Anniversary Date: September 3, 1977

Love Story: Following graduation from Gretna High School in 1973, I began my education at Midland Lutheran College. I had started dating Cindi a year earlier, while we were both in the Gretna High musical – You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Cindi played Lucy and I played Schroeder (the piano player). All I can really remember is that Lucy sang a song proposing to Schroder and that one day the two would be married. So, I have always said, Cindi asked me to marry her first!

It was a long-distance telephone call from Fremont to Gretna, and quite expensive for a college student. So, I drove 15 miles to Waterloo to use a pay phone to call her every weekend. Cindi decided to come to Midland in the fall of 1974 to pursue a degree in elementary and music education. She lived in Beagle Hall (at that time an all-girls dorm) and I lived in Gunderson Hall. At that time, there was a designated time when all girls had to be back at the dorm, or they would incur demerits. After so many demerits, girls were fined, and if they incurred too many demerits, they would have to go to see their house mother Mrs. Steen. Since Cindi feared Mrs. Steen, she made it back to her dorm on time, most of the time.

The years at Midland went by quickly. Cindi and I were active in Kappa Phi and Pi Epsilon and many other campus organizations. On two special occasions, first, when I gave Cindi my fraternity pin and the second when we got engaged, the Kappa Phi fraternity sang the Kappa Phi Sweetheart Song to Cindi at her dorm window.

Interestingly, I lived all four years in Gunderson Hall, Room 305. Since I was a resident assistant (RA) my senior year, I asked the house mother, Mrs. Johnson, If I could paint my dorm room.  After permission was given, Cindi and I painted the cement blocks in the room a light blue and taped off all of the grout lines so they remained white.  It was quite a project but looked pretty cool when we were done. To mark this historic event, I wrote a note inside the closet of my room. 

After graduating from Midland, I never went back to visit the old dorm room until a couple of years ago while attending the Dr. Leonard Nielsen Courtyard dedication at Miller Hall. On that day, I asked Dr. Janet Lack, if it would be possible for Cindi and me to see my old room, since Midland classes had not yet started. We walked into Room 305 and the first thing I did was to look inside the closet. Almost 45 years had passed since Cindi and I painted my dorm room but there was my scribbled note, appearing just like I had written it. I was confident no student living in Room 305 over all those years had ever seen the note.

Cindi and I were married in 1977 and loved each other even before our time at Midland. We are honored that our two children, Adam and Sarah, also attended and found love at Midland with Jill (Hayden) and Ryan (Hart). When I saw the note in my room after 45 years, it seemed for a moment that time had stood still, but it had not, as Cindi and I have loved each other during all these years and our love for each other, our family and Midland University continues to grow.