Love on Island Time

Zack Silver ’15 and Anna Gilman ’15 didn’t fall in love on Block Island. That happened on the Hill.

But, as they pedaled their bicycles into town on quiet weekdays and hiked winding paths, the couple fostered their connection to one another. Their quaint summers on Block Island held a sort of magic that brought them closer. It’s no wonder — the 10-square-mile swath of land just south of Rhode Island was named one of “The Last Great Places” by The Nature Conservancy. A low-key cousin to Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, visitors come for the laid-back sunsets and outdoor activities.

Zack has been traveling to Block Island with his family every summer since birth, and after Colgate, Anna started going along for the adventures: “[She] was the first person outside our family who was ever allowed to come on the family trip,” he says. “We could just spend the whole day sitting on the porch reading a book with beautiful views. It’s simple, but I think it’s exactly what we need for a summer.”

As it turns out, it was also exactly what they needed for a wedding.

A natural planner, Anna had contacted the 19th-century waterfront Spring House Hotel prior to Zack’s proposal. (She recognizes it was a little presumptuous, but “I knew I wanted to get married there, and I knew it would be Zack.”) They were engaged in summer 2018, and their wedding was postponed twice due to COVID-19. Finally, on June 11, the ceremony took place on the lawn, on top of a hill, looking out onto the ocean. It was picturesque, to say the least. The cocktail hour that followed the traditional Jewish ceremony was held on the hotel’s wraparound porch (with the family vacation home in view).

Zack and Anna met when they both lived in Gate House their first year, becoming close friends fast. They officially started their relationship at the beginning of their junior year when they were both living in the Philanthropists at Colgate house on Broad Street, and they knew it was a good fit when they were both studying abroad, Anna in France and Zack in Australia: “Anna came to visit me in Australia,” Zack recalls. She adds: “Even from the States, it’s really far, but from France it was honestly opposite ends of the world. So that was pretty crazy, but we were young and in love.”

The couple has very different careers, but they both revolve around helping others. Zack participated in AmeriCorps and earned his teaching certification after Colgate, and he now works as a high school American literature and creative writing teacher in Milburn, N.J. Anna, who was a peer health educator with Shaw Wellness Center during her time at Colgate, earned her nursing degree from NYU and now works at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City. The couple’s No. 1 shared interest is health — they did a half Ironman Triathlon in Oregon for their honeymoon. So, it’s no surprise that, during their wedding weekend on Block Island, the couple completed a swift run through town.

For Zack and Anna, the best part of the weekend was greeting loved ones as they came in on the ferry. “The fact that it was kind of a destination in such a small place really made it feel like everyone was there for us,” Zack says.