Alumni Love Is in the Air

(in alphabetical order)

Carroll School Dean Andy Boynton ’78 and Jane Boynton ’78
Jane Murphy ’78 was the first person I met at BC in 1974. My dad drove me from New Jersey to Chestnut Hill and dropped me off at Kostka on Upper Campus. After settling into my own room, I was alone in front of the dorm when a station wagon pulled up with a young woman and her parents. The young woman, Jane, was moving into Kostka too. I offered to help her and her father unpack her car. She accepted, I moved her in, and we became friends. During our sophomore year, she offered to take me out to dinner for my birthday. We started dating then and married shortly after graduation in 1978. On the first day that I met her, I was immediately struck by Jane’s incredible energy and enthusiasm, qualities in her that I cherish to this day. We have been married for 29 wonderful years and have four terrific sons. We are now back at BC, so to speak, and enjoy this place as much as we did 30 years ago.

Jennifer Benson Buckley ’87 and Tom Buckley ’87
During my sophomore year, I lived in Walsh 124 with seven other women. Three of us—Sue Greco ’87, Gwyneth O'Connor ’87, M.Ed.’88, and I—all dated and later married our BC boyfriends. The month of October must have been lucky because we were all married during that month. This year, Sue and Paul DeBassio ’87 will celebrate 20 years of marriage; Gwyneth and Richard Maguire ’87 will celebrate their 18th anniversay–as will Tom and I. We live in Cary, North Carolina, with our children, Siena and Dalton.

Kristen DeBoy Caminiti ’04, MSW’05, and Matthew Caminiti ’03
I first met my husband during the spring of my senior year of high school. I was visiting BC, still deciding where I would attend college, when my friend Lisa Pataki ’03 introduced me to a friend of hers, Matt Caminiti ’03, who was in the Screaming Eagles Marching Band. Matt and I chatted, and he got me very excited about the possibility of being a member of the band. It turned out that I made the best decision of my life, for many reasons, and chose to attend Boston College and join the band. Matt and I reunited, ended up dating throughout my time at BC, and were married in July 2005. We have loved every minute of married life. Our shared experience at BC is such an important part of our relationship, who we are to each other, and who we look forward to being as parents to our children.

Karen (Gump) Chang ’96 and Andrew Chang ’94
Andrew and I were married on July 25, 2003, at the Rainbow Ranch on the banks of the Gallatin River in Big Sky, Montana. BC friends from both of our classes joined in our celebration. Although Andrew and I were not fortunate enough to meet while at BC, we did meet while working for Deloitte in Boston.

Lauren (Irwin) Collins ’00 & Kevin Collins ’00
Kevin and I met during our sophomore year on our way to the AHANA Ball. After graduation in 2000, I moved to San Francisco, and Kevin moved to Washington, DC. That September, Kevin and I both went back to campus for a football game with friends. The first sparks flew that weekend, but we both got back on airplanes and went back to our new lives on opposite sides of the country.

In early November, Kevin planned a top secret trip from DC to San Francisco. He showed up at my office on a Friday afternoon, flowers in hand, having traveled clear across the country, and asked me to dinner. I was shocked and planted a kiss on him right then and there! This was by far the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for me. We had a fantastic weekend and decided to try a long-distance relationship. In September of 2005, Kevin proposed at the same restaurant in San Francisco where we went on one of our very first dates. We were married on September 2, 2006, at St. Columbkille Church in Brighton. My dad provided the band with a recording of the BC fight song and all of our BC friends and family gathered on the dance floor for an energetic rendition of "For Boston!"

Laura Sanchez Cross ’04 and Ben Cross ’03 Laura and Ben met at BC while both were in the Army ROTC Program. They became really good friends through their first years at BC and, during Ben's senior year, they began dating. After graduation, both Laura and Ben were commissioned as second lieutenants in the United States Army. In September 2005, Laura and Ben were married by Fr. Robert Farrell in St. Ignatius Church. Shortly after their wedding, Laura and Ben both deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, with the 4th Infantry Division for a yearlong deployment. The couple currently lives in Texas, where Ben works for Johnson and Johnson, and Laura is a captain in the United States Army.

Anne Marston Demeo M.Ed.’91 and Bernard Demeo
After working as a teacher in Westfield, Massachusetts, since my graduation in 1980, I began a master’s program in Special Education at Boston College in 1988. I worked as a live-in nanny in Newton Center and got a job as a waitress to supplement my $35/week salary. That's where my love life blossomed! The chic restaurant was Rick's Café in Newtonville and the man I eventually fell in love with was the sous chef, Bernard Demeo. When I finished the majority of my coursework 10 months later, we got married and headed to my waiting apartment in Westfield. We will be celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary this year, and we have two beautiful and smart girls that are very proud of their BC mom and the history BC holds in our hearts. Thanks, BC. I am proud of being a BC grad and finding love in the air while attending BC.

Carrie Klemovitch ’01 and Frank Klemovitch ’01, MBA’12
Frank and I met in the Carroll School of Management Honors Program and were in the same group for Professor Jack Neuhauser’s statistics class our freshman year. We then took most of our classes together, but didn’t start dating until after we graduated. Three of my bridesmaids also graduated from the Carroll School.

Erin Haran MacCurtain ’01 and Patrick MacCurtain ’00
My husband and I never met at BC, though we were only a year apart in school and shared the same major. We met at a wedding of two BC friends several years after graduating, and have since  introduced another happily married BC couple.

