced - and I'd never felt so comfortable with one person. Over the next two years, we attended many group activities together - movies, clubs, dinners and eventually started dating at the end of our Junior year. We continued dating and eventually married in October 1990. When folks ask me what was the best thing about going to Cornell, the answer is easy - meeting my future wife, Norine.

We met at WVBR when David was a freshman and I was the older woman - a junior. We became good friends. I graduated and moved away. But we kept in touch, and would occasionally see each other if we found ourselves in the same city (Ithaca or NYC and surrounds). I even tried to fix him up with my (Cornellie) cousin because he was such a great guy. Then it was David's turn to graduate. He came home to NYC for a little while before heading off for his job in the Boston area. Fourth of July - 1985, we went to see the fireworks over the East River. And fireworks there were! The rest is history. We married 3 years later, lasting through a long distance romance before we moved to be near each other. 22 more years have come and gone - he is still my best friend, with whom I share a home, our lives, and our three beautiful daughters.

Jeff Hardgrove and I were on Cornell's campus for the same four years. Both of us graduated in '01, shared common friends (and even a 12-person History of Rock and Roll section senior year) but never actually met. Fast forward 9 years, when we finally met in true Ithaca style- on a wine tour. A sorority sister of mine who is a mutual friend rented a lake house and organized a wine tour for a bunch of us and invited Jeff, who lives in Ithaca (and who is also very brave, saying yes to a wine tour with 15 former sorority girls and very few men). We ended up next to one another on the bus, bonded over Finger Lakes Riesling at Chateau Lafayette Reneau, kissed while swimming in Cayuga¿s Waters, and have been together ever since. Even though we didn't actually meet in Ithaca until 2010, we think having a shared Cornell history makes our shared future that much sweeter.

I met my husband at Transfer Student Orientation in January 1995. We didn't give one another a second thought until he asked me out in October. We went to Ruloffs for "a" drink. The drink (then dinner) lasted for hours. We married exactly one year later.

Me and my fiance didn't both go to Cornell, but we spent many weekends there during my four years at Cornell. We met at the end of high school and she visited Cornell from Syracuse (where she went to school) for many weekends. Our first Valentine's day together at Cornell was spent watching movies and eating at our favorite restaurant, Thai Cuisine! Neither of us will ever forget our weekends together at Cornell!

I met Karl Leabo, '83 B.Arch., at the corner barstool at Rulloff's our senior year. He put his hand on my knee and wouldn't take it off. Twenty-five years and three kids later, his hand is still on my knee more often than not. My parents met at Cornell, too, when my father arrived at Alpha Phi to pick up a date and overheard my mother talking in the living room about diving on the reefs of Bimini. Both English majors, they married and became marine biologists.

Bob and I have been married for 25 years, and our marriage is as strong as it ever has been. It was my senior year, and I was going to enjoy it. My sorority, Alpha Phi, was co- hosting a party with a fraternity. Well into the party I saw a good friend Matt standing with a tall, good looking guy. I went over and re-filled their beers (18 was legal drinking age). We talked a little, and I did something totally out of character for me. I asked Matt "How does your friend kiss?" He told me to find out, so I did. The rest is history. Now we have a daughter Kelly - a Junior in the Hotel School at Cornell, and Jenny - a Sophomore at the University of Connecticut!

Melissa Musiker (HumEc '03) and I met in the Fall of 2001 when we were both taking a semester away from Ithaca at the Cornell in Washington program. We fell in love with DC and eachother that semester and made it permanent by moving to DC together in 2005 and getting married in 2006. The corner of 22nd and O will always have a special place in our hearts.

Just like Caitlin posted about Patrick and her...Abby Gordon and I met freshman year in 1978 as we both lived in Donlon...3rd floor. We dated throughout college and married a year after graduation and now have 3 kids 13, 17, 21. A family tradition is that whenever anyone in the family goes on a trip...no matter how long or short. I just came home from a long weekend trip to train in a new prostate cancer treatment and we just finished sharing an awesome chocolate cream cake with dark chocolate flake icing.

