In retrospect, it was fortunate that I was unable to get campus housing until my second quarter at Northwestern. Terry and I met in September 1965 in the Men Off Campus (MOC) lounge in Scott Hall. The Women Off Campus (WOC) lounge was next door, and there was plenty of mingling between the two. Terry was an avid bridge player, so I decided it was time for me to learn the game — with his help, of course. By the time he realized I’d never play at his level, it was too late ...
I invited Terry on our first date, a WOC hayride. After that, we went to many football and basketball games (Go, Cats!) and explored the campus together. Favorite memories include picnics at Wilmette’s Gillson Park, warming coffee cake on the radiator in my dorm room, and choosing flavors and toppings for a shared Baskin-Robbins banana split.
We married in 1970. Both of our sons are Northwestern grads — Mark Jacobson ’95 and Scott Jacobson ’98. Scott also met his wife, Carin Sulman Jacobson ’99, at Northwestern. We now live on Mercer Island, Wash., as do our sons and their families, including five awesome grandkids. Whenever we visit the Chicago area, we love walking the campus where it all started.
My first memory of Joe was in Harris Hall, when I started graduate school. He, however, remembers seeing me in the basement of Harris Hall [when she was an undergrad] and wanting to meet the girl always sitting outside of professor Michael Roloff’s office. Joe even remembers the book bag I carried my senior year, which I retired before starting grad school.
After passing notes in professor Peter Miller’s class and flirting for weeks, I got tired of it and called up Joe to ask him out. We planned to meet in downtown Chicago at Harry’s Velvet Room, but I got stuck in Chicago traffic and was over 45 minutes late! In those pre-cellphone days, I expected Joe to have left, but he was still there, patiently waiting for me. We were pretty inseparable after that, and we have followed each other to North Carolina, New York, California and back again to New York, where we currently reside (as well as Connecticut). This year we sent our only child, Peyton, off to Northwestern to begin her very own adventure there!
Our story began in the fall of 1986 in the hallways of Tech. Elliot was a senior, and I was a sophomore. Elliot saw me from a distance and asked his friend, “Who is THAT?!” His friend told Elliot my name and that I was a Ladycat [a member of the Northwestern dance team]. I knew Elliot was on the basketball team, but I didn’t know that he was also an engineering major. Our next encounter was in January at Welsh-Ryan Arena. After the basketball game, Elliot had the student trainer ask if I would go out with him. My response was, “If he can’t ask me himself, then the answer is NO.” Elliot took this as a “YES, she’s interested!” and that evening he came to Foster-Walker [Complex] to ask me on a date.
Our first date was memorable, going to Houlihan’s on Michigan Avenue, walking across the bridge and making a wish over the Chicago River. We got engaged on New Year’s Eve 1993 and married in September. Thirty-one years of marriage and four kids later, our wish has come true.
Our journey started in Connecticut, where Elliot worked, and I commuted to New York City. We currently reside in Houston and enjoy watching Northwestern basketball and reminiscing about our Wildcat days.
Abraham and I met in 2011 at Six Flags Great America during first-year orientation week. A friendship soon formed alongside a friendly competition to get the most housing points in Willard — Abe: 1, Laura: 0. We each dated other people during our time at Northwestern. After graduation, we moved to opposite coasts — I went to New England, and Abe left for California — but we stayed in touch by watching episodes of Gilmore Girls over synced Netflix.
In 2018 Abe visited me in Evanston, where I was teaching at a Northwestern summer camp. It was there, on Clark Street Beach, that I suggested we move our relationship from platonic to romantic. We maintained a cross-country romance for a year until Abe joined me in the world of Connecticut boarding schools. We married in July 2023 and share our life with our bernedoodle, Emmy.
“Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne” (German, roughly: There is magic in every new beginning.)
There was definitely magic in Herr John Paluch’s German class, where we met in March 1992. After three months of sitting together and performing a skit auf Deutsch, we were fast friends. Our first official date was to see Disney’s Aladdin in January 1993. From then on it was definitely a whole new world. New food, new travel locations and finally a new name. Love had us hooked.
After Northwestern, we stayed together while Keith attended law school. There were lots of late-night trips between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia (my home). We had always dreamed of marrying on a special date and finally tied the knot on Dec. 31, 1999, in Philadelphia. We honeymooned in Greece and Egypt.
After six years, when our cats Suave and Socks were our only kids, along came Marinel in 2006 and Maura in 2015. Finally, in 2020, just after celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, out popped our surprise son, Mark Hamill. Now as we approach our 53rd birthdays, we can’t help but think how Northwestern brought us together into a whole new world of love and joy.
Jon and I met in spring 2002. Jon had been accepted as a doctoral student in psychology, and after visiting campus that March, he sent an email to what was then called BGALA — the Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Alliance — asking what it was like to be gay at Northwestern and in the Chicago area. I had been actively involved with BGALA during my undergraduate years and was managing BGALA’s inbox at the time. I received Jon’s email, and the conversation continued, first via email and later by phone. In fact, Jon and I got to know one another across a six-week period that spring before learning what each other looked like. Our first in-person date involved coffee at Kafein and a nighttime walk on the lakefill; our first kiss was near the Norris East Lawn. When Jon moved to Evanston that September, he and I began what has since become a nearly 23-year relationship. We married on Cape Cod in June 2008 (when Massachusetts was the only state where same-sex marriage was legal), surrounded by a large group of Northwestern friends.