Robin Murdock-Meggers ’79 and Tom Meggers ’79
I was a cheerleader for three years at BC and was captain of the squad in 1978-79. On a return trip to the Heights from a basketball game against Holy Cross, Tom Meggers ’79 was sitting next to me in the aisle seat. I had never met Tom and only had watched him (and, of course, cheered for him!) on the basketball court. I noticed that Tom had a bandaged hand, so I struck up a conversation and asked whether he needed my help opening a mustard packet. Like a typical man, he said “no thanks,” but our conversation continued and the rest is history. We were married in 1982 and have two boys, Peter, 22, and Patrick, 18.

Charise Rohm Nulsen ’98 and Jeff Nulsen ’98
Our off-campus apartments were so close our junior year that we could have thrown a baseball and hit each other's building, but we didn’t know each other. In April 2006, Jeff and I were both at Phoenix Landing, a bar in Cambridge, with BC friends. Jeff and I randomly started talking and exchanged phone numbers. About 10 minutes into our first date, we realized that we were in the same class at BC and that we knew many of the same people. From that moment on, the similarities and connections just continued to flow. Jeff and I were married on December 29, 2007. Thirty-four BC alumni were in attendance, and it couldn't have been a more amazing mini-reunion for all of us. Jeff and I look forward to attending our 10th Reunion with so many other connected friends in May, and we couldn't be more thankful to BC for indirectly bringing us together!

Katie and Edward O'Sullivan ’43
My husband Edward O'Sullivan ’43 and I just celebrated our 62nd wedding anniversary in January. We met in October 1943 in the Circus Room of the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, at a tea dance sponsored by the Navy Officers' Wives Club. I didn't quite "get" his Boston accent (he dropped every r) but he was a beautiful dancer and I let him walk me home. He was going to the submarine school in San Diego at the time, but he persisted in asking me out until I relented. When I went back to UCLA, he came up on weekends to date me. Through him, I met a whole slew of BC boys: Murray Lynch ’43, Tom Murphy ’43, and Mike Holovak ’43. Edward left for the South Pacific that December, and then returned two and a half years later to San Diego. Although I had been dating other boys, including some of his classmates, we became engaged and were married a few months later.

Donna (Malone) Pleus ’85 and Michael Pleus ’85
My husband Michael and I met in October 1982 at a tailgate party that his roommates and their parents had put together. I was a member of the BC Band, and I went to the party after the football game with other friends from the band. I don't particularly remember meeting Michael that day, but he remembers meeting me! We started dating about a month after our first meeting, and dated all through college. After graduation, he moved back to New Jersey, and I relocated there in February 1986. We married in September 1987 with several friends from BC in attendance. We since have had three children—Jennifer ’10, who is majoring in mathematics, Michael, and Matthew.

Celeste Sedo ’02 and Jay Tini ’02
We met at Boston College our freshman year in Fitzpatrick Hall, where we both lived. We were close friends all throughout college and began dating soon after graduation. He proposed in Walsh Hall at our 5th Reunion! We are getting married on August 2. We love BC because it brought us together!

Myrna Cohen Thurnher ’69 and George Thurnher ’68
My husband George and I met in 1967, when he was a junior and I was a sophomore in the School of Education. At BC, I met a bunch of ROTC guys because one of them, John St. George ’67, was in one of my classes my sophomore year. Through another ROTC guy, John Lohmann ’69, who was dating my friend Mary, I met all of the Lewis Drill Team members. My roommates and I had a party at our new apartment, and George was one of the members who showed up. We danced a lot, and at the end of the evening, I told Mary that I was going to marry him. George and I met again at another party, and I went to his drill team competition in Providence the next day. Forty years later, we are still happily dating (and married since October 18, 1969). Our wedding at St. Ignatius during a BC football game was a real BC affair—Tom Giancristiano ’70, M.Ed.’73, Bob Schraven ’68, MBA’70, and my brother-in-law, Charles Thurnher ’72, were groomsmen. The drill team provided us with an honor guard. They didn't wear tuxedos, but instead Lewis Drill Team uniforms.

Steven Wisnor ’99, MA’01, and Laurin (Mottle) Wisnor ’00
Steven and Laurin were married on September 2, 2006, at St. Ignatius. Laurin and Steven met in August 1997, when they were both students in Professor Otherine Neisler’s "Curriculum and Instruction" class. They dated for most of that semester and then parted ways. They re-connected eight years later at a Valentine’s Day party. A number of BC alumni were in (and at) the wedding. Laurin and Steven now live in Columbus, Ohio, where Laurin is an evening student at Capital University Law School and a law clerk in the Ohio Office of Budget and Management. Steven is the program manager for the ESL-Content Teachers Collaborative, a federally funded grant program at The Ohio State University.

Jill (Meyer) Zielinski ’93, M.Ed.’94, and Gary Zielinski ’93
Gary and I met on our first day on campus in the fall of 1989 in front of Fitzpatrick Hall, while we were both unloading our things. He was actually the first student that I met at BC, and he helped my dad and I carry my bags up to the third floor of Fitz. Our first date was at CitySide Bar & Grille, and we took the BC bus to get there. We were married in 1998, and this May we will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. There were over 40 people from the Class of 1993 at our wedding in New Jersey, including Biffy ’93 and Dan Cherniske ’93; Gretchen ’93 and Jason Price ’93; and Lori and Matt Caras ’93. Each of the couples has gone on to have three children all of whom are Eagles in training!