I met my husband (of 27 years!) when I was doing undergrad research and he had graduated and was working as a research asst. We fell in love doing research on snakes in a cold room in the Vet tower ¿

Denise and I met in my senior year in High School in the 70's just before leaving for Cornell She came to visit occasionally and we attended great concerts like Stevie Wonder, Loggins and Messina, Joni Mitchell and we enjoyed many other fun times in the Ithaca area. We went our own ways after graduation and remained friends but eventually lost touch moving away, raising families and our careers. Many years later Denise¿s daughter expressed an interest in attending Cornell. Denise mentioned this to a mutual acquaintance that I had not seen in years. Afterwards he happened to run into me online and shared her contact information, suggesting that I call her to discuss Cornell with her since I was actively involved with the university. I contacted Denise and we talked about Cornell, life¿s twists and turns. We eventually met when I helped her move her daughter Elissa into Clara Dickson Hall in 2005. We have been together ever since. Our love was a long journey that started at Cornell and we had a 2nd chance to enjoy Cornell and find each other again. We still like visiting the campus and the great activities in the Finger Lakes.

I met Barbara during orientation week in Sept, 1957. We were both Biochem majors. She had recently moved to Ithaca from Queens and I was from Staten Island. We had 4 years of classes together. It took me until March of 1958 before I asked her out- to a heptagonal track meet. The rest is history. Yes I did walk her around Beebe Lake as was mentioned in a book about the Cornell Plantations. We were married on graduation day following my commissioning as a Navy ensign at 8am and our graduation at 11. We took a midnight bus to Norfolk to begin our life together. We were back in '07 for a visit to walk around the lake again. We hope to make our 50th reunion in June. We have 3 grown children and 6 grandchildren.

I met my amazing girlfriend Deanna on my first day at Cornell, and we pretty much hit it off on the very start. We were floormates, so I knew I'd be seeing a lot of her. However, I found out the third day of orientation week she had a boyfriend back home. Ouch. We continued to be really good friends of course, since nothing ever happened, but I always had feelings for her. I eventually gave up on her after a year, but she ended up breaking up with him the fall of our senior year. To make a long story short, we started dating just before the semester ended, and have been together ever since. No matter how terrible it was liking her all that time when she had a boyfriend, the years we've spent together have been fully rewarding. Hopefully, we'll be getting married someday!

Les and I met in 1985 at the Cornell Catholic Dating Club - otherwise known as the Folk Group. I made sure he was going out with our group to a showing of Star Wars on campus where I made snide comments as the film showed. He laughed. I was smitten. that was followed by a Mardi Gras party on Campus. After summers spent on campus, he proposed at Sunset park. We've been together for 25 years. Thanks Cornell

My boyfriend Patrick and I met freshman year when we lived on the same floor of Donlon and we started dating sophomore year. After graduation, I moved back home to Chicago to go to law school and he moved back to his home town of Toronto to take a job at an actuarial firm. Six years later (after successfully making it through 3 years of dating long distance), we are still going strong and I am beginning the process of moving up to Toronto to live with him (& to try my hand at Canadian Law). The way we see it, this is only the beginning of our "Big Red Love Story" <3

I first met Wes on his recruiting trip for the Varsity swim team. I was a junior on the team at that point and good friends with his brother who was a sophomore on the team. We started dating the following year in the spring of 2006 (yes, I was a senior and he was a freshman). We kept in touch after I graduated and while I started vet school at UPenn, which turned into a distance relationship of 4 years. After graduating, Wes got hired as an assistant coach for the men and women's varsity swimming teams.

