Columbia Love Stories 2017

"I met my wife Susan, Barnard '68 at the first Freshman mixer during orientation week in 1964. After graduating Columbia and Barnard in 1968, we both enrolled in Columbia Law School and were married in 1971, the year we graduated from the Law School. We will be married 46 years a week from now."

"We met in Burkina Faso (during Peace Corps) but we fell in love at Columbia!" Read the full story in The New York Times: http://cualu.ms/2jYQ235

"It was December 1984 at the Medical Center. Barbara S. was working as the administrative assistant to Dr. Robert G., chairman of the Department of Medicine. I was an assistant professor of medicine and director of occupational medicine at The Presbyterian Hospital. Louis S., MD, gastroenterologist, was consulting in occupational medicine and told me that a very attractive woman, Barbara, was recently divorced. At the same time he told Barbara that I was recently divorced as well. Well, at the upcoming Medicine Christmas party, I made sure to talk to Barbara. We dated regularly for the next two years and got married in 1987. We both continued to work at the Medical Center. Barbara retired in 2005 and I retired in 2010. We have been happily married for 30 years!"

"My parents met at Columbia. My father, Gustav McKee W., arrived in 1930 and completed his PhD in Botany in 1935. My mother, Matilde O., was at Barnard at the time. They sat back-to-back in a biology lab for a whole semester without ever noticing each other. The following term, a mutual professor introduced them, and the rest is history! They were separated for five years due to the depression economy, then married in 1936 in Texas, where he was a professor at Texas A&M for 50 years and Dean of Agriculture. They had a great marriage for over 30 years, till she died of cancer in 1967. She was a transfer student from Puerto Rico. Their paths would never have crossed without Columbia!"

"Carlos and I met at CBS in 2009 -- we're both Class of 2010 from the Business School. I'm from Chicago and he's from Sao Paulo originally. My learning teammate went to college with Carlos in Brazil and introduced us in the halls of Uris. We spent most of school saying hi to each other in the hallways, but we didn't really know each other at all. Then three years after graduation, a mutual CBS friend threw a housewarming party that we both attended. Carlos and I struck up an actual conversation for the first time, we hit it off and we enthusiastically agreed to meet up later. It seemed like a date but I wasn't totally sure ... and then he didn't reach out for four months! When he did reach out, we set-up a very official lunch to talk about work because we work at similar types of firms. So I figured it was a definite work thing but I dressed up just in case. Fortunately, lunch was followed by a bottle of rosé, then a long walk around the West Village, then dinner that same night. The rest is history! We got engaged last winter at Columbia in front of the Alma Mater statue. Our friend took pictures of the proposal, so we've got a great shot of him down on one knee. We're getting married this May in the Caribbean."

"I graduated from the Law School. My father did too. My son graduated from the Architecture School. My wife went to Barnard. My sister-in-law graduated from Columbia College. My father-in-law taught at the Med School for 30 years. The love story part is that we all love the education we got (or gave)."

"Orit S. caught my eye in a place where I probably should not have been looking – during prayer services conducted by the Columbia / Barnard Hillel - Jewish student organization. Back then, in the Fall of 1989, there was no Kraft Center for Jewish Life as there is now – we prayed in Earl Hall. The community’s daily minyan was hardly the place to pick up a date, and yet I found myself going every morning and many an evening in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her over in the women’s section. Eventually I mustered the courage to speak to her (I was 20, and hadn’t had much dating experience yet!), and then, to spend time with her. As the semester rolled on, I found myself spending more and more time with her and less and less time on my first-year law studies. But so it goes. A year and a few months later I proposed to Orit in her Barnard dorm room – filled the whole room with helium balloons and sat behind them, waiting to be discovered, ring in hand. (That day, of all days, Claremont Avenue was repaved, and therefore completely closed, making it difficult to get a large helium tank up to her room!) We got married two months after her graduation from college in 1991, and by the time I graduated from the law and business schools in May 1993, we had a son and another on the way. The whole crew – five sons, four daughters, one daughter-in-law (the blonde) and one future daughter-in-law (in the white dress) – can be seen in the attached picture from two weeks ago, at our second son’s engagement party.

Go Columbia! PS Both my siblings met their spouses at Columbia too!"

"My husband and I met in a small tile store when we were both renovating our apts. He asked me for my advice on tile colors as we were both looking at the overwhelming number of choices. He was wearing a Columbia sweatshirt, which made me at first more comfortable to talk to him. After emailing about design and picking paint colors, we went on a lunch date and within a year we were engaged. Now those tiles are my tiles and we're working on a new renovation project together. Our 9th wedding anniversary is coming up this year and we have two beautiful boys, 4 and 2."

