On the Cover

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An intimate connection

Love, CMU style

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Jeff Daniels visit
Jesse Jackson visit
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How seals relate

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A championship year
Jones named new coach

In support
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Maroon and Gold

Alumni in Action

I Am CMU

Love, CMU style

Victor and Vicki
I met Vicki in the fall of 1972 when we were both just starting out as freshmen. For our first date I asked her to see Blood Sweat and Tears at Finch Fieldhouse. It wasn’t until after we were married that I found out that Vicki had never heard of the band.

We attended many other concerts during our stay at CMU, and I have many other great memories of our time together in Mount Pleasant:

• Marching band at the football games. Vicki would try to get to the games early enough to sit next to the marching band so we could be close together. This was when the games were at Alumni Field behind Finch Fieldhouse.

• Vicki and I both played the saxophone, and even though she didn’t continue in band in college, we would sometimes go to Powers Music Building to play duets.

• We used to go down to the Chippewa River and have picnics. On one of the trees I carved our initials inside a heart.

We both graduated from CMU in 1976 and got married in June 1977. We had three daughters: Vanessa, Valerie, and Victoria. Victoria just graduated from CMU, 30 years after Vicki and I graduated. It was great to be able to reminisce about our times at CMU while our daughter was attending.

Victor Raybaud, ’76
Eastpointe

Laurie and Kevin
In 1979, I was an undergraduate student in communication disorders, and we were required to log many hours observing a clinician providing therapy. I would watch as the student/clinician provided therapy to a grandmotherly-type who had suffered a severe stroke. And fortunately after each session, he would have to sign my log book, allowing me a few brief seconds to make a profound observation (or so I thought!) Fast forward to 6-6-06 as we celebrated our 25th anniversary.

Laurie Hughes Konarska, ’80 MA ’81
Middleville

Bill and Susan
In the fall of 1980, Central began offering dorms with men and women on the same floor. Previously, dorms were integrated only by floors, not rooms. I’m not sure what the powers-that-be were trying to accomplish, but their decision had quite the impact on fifth floor Troutman Hall in 1980-81.

With 12 rooms on the floor and four people to a room, 47 students began that year (only three were in the RA’s room). By the time we all graduated several years later, four couples from that floor ended up getting married to one another. All three of the girls in the RA’s room were part of that group.

That’s a pretty impressive percentage of people from one floor of one dorm getting married. Now almost 22 years later, three of those couples are still happily married. If anyone can beat that record, I’d be surprised.

Bill Emerick, ’83
Lake Orion

Lois and Ryan
I never anticipated my neighbor at Larzelere Hall would become my love for a lifetime.

It was the fall of 1991. Everyone talked about Ryan. After all, starting his senior year at CMU, Mr. Personality could flirt with the best of them.

I was the new kid on the block, meeting friends through dorm room chats, volleyball in the courtyard, and planned residence hall activities. I soon discovered why everyone wanted Ryan on their team – his smile was contagious, his wit unmatched.

Not realizing how much he intrigued me, I promised a friend that I would help her snag Ryan as a wedding date. (I really did try, Kendra, but somehow in his “no,” there was a “yes” to my hidden interests.)

Ryan graduated from CMU in May 1993, but my course work in middle level education continued. Prior to my fall student teaching, while traveling on a family vacation in the Upper Peninsula, Ryan proposed on the shores of Mackinac Island. We got married one week after I graduated with my bachelor’s degree from CMU.

Three children and ten years later, we are still frolicking in love. At the most unusual moments, we will share a laugh, a memory, a name that brings us back to the courtship of the north side of campus, to long distance travels, and the love of a lifetime.

Lois (Yanke) Atkins ’96 MMLE ’01
Hudsonville

part 4

Victor and Vicki Raybaud