Colgate Love Stories

Jon Berenson ’85 and Carolyn VanMetre ’86 when they were students

Jon Berenson ’85 and I (Carolyn VanMetre ’86) first met as lab partners in Ron Hoham’s Phycology class in the fall of 1984. At the time, we were both dating other people, but had a blast doing field work together at a pond up the road. In the spring, I went off on the Dijon Study Group and Jon, a Fiji, looked forward to graduating in May. While I was in Dijon, I was surprised to get a letter from Professor Hoham, asking me if I would like to be a lab assistant the fall of 1985. I gladly accepted the opportunity. Professor Hoham wrote again, saying that Jon and I would be working together. (Sadly, Jon had had a death in the family and took some time off, planning to return to Colgate for an additional semester. Little did either of us know what this extra time would mean for us.)

In August, Jon and I arrived back at Colgate to get Professor Hoham’s lab and classroom ready for the fall term. We resumed our good times, both loving science and Professor Hoham’s enthusiasm for protists and blue-greens! We even went to the Colgate-Cornell game (“The Big Game”) together, in Jon’s rusted-out Jeep. As we realized that there was maybe more to our relationship than just a mutual love of biology, I met up with Jon one night at the Old Stone Jug. His first move was playing Kiss pinball together. He walked me home, and that was it!

We are coming up on our 25th wedding anniversary this year. We have three beautiful girls, one in college, one in high school, and one in middle school. Jon’s work as regional director of Barclay Industrial Wastewater Management still keeps him in close touch with science. I have been in public education since 1991 and am currently the department head for special education at the Cooperative Middle School in Stratham, N.H. Residents of Exeter, N.H., we have a camp up in Maine on Kezar Lake where we still have a blast together tooling around in the canoe and appreciating nature. Our girls do, too!

Colgate has a big place in our hearts.

Are you a married Colgate couple? If so, we want to hear your love story, whether you had your first kiss on Willow Path or didn’t first meet until years after graduation. Tell us your story in 400 words or less, and send a (current or past) photo to: the Colgate Scene at scene@colgate.edu or 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346.