"My husband and I met in a small tile store when we were both renovating our apts. He asked me for my advice on tile colors as we were both looking at the overwhelming number of choices. He was wearing a Columbia sweatshirt, which made me at first more comfortable to talk to him. After emailing about design and picking paint colors, we went on a lunch date and within a year we were engaged. Now those tiles are my tiles and we're working on a new renovation project together. Our 9th wedding anniversary is coming up this year and we have two beautiful boys, 4 and 2."

"Although I met my wife well after both our respective stints at Columbia University, our common Columbia backgrounds played a significant role in establishing an initial connection between us, which has since then blossomed into a loving and growing family. I met my wife, Jenny K. '08TC online. At the time, we were both not specifically looking out for fellow Columbians, but when we both realized on our first date that we had strong ties to the community that we both have benefited so much from, continue to stay in touch with, and cherish as a whole, it paved the way for an even smoother and relaxed interaction between us. Our chemistry was there from the start, strengthened by our campus connection and sharing our memories of our time at Columbia. It doesn't hurt to know too that as fellow Columbians, we belong to the same mold - driven, unafraid and forever curious - setting as perfect a stage as possible for us to get to know each other better. We've been dating since 2012 and got married in 2015. Last year, we welcome a most special arrival to our family (and hopefully a future Columbian), Adrian. Attached is a recent photo of our growing Columbia family."

"Elizabeth and I met when we played love interests opposite each other in the King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe's production of Midsummer Night's Dream. I was Demetrius, and she was Helena; I was also a freshman still finding his sealegs his second semester, and Elizabeth was a gorgeous, powerful senior famous campus-wide. I was intimidated. The first time we met was at the show's read-through rehearsal. I saw a stunning woman walk in in boots and sit down with her arms crossed. I asked my friend, 'Who is that?' he said it was Elizabeth. From that moment, I was done. The very first thing I said to her was, 'Hi, I'm Alex, and you are out of my league.' Five years later, it is still true. Elizabeth is the light of my life and she makes me a better person every day."

"Claremont Avenue, fall of 1983. I was exiting International House, where I lived while getting my MFA in the Writing Department, to trek down to the Citibank on 111th Street. He, an art history grad student who lived in a sublet across the street, was approaching my direction on his bike. He was a non-resident member of I. House who took advantage of the facilities – laundry room, dance parties. We’d met in aerobics class and had struck up the beginnings of a friendship. He pulled over. We got to talking. He started walking south with me, wheeling his bike. We kept talking. Before I knew it, he had walked me all the way to the bank. He admitted that he had just come from the bank. We both suspected something big was brewing. We got married in 1990 in the I. House ballroom. We moved to the Village and raised two sons and both developed careers that revolve around the life of New York City. Every now and then he looks at me and asks, 'Can I walk you to the bank?'"

apartment on 118th Street. Answering the ad was a man whom I had seen in the Psychological Consultation Center where I was working. He had been an editor at TC Press and completed his doctoral degree in Student Personnel. I was getting my doctorate in psychology. After his summer sublet, we met in the early mornings for coffee and the news......fell deeply in love in 1972 and married in May of 1974. He wrote 'get your dissertation done and we'll make baby number one.' We had four decades and four years together, taking us from early adulthood into our seventies....and then, suddenly, in December 2016, he died. I will always credit Columbia with being the place where we began our long love affair......"

"Barnard’s McIntosh student center was probably the least romantic spot on either side of Broadway. It certainly never had the cachet of Burgess-Carpenter, or the steps on 116th Street. But that’s where my husband, Ken, and I met at lunch in October 1974 during my sophomore year and his junior year at Engineering. I was a commuter from Brooklyn; since freshman year, I was friends with a group of other commuters from Barnard and Columbia who had a regular table in McIntosh. Even though Ken lived in John Jay, he had spent his first semester at college commuting from Canarsie, Brooklyn and knew many of my lunch crowd. That first encounter led to another a few weeks later, also in McIntosh, when I was with a friend at a booth tucked way, way back in the dining space. Ken and his friend had nowhere to sit, so they joined me. Ken didn’t remember my name from the first time we had met, but somehow I didn’t register that during our spirited conversation, when both of us nearly missed our next classes. And within hours, he figured out how to track me down through our mutual friends. That launched our relationship (back in the late 70s, no one “dated). We married in December 1979, after I received my master’s in French and Romance Philology from Columbia’s GSAS while Ken was in medical school at Stony Brook. Our son, Jacob (CC ’05), was born in 1983 after I earned my master’s from the J-school. We left the city for Southern Westchester in 1985, essentially following the West Side Highway north until it turned into the Saw Mill River Parkway. Our daughter, Ruth (Dartmouth ’08), was born in 1986. That McIntosh meeting loomed so large in family lore that as a surprise for our 30th anniversary our children decided to take us back to campus to celebrate where it all began. Terrific idea, except they hadn’t realized that McIntosh had been demolished to construct the Diana Center. Still, we have good pictures of us standing outside the construction fence and an even better story. I’ve remained a freelance journalist, contributing to the New York Times for about 16 years and now covering education for national and state publications. Ken, after earlier positions at Montefiore Medical Center and Nassau University Medical Center is chair of internal medicine at Coney Island Hospital. We’re looking forward to his 40th Reunion in June and mine in 2018."

