While we had many stories and friends in common, we did not actually meet or date on campus despite Kathy being friends with my roommates and her girlfriends living next to us in the townhouses. We met eight years after graduation; good thing - there is little chance we would be here had we met as students! I had attended a wedding of a Fairfield friend in Texas with another StagMate couple, Tom & Rena (DiBernardi) Reagan. He is/was a friend of mine and her a friend of Kathy's; they were dating at the time and subsequently were married months before us. While on the wedding trip, Rena asked how it was that I could be single and I replied, "who do you know?" A short while later, after getting clearance from Kathy, she called and let me know that she did, indeed, have a friend.
Kathy and I met a little after that on a blind date; I was sure to wear my WVOF t-shirt so she could identify me, though I am pretty sure we both perused our Freshman Directory (aka The Meat Sheet) prior to meeting. Not surprisingly, the first date consisted of a lot of common Fairfield connections and remembering events where we, as it turns out, were only feet away from each other but managed not to meet. For example, I liked to study in silence and sought out spots in the library where I thought I would find it...that usually meant the basement. However, while it was pretty quiet there, occasionally, a group of girls would be "studying" in the media room and I could hear them. I was amazed to learn that was Kathy and her friends! Or, during our senior year, a cat had kittens in the window well of one of the townhouses and the girls who lived there cared for them. As the time for graduation neared, many wondered what would become of the cats. Well, I found out, as Kathy took Cosi, one of the kittens home, and she was our first pet when we married!
So, our connections to Fairfield are varied from our introduction, to my friend and fellow '88 alum, Fr. Tom Nydegger, marrying us in the chapel on campus, to my father being an alum to Kathy, now, being a professor in the school of nursing on campus. The connections are important and meaningful to us and it's always amazing when we think of them, especially the disbelief we had when we were freshmen in the Oak Room being told by Fr. Bill to look around at this group of mostly strangers and understand that a high percentage would end up as couples! It's been 22 years since that blind date and 20 since our wedding in the chapel and we are delighted with each other and to share our Fairfield story!
Class Years: 1988
First Met: Blind Date
Wedding Location: Egan Chapel, Fairfield University, CT