During my 4th year of vet school, I came to a home meet vs Brown. The head coach, Joe Lucia, asked if he could talk to me at the end of the meet. He gave me an envelope with a #1 on it. Inside was a clue that led me on a scavenger hunt on Cornell's campus with friends at each stop to give me the next clue... Collegetown Bagels, the Palms, Phi Psi (Wes' fraternity), Pi Phi (my sorority), and then to the suspension bridge. When I pulled up to the suspension bridge, Wes was standing alone in the center. It was there that he got down on one knee and proposed to me! We then went to the Boatyard Grill for dinner where I was surprised with both of our families and friends from the scavenger hunt there to celebrate with us!

We met, went to school, swam, fell in love, and got engaged at Cornell, so we felt that it was only appropriate to get married there too. Wes and I can't wait to get married at Sage Chapel on July 30th this year!

I met my fiancee Meg Sofen '09 before she even started at Cornell, the summer before her freshman year and my sophomore year. A mutual friend introduced us at our lake houses in Wisconsin, where she had been vacationing every summer (and where I lived) her entire life. I knew it was love at first sight. We started dating a few months later, and have been literally inseparable ever since! We now both live in Chicago and are getting married this summer, in the same spot in Wisconsin that is so special to us, and can't wait for the mini Cornell reunion with all our friends!

Dan Opel '08

I met Karen Hasby '77 at WVBR in 1975. She was a newscaster and I was a DJ. We started dating in 1976. We got married in 1982 and this year we are celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary. Of all the very good things that happened in my life because of Cornell and WVBR, meeting her has been the best by far!

Rick and I met on the last Thursday night of classes my senior year at the North Forty. He had just returned to campus to finish his degree after spending a year as a merchant seaman, so it was lucky our paths crossed. We spent a wonderful June (summer in Ithaca is perfect!) before I went to work in New Jersey and ended up commuting back and forth between various places until getting married.

Brad and I were in the same major, ChemE, and class and knew each other from freshman year when we were in the same ChemE intro course. We didn't really become friends until junior year, but after that we spent lots of time together with our group of friends. We didn't start dating until a month before the end of school in 2006, but we've been together ever since. We moved to Connecticut together and now we're married and even working for the same company. We're still close to our cornell friends and our wedding party was 3/4 Cornell ChemEs.

I met my husband at Balch Dining in 1992 while having dinner with the Casa Italiana. He lived in the Italian House at Sage Hall and I wanted to practice speaking and sought out the Italian House upon the advice of my Italian professor. We've been together ever since-- married for 11 years, and parents of a beautiful 3-year old son.

Rebecca and Ed worked for Cornell for five years, but never met one another. Then, in summer 2006, we were introduced in the Cornell Building at the annual Empire Farm Days in Seneca Falls, by Rebecca's brother Jacob - '01, and also a Cornell employee. We talked for about 20 minutes. After that, we ran into each other a few times at work meetings and events. We decided to go out for dinner. We were married in June 2008.

my wife Pam did not attend Cornell (Sarah Lawrence). Not long after we met i was encouraged by others to attend my 10th reunion. I brought her along and we had a wonderful time - even stayed in my old dorm! later that summer we ended up in the marine mammals program at shoals marine lab. by that point we were in love and 23 years, 1 child, 1 dog, numerous cats and 6 or is it 7 or is it 8 houses later here we are....

I met Christine on a dive float in the summer of 1982 at the Shoals Marine Lab while she was a student in Underwater Research. She couldn't get one of her dive gloves on, turned around, and caught my eye for some help. Two years later, I proposed to her on the porch of the old Coast Guard building (now Bartels Hall), as the Ithaca band Desperado played in the Commons.

We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary last August. I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet.

Steve

We met at a 'Freshman Tea' at my fraternity (oddly enough there never was any tea). I gave her a ride home for the holidays that next weekend and bang, eight years later, Margot Davis (HEC '84) married me. Twenty-one years later, two kids (eldest just got accepted to Cornell Class '15) and still going strong. Now, about that tuition increase...

We met during a shared shift at the Mann Library Microcenter in 1988, had our first date night watching "The Running Man" at Annabel Taylor Hall, and dedicated many a raunchy song to one another via WVBR's weekly "Night at the Asylum" show.