"I lived on Carman Six, she lived on Carman Eight. But the story actually begins a year before that. During my senior year of high school in Los Angeles, my buddy, just back from a summer in Israel, told me about a girl he met who would be attending Columbia along with me. "You gotta meet this girl," he insisted. So on the first day of freshman year, I tracked her down and introduced myself. She was adorable, as advertised. It was love at first sight. For me. Not for her. I know this because, two days later, she was dating the president of the Fiji house. And kept dating him for most of college. By senior year, I couldn't take it anymore and tried again. This time she came around. We'll celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary this March."

"I lived on Carman Six, she lived on Carman Eight. But the story actually begins a year before that. During my senior year of high school in Los Angeles, my buddy, just back from a summer in Israel, told me about a girl he met who would be attending Columbia along with me. "You gotta meet this girl," he insisted. So on the first day of freshman year, I tracked her down and introduced myself. She was adorable, as advertised. It was love at first sight. For me. Not for her. I know this because, two days later, she was dating the president of the Fiji house. And kept dating him for most of college. By senior year, I couldn't take it anymore and tried again. This time she came around. We'll celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary this March."

"On Friday the thirteenth in November of 1970, I met my now wife of 44 years on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend. I was a graduate student at Columbia School of Public Health (now Mailman) working on my Masters of Science in Hospital Administration at that time.My future wife, Marjorie S. A. was a graduate student at Columbia Teacher's College. Marjorie was a single mother with a child and lived in Bancroft Hall at the time. Our mutual friend, Meredith K., was more like a sister to me and someone with whom I had attended both high school and college. She had turned me down for the date when I reached out because my steady girlfriend, a flight attendant for Pan American, had been called upon last minute, leaving me high and dry for an important function with my classmates the Saturday the 14th. As an alternative to herself, Meredith suggested this nice woman in her classes at Teacher's College named Marjorie whom she thought was someone special I might like. Oh, and by the way, Marjorie was a single mother with a small child. The only issue I raised then was I had never been married and did not necessarily want to become involved with someone with a small child.My friend urged me to call her regardless, reminding me it was only a date for a party! I did call Marjorie and we had an amazingly natural 45 minute conversation. Feeling at ease, I extended the invitation to her to accompany me to the class function on Saturday night in New Jersey. I had never been on a blind date. A few hours after I had hung up. I started to get cold feet and called another young woman with whom I had worked part -time at Mount Sinai Hospital before starting graduate school. When that young lady accepted, I called Marjorie back, and feeling more obligated to Meredith than noble, I asked Marjorie if she would be okay to go out Friday night, rather than on Saturday since there had been change in plans...big fib! I justified to myself that, in that manner, I was fulfilling my obligation and not being so much of a cad to Marjorie. I was, of course, totally oblivious and inconsiderate of the baby-sitting arrangements that had to be undone and reaffirmed for the moved-up date, but Marjorie was agreeable. When I showed up at Bancroft Hall on Friday, November 13, 1970, I realized as I waited for her to appear downstairs in the lobby that it was Friday, the thirteenth, and well, this will be a disaster. We'll be married 45 years this coming August, and it was the luckiest day of my life. We fell in love and our daughter, Sarah, then five, completed the package. I was able to adopt Sarah, and so I was an instant husband, father and provider thanks to Columbia University."

"We're a proud Columbia union. We met in a Morningside dive bar in January 2012, and four and a half short years later, brought together by the values that Columbia nurtured in us as students, teachers, and workers (Kristen graduated from the College in 2006, and I completed my PhD in History at Columbia in 2015), we decided to form our very own union.

