Meet-cutes and memories: WashU alumni share their love stories

August 1981: I was having the time of my life in the all-freshman Koenig Dorm. My Michigan high school days felt far behind! Early on the residents gathered to introduce themselves. Over and over we heard something like this: “I’m Barb Smith from Indiana. I’m pre-med.” Everyone had a plan — except one kid with glasses and floppy blond hair. “I’m John Bishop from Colorado,” he said. “I have no idea what I’m doing here.” He certainly stood out, but my sights were set on the handsome Dan, down the hall. Ah youth! We all spent countless nights talking into the wee hours. One evening, John, Dan, and I began nattering away as the sun set and the hours ticked by. Eventually Dan fell asleep. That left John and me talking until our throats were raw, sharing every detail of our respective lives. By the time the sun rose, my affections had shifted. Within a few days we were joined at the hip and ready to conquer WashU. Forty-five years later, we’re still joined at the hip. We graduated in 1985, married in 1989, had two kids by 1998, and became empty nesters in 2015. Next up: retirement this summer. The Chicago area is home, but we consider it a gift that we share college memories: a formative experience indeed. All it took was one long night deep in conversation. To this day, John still confesses, “I’ve always been grateful that Dan was the one who fell asleep.” Me too.

We met during orientation week at a picnic for incoming freshman medical students. Peter and another guy were looking for two gals who played bridge. Only two did. The four of us played cards often that week and then became gross anatomy lab partners. We named our cadaver Earnest so we could say we worked in dead earnest. That semester we dated sporadically, but after Christmas break it became steady. We gradually realized we were in love. That summer, while apart, Peter built Jane a hope chest. In the fall we became engaged. At Christmas break we were married and honeymooned in warm Florida. After 30 years in academic medicine, we retired to a lake in South Carolina. We enjoyed kayaking, hiking, and travel. We have been married for 56 wonderful years.

Honestly, it really was a dark and stormy night. Looking out the windows of the East Asian Library, the rain was torrential. Lightning struck close by, I think, or maybe it was fate calling. The cute girl I’d been eying from my Introduction to Physics class was studying in the East Asian Library where I worked. At closing time, I noticed she was still there getting ready to leave. By then the storm had progressed from torrential to biblical. I figured this was my chance. I knew she lived off campus and had a car, so I asked her for a ride home. It was 1977 and we could do that then. Gratefully she agreed. The next day, I saw her crossing the Quad heading southeast towards the east end of Busch Hall. I knew if I went through the basement of Busch and cut through the post office and up a flight of stairs, I could head her off. With no time to lose, I ran-walked through the basement and just as I exited, presto, she was directly in my path. When we “coincidentally” bumped into each other, I thanked her for the ride and asked if I could buy her a cup of coffee at Holmes Lounge as a thank you. She agreed. Our friendship turned to romance and eventually to marriage. Now, 49 years later, we have three lovely daughters (one a WashU grad!) and, we agree, five adorable grandchildren.

Donna and I met in class at the Olin Business School in 2010 and quickly became close friends. We shared our entire college experience and graduated early together in December 2012. Years later, that friendship turned into a marriage, and we now live happily in New York City.

Fred and Corinne met on Aug. 24, 1979 in J Dorm’s top floor, J-Penthouse. Corinne was an RA in Shepley that year. Fred was a freshman just starting college. Corinne brought some young ladies from her Shepley floor over to meet some of her old friends in J. During this outing, she had the good fortune of meeting Fred. They became friends and started dating that November. They continued their relationship even after Corinne graduated in 1981. She worked in Kansas City but would drive to WashU to see Fred almost every Friday evening and back Sunday evenings. After Fred graduated in 1983, he got accepted to Rutgers to pursue his PhD in Physics. Corinne’s company agreed to transfer her to a research position in product development in New Jersey. All worked out, and on Aug. 24, 1985, exactly six years after meeting, Fred and Corinne got married. More than 40 years later, we have three children and one grandchild. We lived in Europe for a few years (Paris and Berlin), South Carolina after that, and now Oregon.

