It was the summer of 1968. Roger was preparing his PhD (the first one to be given by SUNY Binghamton -- in geology, awarded in June 1969) and I was doing an MAT after getting my degree in English before going on to teach at North Junior High in Binghamton.

On the afternoon of Sunday, Aug. 1, I went to the snack bar for a cup of coffee -- the campus that summer was really deserted and the snack bar was a mecca where lonely souls congregated -- I knew Roger well enough to say hello, so he joined me and we had a coffee together, then he asked me for a date -- to go to dinner with him the next day. We were settled in his blue Dodge and on our way to dinner on Monday evening when I discovered he was nearly as broke as I was (since he was just a student assistant, and was living from hand to mouth). So we ended up buying some food and cooking it together at his apartment. The rest is history -- I typed all the drafts of his PhD thesis, he watched me correct English papers for my students.

In the summer of 1969, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work at the Smithsonian Institution, so I followed him south and worked in New York City as an editor of technical reports. We were married on August 29, 1970, and we have been living (more or less happily) together in Brittany, France since December 1970. Our three kids once visited Binghamton's campus on one of our pilgrimages to the USA, and they know how important our education was for us, in more ways than we can explain. Now the two youngest of our three children (Anna, 26, and Diran, 29) are preparing to be doctors here in Brest, and our oldest son is following in the family's artistic footprints since he's now an actor in New York.

All in the family

Shawn A. Weil '98 wrote: "My in-laws, Sheila Rosenblum Ornstein '71 and Paul N. Ornstein '70 met at Harpur College in the late '60s and were married in the early '70s. Their daughter, Beren Ornstein Weil '98, and I met at BU in 1996 and were married in 2000. So that is two generations of BU marriages!"

Read about more alumni couples in Pipe Dream... After reading about alumni Valentines in Alumni Connect, Pipe Dream decided to do its own story about alumni couples, "Meeting that special someone in college" by Carly Lipkowitz and Jessica Lanoil. To go to the story, click here.