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Love, CMU style

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Love, CMU style

Bill and Veronica
Veronica and I met our senior year at CMU when we were introduced by a mutual friend. She was president of Sigma Kappa, and I was an RA in Saxe-Herrig, so we lived on opposite ends of campus and most likely never would have met if not for Kathy Hayes.

Veronica actually asked me out first to go see the now famous chick flick “The Other Side of the Mountain.” However, we were both dirt poor and couldn’t come up with the $5 we needed to go to the movie. Kathy came to the rescue and loaned us the money, and the rest is history. (And I don’t think we ever paid her back.)

We have been married since August 1977. We have three children, and our daughter, Stasi, graduated from CMU last May after being an RA at Calkins Hall for three years. Stasi is now back on campus in graduate school.

We have had football season tickets for more than 20 years and still look forward to football Saturdays. My wife says the happiest day of the year for me is when my CMU tickets arrive in the mail.

Bill Russell, ’76
Howell

Chris and Kathy
Perhaps it was fate that determined a man from Belfast, Maine, and a woman from Coleman, Michigan, would enroll together in not one, but two classes – back to back – at CMU in the winter of 1986. We will always be grateful to CMU for not only granting us our education degrees, but also the opportunity for a woman from rural Michigan to find her “Maine” man!

Chris, ’86 MA ’88, and Kathy Howard, MA ’01
Coleman

Margie and Kenn
My husband Kenn and I first met in August 1983 when I was auditioning for CMU Orchesis Dance Theatre.

He mistakenly took me for someone he knew. I spun around and was staring into the most amazing brown eyes I had ever seen. My heart skipped a beat – but I was getting married the next month to someone else.

Over the next three years our friendship (yes, friendship) developed, and my marriage was not working. In 1986, with my marriage over and with the help of Mr. Crandall (Professor Yvette Birs Crandall’s husband), Kenn and I became a couple. And on August 20, 1989, we were married with Yvette and Bud Crandall as our witnesses.

CMU Orchesis played matchmaker and connected me to my life partner. I could not imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else.

Theater remains a big part of our lives. Our main home is in Farwell, where Kenn continues to work as a nurse, but we also reside in Okemos, where I have been teaching since 2000. We have two children, Jazzy and Weston. Kenn’s daughter, Danna McJames-Town, also danced for Orchesis and continues today helping Yvette with the company.

The studio in Rose will always feel like home. Thank you CMU and Orchesis Dance Theatre for bringing us together and for the great memories!

Margie McJames, ’90
Farwell

Heidi and Jerry
August 25, 1985, marked my first day at Central as a junior transfer student and the first day of my very first journalism class in Anspach Hall. As I stood in the classroom doorway, only one person looked up and acknowledged my presence. I was unusually bold that day, summoned up my courage, and sat down next to him. Jerry was tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed, and handsome – and as fate would have it, he became an important part of my life.

Heidi (Krause) Russell, ’87
Saginaw

part 5

Bill and Veronica Russell