Hopkins Valentines: A February Story
By Emily Richards, A&S '97 (M.A.)
Johns Hopkins University a hotbed of romance? Love may not be
the first thing that leaps to mind when you think of Hopkins, but
more than 6,000 alums are married to other alums--a relatively
high percentage (6%) even when compared to the inter-alumni
marriage rate at cozy places like Williams College (10%), with
its tiny campus nestled in the picturesque Berkshires, where
students are often snowbound together for long stretches of
winter.
"I wouldn't characterize Hopkins as a romantic place," admits
Howard Turner Jr., Engr '95. "There is, however, a
certain esprit de corps that comes from surviving four years of
JHU and having someone else who understands the demands of the
environment." This year Howard will marry fellow alum Johanne
Phair, Engr '95 (M.S.).
The demands of the environment change with the times, as do the
stories of campus romance.
Old-Fashioned Romance
A few months after the end of World War II, nursing student
Helen Merrill, Nurs '48, and a group of her school friends
sat on a dock along the Severn River, dipping their bare toes
into the water. In those days, Hopkins owned a cottage for
nurses at a resort near Annapolis.
That afternoon, a group of Hopkins ATO fraternity brothers
arrived in swimming trunks and sat down next to the women.
"They knew there would be nurses there," Helen laughs. "I met Leo
because he was the one who sat next to me, that's all. Then he
called me, and kept calling me, and we started dating."
"In those days," Helen says, "a date usually meant going out for
an ice cream, or going to the fraternity house for a dance."
Leo Gugerty, A&S '50, who had interrupted his Hopkins
schooling for war-time service in the Navy, had just that year
returned to study business.
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The Gugerty's found love at Johns
Hopkins. |
Five years later Helen and Leo were married, with a wedding
reception in the Hampton House living room, where punch was
served out of a big crystal bowl and a table was laid with tiny
sandwiches. Some of Leo's fraternity brothers who had a string
combo provided the evening's entertainment.
The Gugertys returned to Hopkins last April for Mr. Gugerty's
50th reunion; they attended Mrs. Gugerty's 50th in 1998.
A Homecoming
When Karen Rappaport, A&S '90, was a junior, her helpful
friends fixed her up with Noah Estrin, Engr '91. They
dated until Karen graduated. When she returned the following
spring for Homecoming weekend, their eyes met across a crowded
room at a party and they were reunited. Now a happily married
couple, the Estrins have not missed a Homecoming since that 1990
meeting, and last year Karen chaired her 10-year Hopkins
reunion.
Meant For Each Other
Also the beneficiary of a Hopkins fix-up, Frances Watt was
introduced to her future husband on the first day of classes in
1961.
"One of my classmates came up to me and said, 'I've got just the
guy for you," Frances recalls. "I thought this woman was crazy.
None of us even knew each other yet."
But, that night at a party, the woman introduced Frances to the
man she'd talked about, Lenox D. Baker Jr., and Frances
spent the entire evening laughing and talking with him. They
married a year after earning their bachelor's degrees in 1963,
then went on to complete their M.D.s together at the Hopkins
School of Medicine in 1966.
Two decades later at the School of Medicine, marriage among
students reached an apex when 18 members of the class of 1984
married classmates--almost one-sixth of that year's graduates.
Michele Bellantoni, Med '84, recalls receiving in the mail
before arriving at Hopkins a booklet with pictures and
descriptions of each of the members of the incoming class.
"My mother pointed to Jon's picture and said, 'That's the one for
you.' I was a little outraged and said to Mom, 'Are you sending
me to medical school to become a doctor or to marry a
doctor?'"
But five years later Michele had done both--earned her M.D. and
married Jon Bellantoni, with whom she shared so much in
common (as her mother had noticed at once), including a deep
interest in medicine and a strong religious faith.
"It's not really anything about Hopkins that is romantic," says
Dr. Bellantoni to explain the numerous marriages among her
classmates, "it's what we brought with us to Hopkins."
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FEBRUARY 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS.