It was a summer day in 1968, when “Hey Jude” was just starting to play over the airwaves and the weather in Hamilton was as good as it ever was. Pam and Tom, two master’s of teaching students, were in the cafeteria grabbing lunch when they noticed one another, remembering seeing each other in class. Tom told Pam that he had just spent three years in the Peace Corps, teaching in Malawi, and came to Colgate with hopes of returning to Africa post-graduation.

“I really wanted to go into the Peace Corps,” Pam remembers thinking. She thought the world of Tom and his service. “That was a wonderful thing to do, and people were having great adventures.” 

Back to the present day for a moment: “This is a total surprise 50 years later, hearing this story, because I never [perceived] any of that,” interjects Tom. “However, she did sit through about 2,000 slides [of my travels]…”

A few days later, Pam was taking a shortcut down to her residence hall, through a wooded area. Tom was coming up the hill, and this time, as their paths crossed, he really caught her attention. The same was true for Tom, and the two started finding time to spend with one another. Their first date was at a country western bar in Norwich. Later that week, Tom wrote in his diary “I’m going to marry this girl.” They had a quintessential Colgate summer: midday swims at the indoor pool, cheering at the 4th of July parade through downtown, and nights looking up at the stars. Once, in a perfect confluence of sun spots and clear skies, they even saw the Northern Lights. “To be at a place where you see something so magical just added to the whole allure,” Pam says. 

Those early days in Hamilton were only the beginning of a lifetime of adventures. After Pam and Tom were married, they took jobs at high schools in the area and rented an apartment in Utica. But their itch for travel hadn’t waned, so they began looking for opportunities abroad. Zambia called.

Tom signed a contract to teach science, and Pam filled in to teach any open spots available at a government-run girls’ boarding school in the northwestern part of the country. They soon built a small community with the other teachers, who were also ex-pats. “It was everybody together,” Pam remembers. The school only had three terms per year, so the couple spent months traveling around Africa, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and visiting Cape Town.

Then, they embarked on one of their greatest adventures — child rearing. In the tiny community hospital, Pam gave birth to their son, Eric. Their German midwife, surprised that Tom was going to stay for the delivery and trying to make him feel useful, said, “Get the flyswatter and kill some of these flies.”

They stayed in Zambia for the rest of the term, and then made the tough decision to move back to the United States. “I would’ve jumped on an airplane and gone right back [to Zambia],” Pam says. “It’s very hard to [leave] a place where you are so immersed.” Tom and Pam went on to have careers in electrical engineering and communications, respectively, as well as have another baby. Though they’re now retired, Pam is involved in local politics, and Tom spends his time on environmental action. 

They still like to laugh about the day they got engaged. On the back steps of Pam’s apartment, the couple was having a heated discussion about educational policy. “You started to look kind of distressed, and I didn’t want you to get mad at me, so I just said, ‘Will you marry me?’” Tom relates to Pam. 

His diary entry came true.