(Photo submitted by John Orr and Lisa Reed)
By Sarah Hansell, Rachel McIntosh, Luke Riela, Amanda Blas, Staff Writer -- hansell14@up.edu -- mcintosh14@up.edu -- riela14@up.edu -- blas13@up.edu
The Best Half of their Lives
Meeting them for the first time, it's already obvious English professor John Orr and business professor and Associate Dean of Business Lisa Reed have been together for a long time by the way they talk and act with each other.
"We've been together over half my life," Reed said.
"The best half," Orr added.
They finish each other's sentences, talk about their beagle Ruby, and about Orr not being allowed to have cats. They reminisce about the gourmet Valentine's Day dinners Orr and his friend, professor Terry Favero, cooked together for their wives.
"We both have pretty sarcastic senses of humor so I think people are sometimes…" Orr started.
"Taken aback," Reed finished.
This UP couple first met in the fall of 1983 at the University of Oklahoma, where they had one class together: 18th-Century British Novels.
"He was scammin' on me," Reed said.
At first they didn't even know each other's names since their professor called them by their last names. But they managed to figure it out and five years later, they were married in Norman, Okla.
"(The wedding was) HOT!" they both exclaimed in unison.
"Someone turned the air conditioning off," Orr said. "People thought I was crying because I was wiping sweat off my brow."
Now, 22 years later, they work at the same university, where their older son, Clarke, is a sophomore. Their younger son, Jacob, is a sophomore at Wilson High School. Reed was practicing law in North Carolina when Orr was offered a tenured position at UP as an English professor. They moved their family to Portland in 1993 and Reed became an adjunct at the university, which, according to Reed, slowly evolved into the position she has now.
As for their plans this Valentine's Day, the couple doesn't really have any.
"We both kind of recoil about doing something just because you're supposed to," Reed said. "I want him to be nice to me all year."
They're not really the romantic type, and they don't take themselves too seriously, Orr says.
"We don't play a lot of games with each other," Reed said. "I mean we, do play games. We play Scrabble."
"We love Scrabble," Orr added.
- Sarah Hansell
A Match Made in College
Start with a shy college boy. Add a talkative college girl. Mix in a freshman humanities seminar and sprinkle a hard chemistry class on top. According to Josh and Stacey Noem, this is the perfect recipe for a match made in college.
"The first thing I noticed about Josh was that he never talked," Stacey said. "I couldn't believe someone could remain so silent for so long in a class. But he just walked up to me one day and introduced himself. I thought that was remarkably confident. I was intimidated, but he smelled really good."
The Noems were married the day after finals in 1998 at Sacred Heart chapel on the Notre Dame campus where they met. They have been together for 17 years and they have three kids: Oscar, 10, Simon-Peter, 5, and Lucy, 3. Though their love story is a cute one, there have been some challenges and funny stories mixed in.
"I took Stacey home to meet my parents, and she killed a deer," Josh said.
On their drive from Florida to South Dakota, Stacey was driving on unfamiliar roads at three in the morning.
"I cut off a semi on a bridge, and I hit a deer," Stacey said. "I killed an animal, and all Josh said to me was, ‘You killed Bambi's mother.'"
For most couples, working together in the same office would be out of the question. But Josh and Stacey seem to flourish sharing a job as assistant directors for faith formation in the Campus Ministries office.
"We identify with the challenges of work. It allows us to empathize with each other," Stacey said.
"We share insights and perspectives and that's what makes it easy," Josh said.
Josh and Stacey enjoy spending time together hiking outdoors and watching quirky documentaries such as "Spellbound" and hours of ESPN. In college they also bonded over their love of basketball as they played one-on-one in the mornings before class.
"Josh doesn't let me win, and that's good," Stacey said.
Their advice for young college students in love is patience.
"There is no timeline for a relationship; let it unfold in a timeline. Our relationships made us better people, and called us out on things," Stacey said.
A relationship should not be entered lightly. Josh and Stacey believe relationships are meant to build you up, rather than break you down.
"It is a danger sign if relationships stifle aspects of your personality. The relationship should encourage your personality to flourish, because there is no room for fear in
a relationship," Josh said.
- Rachel McIntosh
Mayer for each other
Steven Mayer, associate professor and chair of the department of chemistry and Shannon Mayer, associate professor of physics have not made any extravagant Valentine's Day plans.
"We may sneak out for a cup of coffee," Steven said, "but we would have to check the schedule."
However, they will certainly be honoring their relationship on the holiday of love.
"We're not into holidays. We're more into celebrating in small ways every day," Steven said.
Steven and Shannon met at Pacific Lutheran University as seniors in the fall of 1986.
"We didn't run into each other until senior year," Shannon said.
They married in August of 1989.
Steven and Shannon feel very lucky to have both been hired at the University of Portland.
"It's very hard to find two academic jobs at the same school," Shannon said. Steven added that it was "nothing short of a miracle."
When the couple isn't working, they cross country ski, hike and attend UP soccer games. Their 12-year-old daughter Jordyn and 10-year-old daughter Hayley come along to watch the games.
"Our daughters really like the girls' soccer games because they play soccer themselves," Shannon said.
In fact, Steven and Shannon coach their daughters' soccer team at St. Johns Community Club together. Steven and Shannon look after a one-year-old husky puppy named Cayenne who accompanies them on their cross country ski and hiking adventures.
Steven usually just commutes on his bike, but commented on how they share the one car they have.
"Sometimes it's like a relay race, where we're passing the car keys off like a baton," Steven said.
At school, Steven and Shannon appreciate teaching the same students.
"We have a lot of the same students," Steven said. "I think it's fun for the students to have both of us."
Shannon pointed out a potential downside to having the same students.
"We have to be careful not to tell the same jokes," Shannon said.
Steven said that a student in one of his classes broke out into laughter after he used the exact same example as his wife in an earlier class.
Shannon said that as long as you find the right person, you can have a great marriage.
"Good marriages can happen because people work with each other," Shannon said.
"That's not to say it's all work and no play," Steven said.
- Luke Riela
Introvert + Extrovert = Love
Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, and Lancelot and Guinevere are epic tales of true love, but Molly Hiro and Lars Larson, two professors in the English department, have these love stories beat.
They met in September 1996 while working on their doctorates at UCLA. The two first encountered each other because of their mutual love of hiking, but it was their differences in personality that really started their love story.
"I'm an extrovert and he's an introvert," Hiro said.
At first, outgoing Hiro mistook Larson's quiet demeanor as a lack of interest.
"I think he was just intimidated by this person strongly coming on to him," Hiro said.
However, after backpacking in Arizona together, Hiro got to see Larson at his best in what she calls his natural element, and she decided to take another chance on him. They spent eight months getting to know each other, and in April, they started dating.
"By the spring, I could tell this was the one," Larson said.
In 2000, the couple tied the knot, and followed up their love story with two kids and jobs together in the UP English department.
Though the two have a love as beautiful as a sonnet, Valentine's Day just isn't their thing.
"We don't really do Valentine's Day," Hiro said. "When you're as old as us, it's the date you try to avoid. It's too forced."
But that doesn't mean the two don't enjoy a romantic time out together on any other day.
"Every couple of weeks when we can get a babysitter, we try to make those date nights our Valentine's Days," Larson said.
So what advice does this literary couple have for young people?
Looking at their relationship, the two encourage couples to embrace each others' differences, just as they did.
"Let go and let the other person be who he or she is. It makes everyone happy," Hiro said. "You can't force yourselves to be the same."
They also encourage couples to value trust when it comes to relationships.
"Find someone you can trust," Larson said. "It's the biggest thing you can do."
- Amanda Blas
(Photo submitted by John Orr and Lisa Reed)
(Photo submitted by the Noems)
(Photo submitted by the Noems)
(Photo submitted by the Mayers)
(Photo submitted by the Mayers)
(Kevin Kadooka -- The Beacon)
(Photo submitted by Molly Hiro and Lars Larson)
