DukeEngaged

With Valentine’s day approaching, Towerview’s Betsy Klein interviewed some of Duke’s faculty couples.

Martha Reeves & Alex Rosenberg

Visiting Professor of Markets and Management and Women’s Studies, R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy

Married 13 years

How they met: Jogging in Oxford, England.

Michael Malone & Maureen Quilligan

Professor of the Practice of Theater Studies, R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English

Married 37 years

How they met: Graduate school at Harvard University.

Copy editor: “One of the treasures of Maureen for me is that she is such a superb literary critic, so as a novelist, I have someone to read my work out loud to me. I watch her and listen to her. We’ve done that through 14 books of mine.”

Valentine’s Day Plans: “For Valentine’s Day we have had parties where you come as your favorite couple of lovers, and once Maureen and I came as silent film stars, and we never spoke during the party.” They often host concerts, musicals and plays in their living room. “Once we had a concert of love songs,” Michael said.

Lori Leachman & Peter Lange

Professor of Economics, Provost

Married 13 years

How they met: At an institute for globalization and domestic policy at Stanford University when Lori asked Peter for directions during a lunch break.

Course eval: “So many students take Econ 51 [with Lori], and they don’t know we’re married. So I always ask, how do you like Professor Leachman?”

Valentine’s Day Plans: Traveling in Italy.

Andrea Katz & Charlie Welch

Duke Lemur Center Colony Manager, Duke Lemur Center Conservation Coordinator

Married 25 years

How they met: Through an arrangement to cross-breed lemurs between the DLC and a zoo in Louisiana. “We were down in the main building catching the lemurs we were going to transport, and I thought, ‘That guy is really cute!’” Andrea said.

Field notes: Lived in Madagascar for 15 years to advise the development of a lemur conservation center. “Neither of us could have done it alone,” Andrea said of living in a small house with no electricity or running water.

Valentine’s Day Plans: “We’re together all the time. We don’t have to make a date for Valentine’s Day, but she always gets flowers, even in Madagascar,” Charlie said.

Daniel Schmitt & Christine Wall

Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Associate Research Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology

Married 19 years

How they met: The first day of graduate school at Stony Brook University; their positions as anatomy teaching assistants precluded them from taking a honeymoon.

Happy hour: “We became really good friends over really bad nachos,” Christine wrote in an email about bonding at chain Mexican restaurant.

Valentine’s Day Plans: Taking a long walk around East Campus, followed by dessert, coffee and good conversation Francesca’s at.

Jane Richardson & David Richardson

James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry, Professor of Biochemistry

Married 50 years

How they met: “Love at first sight” in the physics library at Swarthmore College.

Lab report: On working together in the Richardson Laboratory, “It has been addictively enabling and has defined our lives—professionally, as a family and in outside fun, backpacking, building houses, reading, traveling and debating wild ideas about molecules.”

Valentine’s Day Plans: Sightseeing in Santa Fe between a biophysics meeting in San Diego and a workshop in New Mexico.

John Hart & Kim Rorschach

Visiting Associate Professor of History, Adjunct Professor and Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum

Married 25 years

How they met: At a party thrown by Art History graduate students at Yale University. “He asked me to dance, he made me laugh, we fell in love,” Kim wrote in an email.

The art of marriage: Working in different areas at Duke has enabled each spouse to understand each other better. “John is a steadying force in my life. I’m in constant motion.”

Valentine’s Day Plans: Traditionally celebrated with flowers for Kim, candy for John and dinner at a favorite restaurant.