Carolina Alumni Review - January/February 2010

Romantic Moments

Carolina can be a pretty romantic place. Thousands of young people find their first loves, their true loves or both in a classroom, strolling through the Arboretum or meeting the friend of a roommate. Some end up popping the question under the historic Davie Poplar or at the Old Well. We asked alumni to share some of their romantic moments. Excerpts of comments are below; read others and share your thoughts at alumni.unc.edu/romantic and on the GAA’s Facebook page at alumni.unc.edu/facebook.

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class quotes

“Chapel Hill and, of course, The University of North Carolina, is the perfect place to fall in love. The place to find your most precious gem in the world is to be a student and meet a student of your age. I first came into contact with Patsy in Dr. McNearny’s freshman math class. … As it turned out, a most beautiful girl sat behind me, and I could not keep from turning my head to get another quick look-see, hoping she did not disappear. … I would sit outside Howell Hall (then the pharmacy school) and wait for the chance to see Patsy walk by going to Spencer Dorm. We would wave, but no real contact because I knew that she had her boyfriends and was not interested in me. I was quite tied up in a very difficult curriculum of chemistry, botany and labs. I had to take about 23 hours of credit each semester since I was in the last four-year pharmacy class, and we took the new courses plus all of the old courses. Patsy and I had chemistry together, but that was all, since she changed her major to education.

“I did not ask Patsy for a date until that following fall after my fraternity suggested that I approach Patsy to represent Kappa Psi in the ‘Yack Court.’ She agreed to that and also agreed to a date to go to a wedding of The Regent of Kappa Psi … at the Episcopal Church. So, guess what, I asked Patsy to marry me on that first date.

“There is something very special about
being in love in the fall of the year in Chapel
Hill. The spider lilies pop up out of nowhere
in the most surprising places early in the fall,
and then the beautiful hardwoods turn their
most beautiful colors as football becomes
exciting. Every extra moment, I spent with
Patsy walking all over the campus hand in
hand. … There is something magical about
being in love in the winter at Chapel Hill. We
enjoyed holding each other close to keep
warm even though it was really not that cold
that winter. … That winter the snow was
beautiful and quiet at
UNC, especially
around my dorm, Old

“After two years in the MBA and nurse practitioner programs, Cathy [Emigholz] ’ 98 (MSN) and I decided that before we left UNC we would get engaged. I had a hard time coming up with a proposal idea but finally rented a helicopter in Raleigh (and a pilot, too!) and took Cathy for a ‘ride’ over Chapel Hill for a sightseeing tour. Right above the Old Well, I took out a ring and proposed to Cathy — and with tear-filled eyes she said yes! We opened a bottle of champagne on the way back to Raleigh and thought about our fantastic times at UNC and fantastic times to come.

“My husband, Gerry, and I met as freshmen in Hinton James. He lived two floors up, but one of his high school classmates lived in the suite next door to mine on the seventh floor. We dated all through our four years at Carolina, and he proposed to me under the Davie Poplar in January of our senior year. We celebrated with lunch at Pepper’s Pizza, which has always been one of our favorite date spots. On March 23, 2002, we got married at Orange United Methodist Church with the following reception at The Carolina Inn. It was a beautiful spring morning, with a perfect Tar Heel blue sky. We both say often how glad we are that we came all the way from Pennsylvania and Florida to UNC so we could find each other. Ours is definitely a Carolina romance.”