Sunlight beaming overhead, we walked down the aisle and engaged in the obviously legal process by which free people, recognizing what they share, combine their lives and livelihoods. A joyous affair, our beautiful union! One that no one would want to take away from us or anyone else."

"We met in Professor Jill S.’s “Behavior of Primates” class in fall of 1997. It was early Friday morning and the first day of the lab section. Admittedly we were the only two slightly disgruntled upper-class humanities majors in a sea of freshman Anthropology enthusiasts, but as we went around the room introducing ourselves, we caught each other’s eyes. After class, we waited for each other and awkwardly shook hands while riding in the elevator. About a week later, Anthony made a flimsy excuse to come to Becca's room in River Hall to "copy notes" and we soon realized that life was extraordinary together and things moved pretty quickly from there. Visiting the Natural History Museum turned into dating and a relationship that is almost 20 years old. In June 2017 we will have been married for 15 years. We have been together through moves, multiple graduate degrees, career changes and children—Oriana (12) and Ilaria (8)—and we always make our life full of art, music, food and travel. Our latest collaboration is an interdisciplinary duo (violin and video) called The Afield. We recently performed together at National Sawdust in Brooklyn."

"Katie and Vinny met at a law school mixer thrown by Professor Philip B. during orientation week in August of 2012, at the Beekman Beer Garden. Vinny was standing at the bar, when Katie approached and asked "Aren't you the one who used to work for the Cake Boss?" That was the start of a great friendship that would last through their Legal Methods class and for the rest of the semester, until early 2013 when the two began dating. On their first date, Vinny made Katie homemade lasagna and tiramisu. She knew he was a keeper! It did not take long for each of them to realize they had found "the one"! On October 18, 2014, Katie and Vinny went to Yankee Stadium for a group tour. When they arrived, they noticed that no one else showed up for their group tour (Katie found out later that Vinny had bought all the tickets for that particular tour so it would be private). The tour guide explained it away as a happy accident and lead them to Monument Park. While standing in the center of Monument Park, Vinny got down on one knee and asked Katie to marry him, right there surrounded by baseball's greats in Katie's "favorite place in the world". Katie and Vinny graduated from Columbia Law in May of 2015, Vinny as a Stone Scholar. They studied for the bar exam together while planning their wedding and were married in Nashville, TN, (Katie's hometown) on August 22, 2015. They are now are loving life together in New York with their puppy, Harry. Vinny works as a corporate real estate associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver, and Jacobson, and Katie is an Assistant District Attorney for the Brooklyn DA's Office."

"My mother Margaret H. was in nurses training in White Plains hospital in 1950. Mom met with circumstances which forced her to leave training and work as a nurses' aide in St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan. Fate had it that Dad (Ron Young '51CC) became gravely ill with a bleeding ulcer. Healed with Mom's TLC, Dad and Mom were married several months later in St. Paul's chapel. Their courtship included attending dinner-dances at Columbia at which Dad, member of the Kingsmen, sang in that group, and other great times. They went on to raise us, five girls, and I graduated '95 School of Nursing, Master's in family health. I love my Columbia family."

"Our Columbia Love Story started in 2010. We met at Columbia/Barnard Hillel during Jeremiah’s first year orientation. We kept running into one another on campus, but our first date (at Thai Market) wasn’t until the following April. After that, we knew we were a perfect fit. Enjoying time in Morningside Heights together formed the fun beginnings of our relationship: early morning Absolute bagels, study dates in Butler, lounging on the steps, taking Professor A.'s astronomy class together, cheering on the Lions at Homecoming and on the tennis court, enjoying Sigma Delta Tau, Hillel, and JTS formals… the list goes on. Since our graduations, we have loved returning to campus to delight in the view from college walk…and to take engagement photos! We will be married this spring with many of our Columbia and Barnard friends and family — including Jeremiah’s brother Jonah '18GS and Marla’s sister Lauren '16BC and cousin Deena '18BC — in attendance! We couldn’t be happier, and are so thankful for our shared Columbia experience that will forever be special to us." (Photo: L&M Photography)

"He was wearing a white bandana, aviator sunglasses and chanting really loud; she was rehearsing airplane moves on Amsterdam Avenue outside of the 118th Street gates—this was Orientation Week at the Business School and we were both in Cluster A, aka the Aviators. During this week, we started to notice each other. It was really easy, considering we were in the same Core classes our first semester, and because we had a secret crush on each other. We would casually chat during social events and on our Cluster’s fall break trip to the Dominican Republic. But it was during the annual ski trip that we bonded, talking next to the fireplace and learning how much we had in common, like we’re both the youngest of three. When classes resumed after winter break, we decided to cross the yellow light and began dating. We went on our first couple trip one month later to Bermuda, and two years after that, we went back and got engaged on the beach. We’re excited to celebrate our wedding this summer with many of our friends from Columbia!"