Christina and I met in the fall of 2002. We started sharing cookies and “studying” together in Small Group Housing and Christina hustled me at the Sig Ep pool table. After graduation, we both moved to New York City in 2005 and rekindled there. The rest, as they say, is history. We have been married since 2010 and live together with our son in Washington, D.C.

We matched on Tinder in 2016! It was the end of my freshman year and Jack’s sophomore year. We texted all summer getting to know each other before finally meeting up in person for coffee the next fall at Kayak’s. Jack studied architecture and comp sci, and I was pre-med, so we might not have met otherwise. Many of our early dates involved the St. Louis Zoo, brunch at Ibby’s, Greek life formals, and walking around the Loop. Fast forward 10 years, two rounds of long distance, two advanced degrees, and living in three cities together later: we’re getting married! We love WashU so much for being the place we found ourselves as young people and where we found each other. We can’t wait to come back to campus as husband and wife and visit our old stomping grounds. We currently live in Baltimore where I am a resident physician in family medicine and Jack is a UIUX designer.

Jill and I were both biology majors but started dating after meeting at WILD during our sophomore year at WashU in 1996. After dating for junior and senior year, we graduated together in 1998 and while we stayed together, we had a long distance relationship for a few years. She went to an MD/PhD program at UNC Chapel Hill, and I went to Johns Hopkins for a PhD program. Lucky for me we stayed together and she moved to Johns Hopkins for the PhD years of her program. Jill is from Belleville, Illinois, and it only made sense to get married back at WashU where it all started. We were married at Graham Chapel in 2003 before we both graduated with PhDs and then went back to UNC. She finished medical school and I started a postdoctoral fellowship. We are now in Baltimore where she is an associate professor of clinical genetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and I am a professor in microbiology at the University of Maryland. We have two teenagers who love our old stories when we go back to visit campus, where we point out what the South 40 looked like before the renovations, what new buildings came filled a former green space, and how we met in the quad one day at WILD way back when.

Mimi and I first “met” at the end of the first six weeks of our freshman year at the University of Nebraska, when grades were handed out in our courses. As I sat anxiously in my honors chemistry class, I learned I had passed, but the professor said, “Only one of you received an A. Mary Rose, would you come up and get your paper?” A cute redhead walked to the front of the room. I thought to myself, “If I can keep up with her, I might have a chance at getting into medical school.” My goal was set; I spent most of the rest of my college days in the library. In the spring of sophomore year, a chance event brought us together. We were both taking organic chemistry, and one day in the lab, Mimi dropped some of her orange dye. She asked if she could borrow some of my product to mix with hers. “Of course,” I replied, “in return for a date.” I called her a week later and asked her to go to a movie, but she said she was too busy. When we returned to campus in September, I decided to try and get a date with the redhead one more time. I called Mimi again and asked, “How about going to a movie with me? You still owe me that date.” “OK, I suppose,” she replied. I took her to see “Dr. Zhivago,” one of the most romantic movies of all time, although I didn’t know it going into the theater. Driving back to campus after the show, I looked over at Mimi and thought to myself, “I’m going to marry that girl.” We spent most of our junior year dating and met each other’s parents. We both applied and were accepted to WashU Medicine, matriculating in the fall of 1968. By Christmas, we decided to get married. I bought a ring out of a catalog, and while we were driving to visit her parents, I hid the ring under the passenger seat. I said, “Why don’t you look under your seat? There’s something that you might enjoy there.” She put the ring on and was happy to marry me. Her parents were understandably reticent, not wanting to risk Mimi dropping out of medical school. But we quietly persisted, and by the end of the next summer, they agreed to our plans. We were married in Graham Chapel on Dec. 21, 1969, with about 50 of our classmates in attendance.

In April 2006, my roommate, Claire, set me up for our sorority’s date party. I asked her for a lumberjack, recognizing that it was a tall order at WashU. With a little help from our fellow DG sister, Kristina, she found me James. He wasn’t technically a WashU student, but unbeknownst to me (and likely many others!), he had lived in the dorms the year prior with some childhood buddies who were students. He even earned the nickname of The Bum. It was all just supposed to be a fun date night, but James and I really hit it off. In 2010, we got engaged in my office in Brookings Hall when I was working in Undergraduate Admissions, and this spring marks 20 years together and nearly 15 married. We are now raising our two kids in St. Louis and since 2022, I have been back at WashU leading the Sam Fox School’s communications team. When all those POV videos were circulating social media last fall about a fateful decision that changed your life’s course, I couldn’t help but think WashU is mine. I’m so glad I had the wisdom at 17 to say yes when WashU offered me admission. Without WashU, I wouldn’t have my husband, my kids, my career, or my closest friends.

