Recess

For the Love of Ed

by Lory Hough

Rachel Kyle, Ed.M.’07, says the night she met Doug Krause, Ed.M.’07, after a full day of orientation activities, they bonded at a local bar over cocktails and potential T-shirt ideas for the Learning and Teaching Program. But it wasn’t until he asked her to dance to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” that Kyle’s interest was sufficiently piqued. Two years later, the pair is set to tie the knot.

Who says you can’t find love on Appian Way?

Adam Tanney, Ed.M.’05, wasn’t looking for love when he came to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, but he also wasn’t surprised when he met his now-wife, Jen Kirby, Ed.M.’05. “Who would be surprised [to meet someone] with the Ed School approaching more than 70 percent female?” he says. Over the years, many other Ed School students have found their better halves while writing papers and arguing points in study groups. (Some, like Arminda King, Ed.M.’05, and Jonathan Hoffman, Ed.M.’05, can’t remember where they first met, but quickly became “inseparable.”)

Strangely enough, Gutman Library, with its concrete walls and florescent lighting, also seems to have a certain appeal for couples-to-be.

“We met in Gutman on the blue couches next to the southwest windows on the first floor,” says Emily Benz, Ed.M.’03, recalling her first encounter with Jeff Wright, Ed.M.’03. “We were both reading for Richard Elmore’s Public Policy in Education course. It was only the second week of class. Someone had mentioned to me that Jeff seemed smart so we should try to get him in our study group. I introduced myself.” The couple married in 2005.

Rolland Janairo, Ed.M.’04, and Dianne Le, Ed.M.’04, also met in Gutman as they sat at neighboring computers writing final papers. As a result, their first dates merged study breaks with food: CVS for trail mix (date one), Pinocchio’s for pizza (date two), and a local ice cream shop (date three). Reverend Greg Groover, whom they met at the annual Alumni of Color Conference, married them in 2007.

Food also played a role in the development of the relationship between Professor Fernando Reimers, Ed.M.’84, Ed.D.’88, and his wife, Eleanora Villegas-Reimers, Ed.M.’84, Ed.D.’88, who were both living in Chronkhite, a graduate dorm.

“Our first dates were those meals where we chose to eat by ourselves in a corner table overlooking the same courtyard where we had our first conversation,” Reimers says, reminiscing about walks down Brattle Street and moonlit conversations. A few years later, the Venezuelan natives married, moved out of the dorm and into an apartment, and shared a big desk in the middle of the living room as they worked on their dissertations. Today they have two sons, Tomas, 13, and Pablo, 11. “We have taken them several times to visit Chronkhite and the courtyard steps where we had our first long talk,” Reimers says. “They smile at that.”

Do you have an Ed School love story to share? Send a letter to the editor!