"I arrived on campus from the public schools of Detroit on an NROTC Regular scholarship to the College.I. felt really out of touch. Wrong clothes, a lot bigger city AND Campus than I imagined. And the Ivy League campus wasn't what I expected...to say the least. My native born roommate, Mike C., helped keep my heard above water and even leant me clothes for a date or two at Barnard. The Dean's Drag, a formal dance in early December of my freshman year, was one I needed to attend because I had joined the sponsoring organization, the Van Am Society ( I would become President of the Society in my junior year...how about that!). I needed a date and as a result of a recommendation of my roommate I contacted a graduate student who kept a "little black book" of choice picks at Barnard and St. Lukes School of Nursing. I chose St. Lukes and contacted the first name on the alphabetical list of five or six names. Marjory C., a first year student from Long Island, was reluctant to even talk with me, She did agree to having coffee the next evening. I dressed in Mike's best outfit for the evening. We went to the dance. I left for Christmas break and left a Columbia Lion in Marge's mail box with a note telling her I would be back and 'Don't go away!' I spent a lot of time with Marge on the weekends at her home and her mother became a second mother for me. We were pinned in the spring of 1954, engaged the following year and married following my graduation and commissioning in the U. S. Navy. We moved thirteen times and owned six houses while in the Navy and then Alcoa and Howmet Aluminum and Phelps Dodge Aluminun Products and etc, We moved to St. Louis in 1971 and that is where we intend to stay. June 7, 2017, will be our 60th wedding anniversary. We have four daughters and 10 grandchildren."

"My wife and I met while she was a student at St. Luke’s School of Nursing and I was a first year graduate student at the Columbia Business School. We met at a Halloween mixer on October 31, 1965 in John Jay Hall...We were married on August 17, 1968 and have remained married for 49 years."

"My wife and I met while she was a student at St. Luke’s School of Nursing and I was a first year graduate student at the Columbia Business School. We met at a Halloween mixer on October 31, 1965 in John Jay Hall...We were married on August 17, 1968 and have remained married for 49 years."

"We were floormates on Carman 8 (still the best group of people I could ever hope to live with and learn from) and we met the first week (or so) of college. I remember him asking me if he could tag along with a group of us to a zeta psi party. I remember thinking he was out-of-my-league-attractive and I assumed I'd see him taking some girl back to the floor later that night. That girl turned out to be me! I assumed in the weeks after that first party that I would live to regret the day I started seeing a floormate. More than one person suggested the same. But, we'll be married four years in September, and we've been together for over a decade. He is wonderful. Excited to grow old with him and to show our future kids around Columbia one day. Thanks for the intro, Columbia! This photo includes several Columbia kids: Jenny Merkin '09CC, Amanda Lurie '09SEAS, Kim Davidson '09CC, Samantha Kumar '14SW, and Dov Friedman '09CC."

"A love of history brought us together. In 2012, I met Michael the night of the first presidential debate between Barack Obama '83CC and Mitt Romney when one of his suitemates invited me over to watch in their East Campus townhouse. Despite really hitting it off, I put Michael in the friend zone when he asked me out the next day. Several days later, I asked him to go with me to the New York Historical Society, which I had to visit for Professor J.'s Urban History Class (I didn't want to leave the Morningside Heights bubble by myself!!). The museum was showing a 'New York during WW2' exhibit, and at some point between a fun fact Michael told me about German submarines and noticing he shared with me a rapt interest in the wartime ephemera, I realized he was special and decided to give him a chance. Nearly five years (and two cats) later, Michael and I are living in Brooklyn and are getting married next year. And as they'll say, the rest is history."

"I met my boyfriend last year, in March, at a Columbia procrastination workshop. We've been together since then! He is Chinese and I'm Brazilian. I was doing an LL.M. and he was doing a master in economics."

"I met my soulmate, blessing, and mother of my child at GSAPP in 2012 doing the MsAAD. I hope our baby Mateo will get to go there too."

"In the fall of 1966, he was walking across the quad when he encountered her by chance. They knew each other casually and he immediately asked her for a date that weekend. She said she already had a date, so he asked her to break it, which she did. Seven days after that first date they were engaged and, four months later, they were married. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on February 19, 2017, at which time they toasted their Columbia chance meeting."