In the fall of 2018, we met in a swing and latin ballroom dance class and started dating a month later! Our favorite memories together on campus include the dance classes in Mudd MPR, lunch breaks in the Law Cafe and Fun Room, study dates in Olin and Bauer, and walking home from campus to the Loop. Six years later, on Dec. 23, 2024, we got engaged on the steps of Brookings (a complete surprise!), and took our engagement pictures around campus.

The first day of Bear Beginnings, I was going to dinner with folks from a groupchat with over 100 people in it. I was running late and asked if anyone wanted to walk with me, and Shelby replied, “I do!” We immediately hit it off and bonded over working as summer camp counselors. I was struck by how funny, genuine, and clever she was, and I was so glad to have met someone so fun on my first day. I made a note on my ArtSci letter to my future self, writing “you’ve met some really cool people like Shelby.” We stayed close friends for all our time at WashU, from living together sophomore year to visiting each other when we studied abroad and have remained best friends since graduation despite living next to different Washingtons (St. Louis and Washington, D.C.). It was an amazing experience to open my letter to myself at the Class of 2025 Senior Toast next to Shelby, only to find out I had written about her all those years before.

It all started with WashU’s community service group, the Campus Y. At the time, Ryan was the finance director and I was organizing Safe Trick-or-Treat. After the event had ended, Ryan asked me out on our first date, and that date turned out to be our forever love story. When Ryan graduated college, we learned how to navigate a long distance relationship as he lived in NYC and I was still at WashU. Many plane rides and countless hours of FaceTime calls later, I graduated from college and also moved to NYC as we began working. Then we moved to Providence as I started medical school and Ryan started law school. In summer 2025, we got married! We are so excited for our future and thankful that WashU brought us the love of our life!

We met in the fall of 2020 when campus was shut down via mutual friends and flirted via Zoom friend hangouts. We knew right away it was forever and spent three amazing years in love at WashU. We graduated in 2023 and moved to Philadelphia, where he proposed. We got married this past August surrounded by all the amazing WashU people who watched us fall in love and supported us along the way. All of WashU’s K.A.R.L. Improv club, past and present, were also in attendance at the wedding. It was such a beautiful testimony to the loving, supportive community everyone can find at the university. We are so grateful for WashU bringing us together!

Adam and I met freshman year while living on the same freshman floor — R.I.P. Liggett, one of the dismal but charming dorms that have since been torn down. I caught his attention in an icebreaker on the first day when I revealed I like to bake pies. It was a slow burn from then on; we started as friends, later went together to an AEPi formal, and then ignited our relationship after graduating from WashU and living in Washington, D.C. It is special to have met at WashU. We share friends, go to reunions together, and, more importantly, named our first child after the St. Louis rapper Nelly who provided the soundtrack to our years at college where we fatefully met.

We first saw each other in Brown Lounge. I was a panelist, and Evan was a prospective social work student. Months later, Evan proposed in the same room. We had the same adviser who credits herself with our love story. Evan asked me out with a letter in my Pendaflex folder, and our courtship happened over conversations on campus about causes we cared about. Nearly 20 years later, that love has stuck. We have two baby Bears and so much gratitude for our WashU love story.

We met in HRM 320 on Jan. 13, 1999. The professor asked us to introduce ourselves to someone we did not know and present that person to the class. Dee walked in, asked the person interviewing me to select someone else, and proceeded to get my bio and present it to the class. The rest is history … we maintained a long-distance relationship after graduation (2000), got married in 2004, had our son, David, in 2006, and our daughter, Sydney, in 2008.

