Alumni couples will be coming to campus for the inaugural Vow Renewal Ceremony held at the Brown Family Amphitheater Saturday, Oct. 21. The event is a part of the announcement of the campaign “Our Call to Beneficence,” which will fundraise for Ball State University’s future.
Couples like the Atkinsons will be in attendance.
Lucy and Chris Atkinson met in the summer of 1977, when they both found each other at Noyer Complex, where Chris was an attendant for disabled students and Lucy was a coordinator for the orientation program.
“We were under the supervision of Richard Harris, who is now retired and still living in the Muncie area,” Chris said. “He happens to be the godfather of our daughter.”
Over the summer, they got to know each other and started dating their senior year. After graduation in 1978, they did not end up getting married because each had their own plans for life.
Lucy, who grew up in Lawrenceburg, wanted to go to the “big city” after graduation. She moved to downtown Chicago in 1978 with her sorority sister.
Despite their distance, fate seemed to bring them together.
“I remained in Muncie, [and] started on some graduate work under Rich Harris, actually,” Chris said. “Ironically, my family during the time I was in college had moved to the northwest suburbs of Chicago. There was still [an] opportunity to see each other.”
Lucy said after a couple of years of off-and-on relationship, they married in a Chicago suburb in 1985 before moving to Cincinnati in 1988.
Now, 38 years later, they return to renew their vows.
When he first heard about the renewal, Chris said he was skeptical.
“I saw the email and I'm like, ‘Well, okay, I'm not sure how that works,’” Chris said as Lucy chuckled beside him.
As the couple is already involved in many of the homecoming festivities, the renewal seemed like a given to Lucy.
“So, I said ‘I'm gonna sign up for this’ and he was rolling his eyes, but we did and I'm excited,” Lucy said.
She said it reminded her of a tradition near them at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
According to the Miami University website, the tradition is called Miami Mergers.
University President Geoffrey Mearns came up with the idea of the vow renewal.
“When I travel on behalf of our university, I often hear people say they met their spouse at Ball State,” Mearns said via email. “I thought this vow renewal ceremony would be a welcome opportunity for some of our ‘Cardinal Couples’ to return to campus during homecoming and to express their gratitude not only for each other but for what our university means to them.”
Kate Webber, senior director of volunteer engagement and special programs, said the ceremony will be nondenominational and officiated by Mearns. Pre-registered couples will be given custom gifts to celebrate the event and a button to wear to show their participation.
Another element of the event is an “anniversary dance,” which involves dancing until the longest married couple is left, thenreceiving a prize, Webber said.
While Webber is also part of a Cardinal Couple – married for 24 years – she will not be participating in the event, however. she is still excited to celebrate the couples.
“Ball State is that common link with all of these couples, and so what better time than at homecoming during a special weekend to celebrate,” Webber said.
Don and Carolann Mikesell will also be in attendance. Don has fulfilled various roles at the university, such as associate dean of students in 1981 and dean of students in 1986, and was director of the graduate program for 30 years.
Carolann was involved in supervising student teachers in Germany in 2008, where she worked for several years. It remains a program that allows student teachers to teach in Germany over the summer.
Their story began much earlier; in 1961 with a cup of coffee.
Carolann, who came to Ball State in 1960, met Don, who worked in housing and graduated from Ball State in 1960 from Culver, as her friends had been from Culver, and she remembered the connection to her friends.
After one of her friends was in a bad spot during their sophomore year, she said she came to Don for advice. Don made coffee and they sat down and talked. Later on, she continued what became a tradition of sorts by asking about Don’s plans for spring break.
“He was going to Wisconsin to see some friends and he would be traveling up,” Carolann said. “And he was traveling up through my area on the way, so I said, ‘Well, it's my turn to serve coffee.’ So I gave him my address”
Over the next couple of years, their friendship grew and eventually turned to love in Carolann’s senior year.
The pair said their relationship is a product of its time and would not fly today. However the pair like to joke back and forth with each other.
“He didn't exploit me or anything,” Carolann said.
“No, it's the other way around. She exploited me,” Don said, causing the pair to laugh.
“I tease him, and I say, ‘Well, I thought you were rich,’” Carolann said.
The pair got married in 1964, and said “life has been wonderful ever since.” In their 59 years together, the pair have shared many moments, such as when they lived behind Riverside Avenue and a Ball State fraternity stole their Christmas tree from the backyard.
As a pair that has been married so long, they said the key is friendship, respect and alone time.
“My wife and I have tremendous respect for one another,” Don said. “We support each other regardless of what either one of us happens to be doing. And we certainly had great respect for personal things that we do.”
Couples like the Fishers found connection through their activities on campus.
Penny and Adam Fisher met at the Ball State Daily News, but their story started after they left the newsroom. They reconnected after graduation and had their first official date at Adam’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity formal.
The connection to the Daily News did not leave them, as it played a special role in their wedding, which took place Sept. 10, 2011.
“We walked down the aisle to the fight song and we used the Ball State Daily News as our ring bearer with the rings tied around it,” Penny said. “I just wanted to bring all those Ball State details into our wedding just because that's where we met. That's where our love story began.”
While they now live in Florida, Ball State has remained a part of their family’s lives as their children participate in the festivities. Penny said their eleven-year-old daughter, Audrey, was the first-ever homecoming princess in 2017, and now their eight-year-old son, Alec, will be the prince.
“I thought ‘Well, if that's where they are, we might as well do everything,'” Penny said. “So, we're gonna do the whole experience. We're actually going to have them skip school on Thursday and Friday because we're flying in. They're excited about it.”
The ceremony is set to be held Oct. 21 at 11:30 a.m. at the Brown Family Amphitheater. Couples that are interested in participating can register here.
Contact Abigail Denault with comments at abigail.denualt@bsu.edu.
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