A couple years later we got engaged while out at the Shoals Marine Lab, on an evening illuminated by what is still the best sunset I've ever seen.

We both joined the Cornell workforce for several years, left for a decade in LA, came back to Ithaca and Cornell, and now have two very young daughters who love their Cornell cheerleading outfit and having lunch occasionally in the student unions.

I met my husband, Seth Watts '05, at an Engineering Peer Advisor's BBQ during our sophomore year at Cornell. We talked for a bit, he made me laugh, then I ran off to take care of something inside Olin Hall.

We turned out to be in the same math class that semester and we became homework buddies. I thought he was brilliant because he always had the homework done before we met up to work on it (I later learned that this was just one of his moves to get me to like him). We started dating towards the end of that fall, and then I got scared and broke up with him. We remained friends throughout the rest of our years at Cornell and went our separate ways (me to Philadelphia, him to Albany) after graduation.

8 months after graduating we planned a trip to Colorado to see my cousin perform in an play. Our flight was canceled and we spent the weekend hanging out. After he returned to Albany that Sunday night, I did some soul searching and decided I wanted to give a relationship with Seth a shot.

We dated long-distance for a year and a half before moving to Urbana-Champaign, IL to attend graduate school together. We bought a house, got a dog, and got married. We've both changed a lot since that first time we dated, but I can honestly say there's no one else I'd rather be experiencing life's highs and lows with and I'm grateful to Cornell for bringing Seth and me together.

When I met my husband, it was love at first sight. That was almost twenty-five years and two kids ago. It was only later that I discovered that he had been at Cornell in grad school a few years before I was there as an undergrad. It must have been those big red Cornell hearts of ours that drew us to one another!

My fiance and I met at none other than the infamous Dunbar's. It was one of the first Tuesday evening's back for second semester our senior year and a he was hanging out with a mutual friend. She introduced us and we hit it off. After a few facebook posts and help from friends we started dating.

We went to Stella's for our first Valentine's Day and try to go back for dinner whenever we are in Ithaca.

I met my lovely wife Alexys in our freshman writing seminar. Intro to Drama with McMillen.

We started dating sophomore year and were married in Sage Chapel in 2007. We just had our first child last September!

During the years of single sex dorms, my Mary Donlon floor and Ron's men's dorm floor co-hosted a freshman orientation mixer at Donlon. He asked me to dance, stepped on my foot a couple times, then suggested we talk instead of dance. We sat on the steps talking until curfew. That was it - - love at first sight! We've been married 44 years! We have wonderful memories of walking the gorge pathways together, playing in endless snow, and much more.

Saxton and I met when I was his Orientation Leader in January 2007 at the Noyes Community Center. He walked in with a few of his friends, and I will never forget that moment! He took me on our first Valentine's Day to Taverna Banfi at Statler and since then, we have been together. Now, four years later, we are engaged and love telling the story about me being his JOL. :)

Priscilla and I were both new Freshmen when we met during orientation. We stayed in the same dorm and always had a connection. That connection blossomed into a wonderful relationship and we have now been married for almost 10 years. Our first date was on Valentine's Day when she invited me to a movie and bought me a Ring Pop. To this day, we watch The Wedding Singer on Valentine's Day and reminisce about our first date 13 years ago in Ithaca.

I actually met my fiance in high school, but we originally attended different universities. After falling in love with the campus during his freshman year visits to Cornell, Dan transferred in and became a Cornellian too! He quickly jumped into campus activities, joining a fraternity and ROTC. Junior year his fraternity big brother started dating my sorority sister and roommate (of all four years of college), they quickly fell in love and are now married. We're in eachothers weddings and are the best of friends, it couldn't have worked out more perfectly!

Brad and I met at a fraternity party on a cold January day. I gave him only my first name and told the friend I had gone to the party with that if he could actually find me again, he 'deserved' a date. Our first date was the Superbowl in January 1983. We've now been married 26 years and have 2 beautiful sons. One is a Sophomore in the Cornell Engineering school. The second is a high school senior who will be attending the hotel school in the fall. A true Cornell love story.....

