Four couples share their stories of falling in love at Western

STORY BY GENEVIEVE CARRILLO | PHOTOS COURTESY OF WESTERN ALUMNI

(Above) John and Vivian Sheridan walk across the beach following their California beach wedding in June of 2015. Courtesy photo compliments of John and Vivian Sheridan.

They say college defines who a person is going to be. Away from home for the first time, many students begin to explore new hobbies and subjects, and often times become a small fish in the big dating pool at any university.

Roughly 28 percent of married graduates in a 2013 Facebook Data Sciences study attended the same university as their spouse. Western students can find dates in countless places. From the library to classrooms, love can be found anywhere on campus. Four married couples share their stories of how they met at Western.

Ken and Susie Lamarche

Met: 1982

Her Major: English and Education

His Major: Computer Science

Married for 31 years

In 1982, Kenneth Lamarche and Susie Inman met in Edens Hall. Susie would walk by Ken’s room on her way to visit friends. Occasionally, the two would share a table at Saga, the then-on-campus dining hall now known as the Viking Union. Susie thought he was cute and fun to talk to. “I never had a lot of luck with romance,” Susie said. “I was good at unrequited crushes.”

Their paths finally converged for good when Ken and his friend Norman invited Susie to go skiing with them in Whistler, British Columbia. Susie had never skied before. As they were getting ready to leave, Ken couldn’t get ahold of Norman and the two decided to go without him. Susie said Ken was a great ski instructor, who was very understanding and empathetic. After the ski trip, Susie began making sure she took certain routes on campus to cross his path.

The two began dating in 1983, the spring of Susie’s sophomore year. “In the summer we were pretty much a couple in the way that couples were couples back then.” Susie and Ken would go on runs as an inexpensive way to spend time together. When they weren’t running, they enjoyed spending time at Larabee State Park with their friends, which is where Ken first held Susie’s hand.

Ken, who was a master at reassembling packages to make it look like they had never been opened, proposed to Susie on Christmas Day in 1984 by hiding an engagement ring at the bottom of a pint of Haagen Daaz chocolate ice cream, her favorite flavor. In the summer of 1985, the couple moved to California and got married in early January 1986, Susie wearing a dress her mother made for her. Currently, the two live in Sunnyvale, California and have two college students of their own. Susie believes that for people in love, the most important thing is to be thoughtful. “It’s important to make the other person’s day better somehow,” Susie said. “He’s a good fella’, he makes me a mocha every morning before work.”

Mark and Elise Guerette

Met: 1983

Her Major: Business/Computer Science

His Major: Accounting and Business/Computer Science

Married for 27 years

Mark and Elise both came to Western as transfer students. Mark from the University of Vermont in the fall of 1980 and Elise from the University of Hawaii in the winter of 1982. Mark first noticed Elise in his Economics 301 class in Parks Hall his junior year, but she didn’t notice him because he had a red, shaggy beard. Elise remembers seeing Mark at the club fair in Red Square. Mark was president of the Accounting Club and she wondered why she hadn’t run into this handsome, clean-shaven guy until senior year.

The two started dating in the spring of 1984 and both have fond memories of getting drinks at the Cliff House and sharing a bottle of Mont Elise rosé at Larrabee State Park. Their favorite memory at Western was a sailing date they took on Bellingham Bay with accounting professor Neil Paulsen and marketing professor Barbara Unger.

After graduation, Mark asked Elise to follow him to Boston, Massachusetts, where he got a job, but Elise, who grew up in Hawaii protested saying that wasn’t going to happen because it snowed there, so she chose to move to San Francisco. Mark told Elise he’d drive the southern route home to Boston, stopping in California to visit, which he did, and ended up finding a job and stayed in California. By December 1988, the couple got engaged at the Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite National Park and had a five-year courtship before getting married in Walnut Creek, California. The couple currently live in Seattle, and are the parents of two college students.

Both Mark and Elise advise students who are crushing on classmates to not be afraid to let the other person know how they feel.

John and Vivian Sheridan

Met: 2009

His Major: Philosophy and Liberal Studies

Her Major: Human Services and Psychology

Married for one year

John and Vivian met in Higginson Hall their freshman year at Western in 2009. She was room 386 and he was room 387. The two of them disagree on when they officially met, but Vivian recounts that she first met John when she dropped by his dorm to introduce herself to him and his roommate David. John, distracted by video games, never knew she was there, and remembers first meeting Vivian when he stopped by her dorm with David to see if she and her roommate wanted to grab dinner at the dining hall. Vivian responded with a resounding yes, but never showed up. Not quite love at first sight.

Many months passed until one night John saw Vivian at an ice skating rink, leaning on the boards and struggling to stay up on her skates. John skated over to Vivian and offered some assistance. With Vivian’s hand on John’s wrist, they skated around the rink for the rest of the night, speaking very little. Miraculously, this was the event that began their lifelong journey together, Vivian said.

For their first date, John took Vivian to dinner at Blue Fin Sushi and her first taxi ride to go see a movie. The two officially began dating on March 16, 2010.

On June 29, 2013, two weeks after graduation, John took Vivian on a picnic on Bainbridge Island, Washington, John’s hometown. At the park, they sat on a hill and watched the clouds, like in the movie “Up” Vivian said. While on the hill, John got down on one knee and proposed. The two were married at Malibu West Beach Club in California on June 27, 2015. The two now live happily in Boulder, Colorado and always adhere to their favorite motto from the movie “Up:” Adventure is out there!

Jack and Lindsay Marolich

Met: 2009

Their Major: Masters of Business Administration

Married for two years

Jack and Lindsay’s love story began in graduate school at Western in 2009, on the second day of class. “He walked into class a few steps in front of me and stole my seat,” Lindsay said. Although the two didn’t know each other well during that first year of school, Lindsay quickly began to appreciate his laid-back personality and sense of humor, especially amongst a sea of Type-A business students. When Jack first met Lindsay, he noticed two things: “She is gorgeous and she likes plaid,” Jack said. Everything she wore was autumn-inspired from her coats to her scarves.

Before their second year at Western, they began to hang out and realized they had a lot in common. Soon after getting to know Lindsay, Jack learned that Halloween was her favorite holiday and that she loves cats. With that in mind, he asked her to be her girlfriend on Oct. 31. “[I was] fully aware that I was also making a commitment to her only cat, Juno,” Jack said.

On Aug. 25, 2012, Jack proposed to Lindsay at Oyster Dome in Bellingham. While climbing up the mountain, it soon became obvious that they had missed the switchback that would take them to the bat caves, and instead had made it nearly up the nearly vertical hill to the final lookout point. After hiking up and down the quarter-mile incline four times, a hiker let them know that parks department had closed the trail and covered the path. Although they were both tired and cranky, for Jack and Lindsay, the proposal at the end made the extra mileage well worth it.

The two were married on Sep. 14, 2013, in Spokane, Washington, close to family. Jack and Lindsay stayed in Bellingham until the fall of 2015, where they then relocated to Portland, Oregon, with their two dogs and two cats. When asked about his time at studying at Western, Jack said the best thing he got from college was Lindsay. He advises students who are dating to wait for your ‘Lindsay,’ because everyone’s perfect match is out there.