Love is in the air -- and the newsroom, too
Honoring the relationships that started at Ohio University
By Stephen McKean
Of all the relationships formed at Ohio University, it is perhaps in lifelong romance that memories of Athens are most vividly preserved.
In that spirit, last fall the Ohio University Alumni Association asked couples who met here to enter the first-ever Ohio University Couples Contest. Forty-one pairs submitted entries.
Bruce and Deb (Emil) Jorgensen sent in the winning essay and received a two-night stay at the Ohio University Inn in April as well as meals at local restaurants and tickets to local events.
 In her essay, Deb, BFA '71, described how the couple met (she was trying to sell her dead 1952 Plymouth, and Bruce, BSJ '71, answered the ad in the paper) and how, from that moment, they were friends. Soon they were meeting to talk politics at the old Lantern bar on Court Street.
Eventually the friends became a couple, so much so that they were kicked out of Deb's apartment on a morals charge for cohabitation. To make sure something like that never happened again, and, as Deb wrote, because "we loved each other," Bruce and Deb were married in the summer of 1970. In keeping with the spirit of the times, the bride was barefoot with wildflowers in her hair.
The Washington, N.J., couple (who have three grown children) remembered how politically charged the times were, and how The Post played a central role in their lives. Both Deb and Bruce worked at the newspaper (Bruce as an editorial cartoonist, and Deb as a typist).
And they continue to use the skills they learned at Ohio University. Deb (who was a graphic design major) has worked in that field her entire career, and Bruce has been for many years both a commercial artist and a syndicated editorial cartoonist.
All these years later, Deb is happy she talked Bruce out of buying the Plymouth, even though he wanted to. "He looked kinda cute ... so I finally said, 'No! You're too nice a guy — the car died, and I won't sell it to you!'"
Read the couple's winnning essay.
Stephen McKean, BA '98, is a writer based in Athens.
Posted 11-02-2007
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