From Lord of the Rings to Wedding Rings

When Professor Bruce Selleck ’71 asked Karen Alley ’12 and I to drive the van from Nevada back to Colgate after our summer Geology 120 field course in 2010, I had no idea I would be sharing the road with my future wife. We both knew each other, but we weren’t close. Sure, she’d suffered through me explaining the entirety of Fellowship of the Ring with salt and pepper shakers and a notepad. And yes, I’d listened to her play the hammered dulcimer. But I found her kind of intimidating, and she thought I was a bit weird.

In addition to a mutual love of hiking, geology, and high fantasy, Karen and I shared many experiences at Colgate. We both worked at the Ho Tung Visualization Lab with technical director and designer Joe Eakin and physics professor Tom Balonek. We both spent most evenings on the fourth floor of Ho Science Center. We both participated in wind ensemble. We both researched diatoms with geology professor Amy Leventer. Geography professor Adam Burnett was my adviser as well as hers. And we both are Gryffindors. Before we started dating, we’d met each other’s families and co-presented a poster at a national conference. Our geology peers frequently teased Karen that we would end up together. After writing all of this, I can’t really blame them. However, we didn’t start dating until the spring semester of our senior year after finally watching all six discs of the Lord of Rings extended edition (in the Vis Lab).

I’m sure Bruce knew that Geology 120 would be a formative academic experience, but I doubt he knew just how impactful it would be to our future. Bryce Canyon was not only the first national park I ever visited, but it was also the first place I worked after college. Karen spent the same summer working at Glacier National Park. Now, she and I are pursuing a lifelong goal to visit all 61 U.S. national parks. (We’re at 37!) We even had a national parks–themed wedding, which we celebrated in Hamilton in July 2016 with many of our former professors and fellow alumni.

After working for the National Park Service, Karen and I attended graduate school together at the University of Colorado Boulder. I earned a PhD in geography, studying climate change, and Karen earned a PhD in geology, studying glaciology. Today, we both teach in the Department of Earth Sciences at the College of Wooster in Ohio.

I know it was convenient for Karen and me to drive that van back to Colgate. We were both doing research on campus that summer, and having two drivers for such a long trip is wise. On the other hand, my father often says that the best way to know if you’re compatible with someone is to drive across the United States with them and see if you’re still friends at the end. We’re still suspicious that Bruce was setting us up. If so, thanks, Bruce.