It’s August 1986, back when you had to stand in line to manually register for classes during orientation. The line for a student ID took about two hours, but the time went faster by talking to the guy in front of me with a terrific smile. We parted ways that day but ran into each other again and began having lunch together on campus, which turned into many trips to the zoo, the Science Center, and local restaurants. I lived at home and had a car; maybe that’s why he liked me initially? Besides driving for all of our dates, I was able to take him to church off campus as well as bring him to my parents’ house to do laundry for free. By the time we turned 19, we had a feeling this was it. Fast forward to May 1990; we get married in the church I had attended for over a decade. Fast forward to 2026 and we will celebrate 36 years this year. We have three wonderful sons and in June 2025 we became grandparents to a beautiful granddaughter!

I was sitting in Bear’s Den late at night with a group of friends when Sydney joined our booth. She knew my friend, but we had never met. I asked her who she was and where she was from. After learning she was from NYC, I started naming subway stops to impress her. It didn’t work. We saw each other a few times during the rest of the year, but it wasn’t until the start of sophomore year that we went on our first date: lunch at Pi Pizzeria and a walk through Forest Park. This past year we got married, about eight years after the night we met freshman year!

We met on our first day; being on the same freshman floor would do that. We weren’t immediate friends, but floor life threw us into each other’s paths, and shared friendships threw us together for the next couple of years. We didn’t start going out until junior year, when we got thrown into even closer quarters (he and my best friend were roommates), but we have hardly spent a day apart (or at least calling or FaceTiming) since then.

Chris and I met in the fall of 2002 while in line to see the newest Harry Potter film at the Esquire. We got to chatting, realized we were both in Chamber Choir, and that we both had a HUGE crush on the same boy (a music master’s degree student, let’s call him Don, because that was his name). We bonded over “Sex and the City” marathons in my dorm room and choir trips; music department master classes and a spectacular turn in the Performing Arts Department production of “Into the Woods” (he was Jack; I was the Baker’s Wife). Post-graduation, our life went in different directions: he went to law school in Chicago, and I went to drama school in the UK. Chris’s life has kept him firmly rooted in the Second City while I found my way to London. But we’ve stayed close. We’ve celebrated his birthday (Chris-o de Mayo) in Madrid and New Year’s Eve in Chicago; he schlepped to London to be a bridesman in my 2018 wedding; and traveled to St. Louis to meet both my kids when I’ve come back to visit family. I’ve watched him grow into the most beautifully realized version of himself — someone the Chris and Amy of 2002 could barely dream of. He’s an advocate for justice, a style icon, and the most devoted friend I could have asked for. Of all the things WashU gave me, I think he’s the best one.

Justin and I met right before college when we chose to be each other’s roommates at WashU. Shortly after, we started dating. We went through COVID Zoom school together, opened a business together, and graduated together! Flashforward six years later, we’re living in Chicago together and got engaged in London late last year!

I started at WashU in 1960 and Jill in 1962. I first met her at the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity house. She was dating my pledge son, but I had my eye on her. I happened to know that the pledge son was doing rather poorly in school, so I took her aside and said the pledge son — who will remain nameless — was in danger of flunking out and perhaps spending too much time with her. He did flunk out, and Jill and I started dating. Our first date was in downtown St. Louis. We went to the Ambassador Theater to see ‘The Longest Day’ and to a pizza joint afterward. Then I invited her to the fraternity formal, and one thing led to another. Jill and I differed in many ways, one of which was she was an excellent student and I was a terrible student. I could not talk her into cutting class, even on a beautiful spring day. She would go to class, and I would hang out by Ridgley Library. She was a rule follower, and I was kind of a rule breaker, but we fell in love. I wanted to make my proposal a semi-surprise, although she made known her wish for an emerald-cut diamond engagement ring. I took the train to Omaha, where I spent most of my childhood, because my mother knew the owner of a jewelry store who gave me a great deal on a diamond engagement ring. I proposed to Jill in her hometown of Highland Park, Illinois, on a hill overlooking Lake Michigan. After only the slightest hesitation, she agreed.

Carrie and I were neighbors freshman year on Koenig 3. We couldn’t have been more different, but somehow we clicked immediately. We lived together in Dauten and Millbrook before moving to the Central West End for our senior year. Our friendship has endured distance, as well as the highs and lows of life. We always make time for each other whether it’s a visit (at least twice a year!) or a FaceTime call. In January, we celebrated 30 years of friendship by taking a trip to Mexico!