I was taking HDFS 315 (Human Sexuality) in the Fall of 1981, which has a lecture and a section. During the first section meeting, we were supposed to introduce our seat neighbor and tell the group where they would like to be and with whom, if given the choice (desert island w/ movie star, etc.) as an ice breaker. An attractive woman I had already noticed across the room was introduced as wanting to be in Nantucket (my home) which further piqued my interest. When her neighbor further explained that she wished to be there with her boyfriend, I dramatically made an "oh damn, I lose " expression and gesticulation. I made sure that she noticed this. Soon thereafter (within the week?) as I was waiting outside Uris G-1 for the lecture to begin, this same woman came up to me and started a conversation. We soon made a plan to study for an upcoming test and I noted that she was an excellent student in this field (human sexuality, and no, I was not making a joke. She had a real academic grasp of the subject) despite the fact that she was a French major. Within time, the boyfriend was summarily dismissed, her school and major changed (Hume Ec, HDFS), she earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership in Human Sexuality, we married and are still ecstatically in love after thirty years, and the second of our three wonderful children is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.

I was struggling with my German class and knew Nate was also taking German. I innocently asked if he would be my tutor and he not so innocently agreed. After a few tutoring sessions we starting hanging out more. Nate being a Vermont boy and me a city girl I asked if he would take me on a night walk to see some deer. Lucky for him we spotted some on the golf course near North Campus. And that is where it all began. We have been married 7 1/2 years and have a 2 1/2 year old son who only cheers "Go Cornell" no matter what sporting event he is watching and no matter which teams are playing (usually not Cornell at all).

Rubin was friendly with one of my freshman hallmates, Debbie. We rented one of those sprawling, 8 bedroom houses sophomore year, and Debbie pulled Rubin into the rental where he shared the basement apartment with a grad student who was quite a character. Even though he lived downstairs, I hardly saw Rubin that year--he studied a lot. Our first dates were unfair squash matches during the spring of our junior year. I'd be diving around the court like a crazywoman, and he was so tall he could stand in the middle and practically reach every wall without moving. I liked him anyway. 29th anniversary coming up.

Although we had a ton of friends in common while we were students at Cornell, Joshua Novikoff '03 and I never met in our four years in Ithaca. I moved to NY for law school and Josh moved to DC. Fast-forward to our 5 year reunion. Josh and I met at the Palms the first night of reunion, we hit it off that night but didn't really see each other too much for the rest of the weekend. However, Josh was coming up to New York for July 4th weekend and we made plans to meet-up. We saw each other several times in New York, I came down to DC...and after about a year and a half of back and forth I moved to DC.

Tom and I went through 4 years of Cornell never meeting each other as he is an engineer and I am Arts and Sciences. However, after graduation I worked for the University and Tom came to an alumni event that I was running. He laughed at my jokes so I was hooked. We started emailing, talking on the phone and he started driving down to Ithaca a lot more often :) We've been married 6 1/2 years and have two fantastic children together. They are future Cornellians for sure!! I still have the email I sent him to invite Albany alumni to a dinner program--that's where it all started.

When I first arrived at Cornell I moved temporarily into a room of a colleague's apartment. When I found a fully furnished house to move into, I left behind my bed and other furniture. A beautiful new grad student arrived from Germany and moved into the room (and my old bed). I had to go check on the bed, right? 28 years later we are still married and parents of a beautiful 13 year old German/American daughter.

Bryan and I met on a canoeing Wilderness Reflections trip in August of 1995. Upon returning to campus, Bryan asked me out for our first date - ice cream at Oliver's in Collegetown. We dated all through college and married in June of 2000. Ten years and three children later, we still love to come back to campus for reunions.