Favorite memories of Northwestern include extensive technical theater work: I worked on four Waa-Mu Shows, as well as several shows sponsored by the theater department; Jon worked on a Dolphin Show and a production of Assassins at Shanley Pavilion. We attended every home football game and stood behind the marching band, singing and cheering. For almost seven years, we participated in a monthly dinner group with friends from Northwestern. Since 2015 we have resided in Newton, Mass., along with our children Miles, 11, and Zoe, 9.
Lindsay and I met on the first day of my senior year and her first day as a sophomore transfer student. The chemistry was instant, but we both played it cool. Over the next few months, we had a series of random and non-so-random encounters that were as awesome (and cringe-worthy) as any romantic comedy until I finally asked her out. After that, we were inseparable.
On my graduation day, I painted her a rock on the lakefront, and we both braced for what was coming: a long-distance relationship for three of our next four years. We stuck it out though and were married — six years from the day I asked her to be my girlfriend. We’ve tried to make it back to our rock to add the names of our five kids, but we are several names behind!
Bill and I met walking down Sheridan Road after first-year orientation at Cahn Auditorium in fall 1975. As fate would have it, we were both walking back to Sargent Hall. We quickly befriended, talking long into many nights, sitting on the floor outside my dorm room. And then, a first date to The Taking of Pelham 123 at Tech Movie Night. Though the winter of that first year almost drove this Florida girl to transfer, I remained a Wildcat, and our relationship grew.
After graduation and a short-lived stint at real-world work in New York City, we decided to marry and pursue our somewhat nontraditional careers: Bill as a teacher and basketball coach and me as a theater artist. Fast-forward 44 years. We moved five times, have two amazing kids (Hannah, 38, and Quinn, 37), and we spent the last 30 of those years at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. We’ve recently retired, Bill as the fourth-winningest active coach in NCAA III men’s basketball and me as professor emerita in theater and communication. One of our most rewarding DePauw experiences is our 10-plus year relationship with the nonprofit PeacePlayers, working on post-Troubles conflict resolution in Northern Ireland.
We now live in Tampa, Fla., where I finally got my “transfer” to warmer weather and keep my hand in the theater as a director and actor. Bill has embarked on a part-time career as a broadcaster and remains open to suggestions as to how best to navigate retirement. We continue to stay connected to several of our Northwestern friends and remain grateful for our time spent with them in Evanston.
Share your Northwestern love story in the comments below!
Check out these related stories...
The Northwestern Alumni Association is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its mentorship program, which provides valuable support and guidance to students and alumni as they navigate their careers, explore new industries or consider graduate school.
When Rachel Yihui Lin became NU Club of Beijing president in 2023 — after serving on its board for seven years — she took the helm of an active group whose 1,100-plus members span generations and hold degrees from a variety of Northwestern programs.
Reader Responses
These were a joy to read! Thank you so much for compiling them. My husband (Yusuf Pisan, '92, '98 PhD) and I met at ISRC when he was a junior from Istanbul and I was a freshman whose family had recently moved to the U.S. via Italy and South Africa. Our first date was a walk around the lakefill, and this fall it’ll be 35 years since that day in September. We spent almost decade in Chicago together before upping sticks to Australia for 20 years and then landing in the Pacific Northwest with our now 15-year-old son. Evanston will always be one of our favorite places in the world. Looking forward to repainting our rock on the lakefill on our next nostalgia trip!
—Meryl McQueen '94, Woodinville, Wash.
My wife Lisa (WCAS '89) and I met in psychology quiz section in Kresge Hall in October 1985 and have been married 35 years!
—Jonathan Drews '89, '94 MBA, Cary, Ill.
Met my husband at NU in Jones! He’s a wonderful man and a great father to our four kids! Go Wildcats!!!!
—Stephanie (Zachrich) Durant '05, Powell, Ohio
It's good to see NU is still working magic [to] bring couples together. My better half and I met in 1971, freshman year, first day of classes, first class (8:00 am) on the steps of Lunt Hall for our math class. We spent most of the rest of our time at NU as a couple, studying together, attending football and basketball games, and a variety of other activities. I left NU to fulfill a four-year obligation to the Navy for my NROTC scholarship. We reconnected during my stint with the USN, endured a three-year engagement, and have been married since 1979. We have visited the campus a number of times, making note of all the improvements over the years - quite a change from our years there.
—Ken & MJ Gettman '75, Clifton, Va.
That was so much fun to read. You really can get more than a diploma from your time at Northwestern. And here's one more: my beautiful wife Debbie '85 and me. The story continues!
—David Aron '86, Naperville, Ill., via Northwestern Magazine
My favorite feature of the year! If anyone here wants more heartwarming stories, check back on Valentine's Day for a special episode of our alumni podcast, Northwestern Intersections, featuring more stories like these.
—Max Herteen Evanston, via Northwestern Magazine
What a heartwarming and delightful article! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about how the alumni couples first met and where their lives have taken them since. Please consider making this a regular feature in future issues! :)
—Katherine Lee '97, Los Angeles, via Northwestern Magazine
No one has commented on this page yet.
Submit a Response