Jason and I first met when I was freshman and he was a sophomore, but we did not officially start dating until two years later. At the time, my only priority was ensuring I had a date for my sorority semi-formal that fall!

We met years after both of us had graduated, though we imagine we passed each other many times while on campus and just never knew it. A few mutual friends of ours introduced us over the years and our paths crossed here and there, but we finally found ourselves living in the same city (Boston) in 2019. We got married last year!

Joanna and I were on the same freshman floor (D4, known as Danforth 4) and before finals during our first semester went with a group from our floor to study in the library together. Joanna likes to chew her gum loudly, so I moved away from her table so that I could concentrate. About 10 minutes later, she followed me to my new table. I asked if she was kidding; she thought I had moved because a group of students was talking and didn’t realize it was because of her chomping. We became best friends after that and started dating the following year. We’ve been together for 27 years, married for nearly 21, have two boys (Joshua, 14 and Michael, 11), and now live in Boca Raton, Florida.

We met in college and became friends through the everyday moments that matter most. Through dances, tears, and laughs, we built memories and connection. More than 10 years later, and our friendship has only grown. Love you my soul sisters!

Deep and I met at WashU our freshman year (2014) on the WashU Raas Dance team. Over the four years, we became close friends and danced our way into each other’s hearts. This past summer, we celebrated our wedding.

It was freshman year, and I was wandering near Olin Library trying to find the engineering orientation session, except I’d somehow lost the information. Enter Stacy: calm, capable, and clearly more organized. She helped me track down where we needed to go, and we ended up sitting together. That small act of kindness turned into a 31-year (and counting) friendship. WashU gave us plenty of rigorous comp sci problem sets but also fun, spontaneous adventures, and plenty of laughter as we navigated classes, life, and everything in between. We grew up in those four years and somehow never grew apart. Through career moves, marriages, kids, and life’s unexpected twists, we’ve stayed what we proudly call “Lifelong ’91 Besties.” WashU gave us degrees and a friendship that has lasted far beyond campus.

Jordan and I met in Dr. Kwasny’s Data Structures class in Cupples II, my junior year and his sophomore year, where the chemistry was instant. Apparently, nothing says romance like linked lists and recursion. One night while I was studying, Jordan messaged me on the Unix server messaging service asking if I would meet him in 30 minutes. This was years before AOL and long before anyone had heard of online dating. Our first date was at Naugles, followed by exploring new places on campus like the tunnels under the main campus. Nothing bonds two people like fluorescent lighting, exposed pipes, and the thrill of possibly getting lost. Soon we were inseparable, spending late nights in the computer lab with friends, debugging code, sharing Domino’s pizza, and laughing while we studied. After Jordan graduated with his master’s degree in CS, we made it official. We married in St. Louis and built a life there for 27 years, raising three incredible boys, two of whom followed our footsteps into computer science. We have traveled the world, celebrated graduations, and watched our children build lives of their own. After thirty-four years of marriage, we are happily in Dallas, having recently launched a healthcare AI company together. It all started in Cupples II where, as it turns out, couples can find true love.

Service brought us together! My wife and I were Campus Y volunteers and were selected as lead coordinators for the Kinloch tutorial. We initially bumped heads but grew to recognize we brought out the best in each other. As campus leaders we got into a lot of good trouble – campus politics, student groups, and intramural sports. We were a true Renaissance couple! The icing on the cake – getting married the day after graduation and having the wedding officiated by a faculty member, Reverend Packnett, and having Chan Dan and Ibby attend the wedding.

We met at WashU in the fall of 2015 at a Halloween party on campus and have been together ever since! In the past 10 years together, we’ve lived in Seattle and now Los Angeles, got married in Santa Barbara, California, got a dog named Norman, and are about to welcome our first child (she will be here before this posts!). We’re so grateful WashU brought us together!

I was the baby of my class and just graduated from college in Maine. Margaret had been to the same college eight years before, so I was determined to make a new friend, but she was exceptionally shy. I was so earnest and shy myself that, in her words,she gave in! We had driven from St. Louis to the east coast so many times, and since graduation we have spent time together nearly every summer. We are still best friends and I am so grateful!