Finding Love at the UW

They met in different ways: In a class. In a campus lab. As orientation leaders. Through their faith. Through Greek life. For some, the connection was instant. Others were friends for years before dating. But all of the couples below found enduring love as UW students, with at least one partner from each couple graduating from the College of Arts & Sciences. Here they share their love stories. 

KATLEIAH RAMOS
BS, Mathematics, BS, PHYSICS, 2015

SKYLeR WHEATON
BS, PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY, 2013
 

Married 3 years

How did you meet?
We worked at the same physics lab, with Katleiah taking over Skyler’s role. We coordinated our first meet-up in front of the old H-Bar cafe in the Physics Building and then spent hours talking about our shared love of learning.  

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
H Bar! Because it’s where we first met and was in the Physics Building. 

Anything else you'd like to share?
We loved walking the campus together and down The Ave. A standout memory is an evening where we walked down 45th to Dick's burgers, then all the way down to Gasworks Park. At the park we had a polite family of raccoons firmly request a share of our burgers. Years later we returned to that same spot at Gasworks and got engaged!

Jennifer Yerkes
BA, psYChology, 1994

Philip Yerkes
BA, PSYCHOLOGY, 1994
TMMBA, 2003

Married 27 years

How did you meet?
Through social events put on by my sorority, Delta Gamma, and Phil's fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, which are brother/sister houses nationally. We were friends for years, and our senior year, as psychology majors, we took a class together, Psych 361: Social Psychology Lab. Our research project was to determine if birth order in the family had any correlation to the number of children you wished to have. The data did not point to any significant connection, and Phil always teased me that I had messed up the procedure for comparing multivariate sample means. My lack of stats skills did not stop him from asking me out on a date though, and we have been together ever since. (When we recently compared our transcripts, I got a 3.5 and he got a 3.3.  Now who's getting the last laugh!)

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
Husky Stadium.  We have shared so many memories there.  We have been ticket holders since we started school in 1990, have tailgated for many years and shared so many good times with friends and family as we've cheered on the Dawgs. We have loved our time watching the various ups and downs following the team, but one thing has always remained constant — our love for the purple and gold.

If you have children, are they Huskies too?
We have two daughters, 23 and 20, and while neither attended the UW for undergrad, they both definitely bleed purple and gold.  And there is always grad school, right? One can only hope.

Anything else you'd like to share?
Fun fact: I hired Harry Husky to surprise Phil at work on Valentine's Day 2020, just prior to the start of the pandemic. He works at Amazon and Harry and his handler had to jump through several hoops to get in the building, but he finally did and it was such a surprise!  As Phil rounded the corner, the look of surprise and confusion on his face was priceless when Harry delivered him a big bouquet of flowers. It was a Valentine's Day neither of us will ever forget. 

ELIZABETH SMITH-GORDON
BA, JAPANESE LINGUISTICS, 2006

GRAHAM SMITH-GORDON
BS, MATHEMATICS, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, 2006
 

Married 18 Years

How did you meet?
We were both taking CSE 142: Basic Computer Programming and MUSIC 116: Elementary Music Theory. Years later, I (Elizabeth) was telling the story of how we first connected by chatting at the bus stop near the end of term, and how Graham was pretty shy about it but invited me to his gymnastics competition. Graham looked at me like my brain had fallen out, because apparently we had "actually" first interacted on the very first day of class, when I interrupted his conversation to tell him he was wrong about something. (It turns out we had interacted multiple times in both classes throughout the term, and every interaction boiled down to me telling him how wrong he was.) The day I was talking about in the story, he had seen me coming to the bus stop and had frozen in panic, expecting me to correct him about something. (Half of what I say starts with "Well, ACTUALLY....") When I was pleasant instead, I guess he panicked and asked me to his meet. 

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
We spent a lot of time together lying in the grass in Parrington Lawn.

Brian Kuranishi
BA, Communication; Interdisciplinary Visual Arts; 2020

Lily Peterson
BA, Education Communities & Organizations, 2020

Together 8 years

How did you meet?
We met at the group interview to be orientation leaders for First Year Programs (FYP, now called New Student and Transfer Programs) and ended up in all the same groups that whole interview day. Lily asked Brian what his major was no less than six times, clearly demonstrating her listening skills early on. At the end of the group interview, Lily told Brian, “You really deserve this job and would be great at it. I hope you get one of the spots.” Brian asked for her Snapchat, and a few weeks later they were both hired and spent spring and summer 2018 training and doing orientation leading together. The rest is history. Our whole team figured out we were dating before we did!

Did you have a favorite place to meet up?
The First-Year Programs office. Lily continued working there through summer 2019, so Brian would bring her snacks and notes at her desk everyday.

Any favorite memories from that time?
We dressed as Drumheller Fountain and Red Square for Halloween and won a costume competition, which was a great summary of the UW as central to our relationship. I (Lily) still work at the UW. Brian, as a transfer student, really introduced me to the UW and the transfer world, and his passion for supporting transfer students at UW ended up inspiring my transfer work and the program I run today with Undergraduate Academic Affairs (UAA) Advising, so that’s been a neat through-thread for our relationship and my pathway personally.  

ANDE REISMAN
PHD, SOCIOLOGY, 2018

SARAH DIEFENDORF
PHD, SOCIOLOGY 2018
 

Married  5 Years

How did you meet?
We met on the first day of orientation of our Sociology PhD program in the hallway on the second floor of Savery Hall. I (Ande) had been in Seattle for three weeks and was feeling like I really fit in. The first thing Sarah says to me: "Are you from New England?" I guess I was a dead giveaway with my Polo button-up shirt and a bit less "Seattle" than I thought. We became best friends and by the end of our first year it had turned into a partnership.