Back in the 80's my dad used to recuit MILR graduates from Cornell and worked closely with their long-standing career director, Karin Ash PhD '99. He encouraged my brothers to come up with him on recruiting trips - they ended up going to Cornell, as did I 5 years later. As a A&S Psych major, when I was a junior, I met with Karin to hear her career story and get a sense of the ILR/OB/HR world. I stayed in touch w/Karin and when I landed in '02 in the then Metro NY Cornell Alumni Affairs & Development office in Manhattan, I told Karin I was back w/Cornell. She mentioned that her son had just graduated and was job networking so connected him to come see me to learn about ways to get involved with local alumni and events. 6 months later, Ethan Ash was working in our office and we hit it off - first discreetly. We then went onto different organizations, stayed together while I came back to Johnson for business school, got engaged during my first semester, married at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in July '06, moved back to Ithaca in the fall of '08 and had our son, Eli, in October 2009. My life has been much more about the Big Red and Ithaca than I could have ever imagined.

Just over 28 years ago I met a gorgeous girl during an orientation "ice cream spree" in the lobby of Ecology (Hurlburt) House. Though Candie was a year ahead of me, I was five years older, back in school for an Engineering degree. We dated steadily for three years. Candie stayed on in Ithaca and a week after my graduation we married in Sage Chapel! We had our reception at an antique B&B near Buttermilk Falls. Though broke college grads, we danced to the band Candie won as the grand prize at a bridal expo. My older son attends Cornell now, and every time we visit, he hears (yet again) all about the wonderful courtship my wife and I enjoyed amidst classes and the tolling tower bells.

Dina '87 and I actually met playing Sun hockey @ Lynah the night Joe Nieuwendyk played his last game (2/28/87). I remember thinking that night "this is the girl I'm going to marry." After one more year together in Ithaca, we long-distance dated b/w NJ & CT, were married in Newtown, CT on 11/10/91 and stayed together 19 years and 40 days - exactly! For 7 of those years, we shared the best BIchon Friese ever - named Baron von Ezra. We even used to take Ezra up to Ithaca and pose him next to his namesake's statue for a cute photo. Fortunately, Dina and I remain more-than-excellent friends and it's all thanks to the Big Red! FYI: my next dog will be named "Lynah Rose"...

Adam and I met at Cornell in 1997. I was from LA and he was from the south. We were drawn to each other. We shared many wonderful and stressful times :) together at Cornell. The year we were to graduate, he proposed to me. That spring break we eloped (crazy kids) and have been married 10 years come March. I love Cornell for many reasons, especially this one.

Thanksgiving Break, 1995. We both took a College Express Bus going home, though from different parts of campus: North for me, West for him. He sat across an aisle from me (with my friend whose name I cannot remember in between). After a short while he asked to see a Time magazine with a story on Beatles anthology release I was reading. We talked while sharing the ride to Baltimore, where he got off. I continued to Washington, D.C. Sat together on the ride back. Became good friends at Cornell. After 4.5 yrs got married. :-)

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but on graduation day, my best friends and I said, "well, I guess we didn't meet our future husbands at Cornell!" Little did I know mine was sitting on the field that day, too. I met Scott Whitney '90 in Los Angeles in October 1991 through Cornell friends I made after moving there a few months earlier. We were married at our 10th Reunion at the Taughannock Falls overlook, and last June we returned to our 20th Reunion with our two kids in tow. They love it there each time we go, and I have to say, sharing the same Reunions with my husband is a wonderful thing! Since our special day often falls during Reunion weekend, Scott will give me a PMP from Hot Truck instead of roses and champagne. What's not to love about that?!?

I met my husband the very first day of orientation. We both lived in Mary Donlon Hall, and met through my roommate whom he had previously known. I always tell people that the very first conversation we had was "Hey, Is Sarah here?" To which I replied "no." Fortunately we had many more conversations later and were married shortly after graduation in May 2000.

One of the original Cornell love stories: Jennie McGraw and Willard Fiske http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/99/2.11.99/McGraw.html