Dedicated to those who attended Dean Academy, Dean Junior College, or Dean College, met each other while on campus or in later years and were eventually married. We currently have 300 couples coded as such! Below are just a few of their stories. Send us yours via the Sweethearts Online Survey.
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Jennifer Rodriguera ('93) and Brant Grillo ('93)
My second year at Dean, Brant and I were dorming in Jones Hall. Brant was on the first floor and I was on the third floor. We hung out with the same crowd--in Jones and Ewen, and one day I said I had to get to know that man! We dated for the remainder of the year and continued after graduation. Since we were both from NJ and lived two towns away from each other, it was pretty easy!
We lived together for eight years and finally got married in August of 2000. The day of our wedding was the same weekend Hurricane Floyd blew through New Jersey! After the floods, lack of electricity and the possible cancellation of our wedding, it all worked out for the best. We had the wedding and I left for my honeymoon really stressed out and with a foot of water in my basement! A bit of a rocky start but, 14 years later we are still going strong! No children yet, but never say never!
Dean was a wonderful time in my life, for friends, experiences and best of all I found my best friend and future husband! I always look back on Dean with great memories and have since bumped into people here in New Jersey who either went to Dean or know someone who is going currently.
Both Brant and I have settled in an up-and-coming lake community in western New Jersey. I am currently employed with Fisher Scientific dedicated to the Novartis Pharmaceuticals account, and Brant works for Packard Industries.
(2006)
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Danette Bradley ('81) and Steven Lambiase ('81)
We met in the fall of our sophomore year at Dean, although I spotted Steve (Lambo) the previous year. We spent our last year at Dean together and, despite attending different schools in different states, we stayed together. Twenty-five years and a daughter later, (with a few bumps along the road), we're still together. Dean will always hold a special place for the both of us!
(2006)
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Molly Shackett ('92) and Ray Auger ('92)
I (Molly) came to Dean in pursuit of an education. I had no way of knowing at that time how my life would be completely changed. It was the start of an odyssey that would carry me through the next decade and bring me back to the place from which I had started.
It was as a Communication Arts major at Dean that I met Ray Auger, a fellow major with whom I had an immediate connection. We shared the same interests, the same goals, and the same friends. What we didn't share was availability--Ray and I were both committed to other people at that time in our young lives. Still, I did little to hide from my friends the fact that I had a crush on Ray.
After graduating from Dean in 1992, Ray and I kept in distant touch through the same circle of friends, although never really contacted one another directly. Years later, I heard Ray had married and had a baby boy. In January of 2001, Ray and I connected during a Dean get-together in Boston. I learned of his divorce and move to Concord, NH. Although I was living in Boston at the time, I had recently accepted a new position and was about to move to Hawaii. Again, time would not be on our side. We shared the pleasantries exchanged between old friends encountered after a long absence, but nothing more.
Still living in Hawaii in early October 2002, I had been given an assignment to look up every newspaper, television station, radio station, and magazine in New England to develop a plan to promote a hotel on the East Coast. Little did I know this assignment would change my life forever.
As I booked appointments in New Hampshire, I came across a listing for WJYY in Concord. As I clicked on the link, Ray's face literally popped up on my screen. It was so strange and so welcomed. Ray was the host of "The Breakfast Jam," the morning show on WJYY. I immediately sent him an email. He sent back a very warm, friendly response. We started emailing weekly. I told him I was planning to "escape" Hawaii and would be home in December. Coincidentally, another Dean get-together with the crew was in the works in January 2003 in Connecticut. We both attended the event, and for the first time, there was nothing holding us back. We started dating shortly after and got engaged a year and a half later.
We were married on December 11, 2004. I still can't believe that this all happened to me. Someone in the heavens was really looking out for me and presented that assignment as if opening a window to happiness through a computer screen. I just bought five new sweaters, for I get the chills when I think about how I am living proof that romantic fate does exist.
(2005)