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
Parnassus and the cafe in the Henry (called Molly's at the time) were favorites, along with the evergreen Cafe Solstice. Great place for coffee and to work or to take a break from work.

If you have children, are they Huskies too?
Our kid is 2, but maybe!!

Anything else you'd like to share?
The Windermere Cup of 2011 was on my birthday and was kind of like our first date. (We didn't know it at the time, but that's exactly how that day felt.) We've enjoyed attending it when we can.

George "Everett" SPRING
BA, ECONOMICS, 1977

Katheryn "KATHY" (BOUDREAU) Spring
BS, NURSING, 1979
 

Married 44 years

How did you meet?
We were both residents of Camano House in McCarty Hall. Kathy was in her first weeks at UW in 1975. Another resident took her to my room to get reacquainted with my roommate, whom she knew at a military high school in Japan. He wasn’t in, and I opened the door. We’ve been a couple ever since.

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
Neither of us had much money, so we mostly stayed in the dorm listening to music and watching basketball and eating together in the cafeterias. The last three digits of the landlines in our rooms were the room numbers. I lived in 506 and she in 605; our friends and family often transposed the numbers when calling and still reached the one they wanted to talk to. Our rare dates out included the Last Exit, a student hangout in the U District known for its massive peanut butter sandwiches, hot chocolate, and other simple comfort food at low prices. We bought inexpensive family packages to attend the football games in the west endzone (wasn’t the student section at the time) with my mother and a friend or sibling.  Our dorm house was tightknit, and some of the former residents are our close friends to this day.

If you have children, are they Huskies too?
Our youngest son graduated from UW on a Navy NROTC scholarship, as did I.

Anything else you'd like to share?
UW would be a special place just on our student experiences alone. That we met there makes it extra special. We were able to pay a final visit to McCarty Hall shortly before demolition began for construction of the current building. Kathy’s first job was at University Hospital (now UWMC). I retired from the UW after 17 years on staff managing capital projects at the Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell campuses and the Friday Harbor Laboratories. For the past 40 years, we have walked to campus from our house a mile away in autumn among the falling leaves and changing weather to reminisce about our beginning and in the spring for the cherry blossoms in the Quad.

Jonathan Cox
PHD, Chemistry, 2012

Elisha (ALLRED) Cox
BA, Mathematics, Spanish, 2010
 

Married 14 years

How did you meet?
I started at UW at the same time that Elisha took some time off of school to serve a mission for our church. I didn't meet her before she left, but I became friends with her friend group and all they could talk about was how awesome she was. When she returned to UW, the first time we met in person, we were actually on dates with other people. To her I was the quirky new guy in the friend group; to me she was the hyped-up farm girl returning to school.

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
Our favorite place to hang out was our church's building on campus — the Seattle Institute of Religion. We spent many hours there and made great friends who we're still in contact with.

Anything else you'd like to share?
The first time that we actually hung out together was at a Husky football game on December 5, 2009.  (I had to look up the date).  Husky football has always been a fun part of our relationship as we live now in eastern Washington as the only Huskies in a sea of Cougs.

(Editor's note: Jonathan, Elisha, and their five children spent the past year living in Kyrgyzstan. You can read their story in the January 2026 issue of the UW College of Arts & Sciences newsletter or at Jonathan's Substack blog.)

USHA VARANASI
PHD, Chemistry, 1968

S. RAO VARANASI
PHD, Aeronautics and Astronautics (Engineering), 1968
 

Married  60 years

How did you meet?
We met at Caltech but he left for the UW and invited me to follow him. It took a very long year apart, so when I arrived in Seattle in August 1963, it felt like the first time we met. 

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
A bench near Drumheller Fountain between Bagley Hall and Guggenheim.

Anything else you'd like to share?
We saw many international movies that were shown during spring quarter each year by auditing a course in the School of Art on Tuesday afternoons and learned about the artistic style and stories. Best student dates with just a bag of popcorn!  We have remained loyal Huskies after our graduation, during our professional lives, and now as semi-retired affiliate faculty of the Department of Chemistry, the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, and the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

(Editor's note: Through the years, the Varanasis have established ten endowments at the UW to support students, including several endowments in the College of Arts & Sciences.)

SHEILA ROE
BA, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, 1984

DAVID ROE
BA, ECONOMICS, 1984
 

Married  38 Years

How did you meet?
We met our freshman year in Econ 200 class. David rushed through the final so that he could talk to Sheila after the final, and it affected his grade. She was one of the last students to finish the final, so he waited a long time.

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
The Quad, because that is where we first talked.

If you have children, are they Huskies too?
Both of our children are UW graduates, each with 2 degrees.

Anything else you'd like to share?
Having lived in Seattle most of our lives, we regularly enjoy the beautiful UW campus and related sporting events.

BARRY BREWIS
BA, Political Science, 1981

Carolyn Engelcke Brewis
Bs, Finance, 1981
 

Married  42 Years

How did you meet?
An international politics class in Gowen Hall. I (Barry) walked into the lecture hall and looked for the cutest friendly looking girl, went up the stairs and sat down right next to her.

Did you have a favorite campus spot?
Suzzallo. Just the feel of that space was special.

If you have children, are they Huskies too?
We have two grown children. Although they didn't attend the UW, they have been and continue to be lifelong Huskies.

Anything else you'd like to share?
Even though we haven't lived in the area for almost 40 years, we still feel very connected to the University of Washington and still have our season football tickets.