Under the Bell Tower

We caught up with some local Cobber couples that met at Concordia and learned a little bit about their stories before they walked under the bell tower.

Petra (Larson) ’09 and Grant ’09 Vanderford

We met at Concordia as juniors while working for The Concordian newspaper. We were both news writers, and the next year when he became news editor I became one of the co-editors-in-chief. We like to joke that I’m still the boss.

Jim ’61 and Jan (Rendahl) ’61 Hausmann

We met in a religion class our junior year and she used to turn around to look at me when the professor said my name during attendance. We began dating shortly thereafter.

Katherine (Nye) ’02 and Joe ’04 Halvorson

We were both student workers in the Admission Office – he was a tour guide and I worked at the front desk. I recruited him to join the Sources of Service organization and we spent a lot of time helping prepare for Hands for Change in August prior to school starting. He then was my date to the Homecoming Harvest Ball and Alumni Banquet, which I attended because I was on the Homecoming Court.

Danyel (Schneider) ’17 and Gavin ’16 Moe

We met in our 2D art class in Olin. Gavin asked me out in between Hoyum Hall and Olin, and three years later he asked me to be his wife in the same exact spot. We walked under the bell tower both times. 

Abby Boggs-Johnson ’10, Brent Johnson ’10, and baby Olin

Brent was the roomie of one of my fellow Clubbies, Mitch, our freshman year. We met through him one of the first weeks of school and were friends for a year before we started dating. 

Dan ’02 and Amanda (Wolf) ’03 Biebighauser with their children, Adam ’31, John ’29 and Ellen ’35

When I was a senior and she was a junior, we were both math tutors. I knew that it’d be tougher to start dating after I had graduated, so one night, in one of the tutoring rooms (Ivers 214), I asked her a little more directly about dating. She said she’d need to think about it, but a week later, in that same room, we decided that dating would be a good idea. 

I came back to campus for Homecoming after I graduated, when Amanda was a senior and, after the Harvest Ball, we walked by Ivers. I had borrowed a key to the building and a key to Ivers 214, and I proposed to her in that classroom. It was one of the ugliest places on campus, but it was special to us!

That room doesn’t exist anymore in our new Integrated Science Center, but I took the sign to Ivers 214 before the room was demolished.

Bekah (Wright) ’15 and Theo ’15 Betting

Theo and I met in a psychology class in 2012. I had planned to drop the class but never got around to it. Good thing I didn’t or we may never have met!

Eric Lillehaugen ’11 and Shelby Cochran ’11

We met performing in theatre at Concordia. First in “Godspell” our junior year and then in a weird sci-fi musical called “Return to the Forbidden Planet” as seniors. She generously looked past the velour jumpsuit and turtleneck dickey combo that made up my costume. 

Marta Fitzer ’15 and Jake Krogstad ’15

We were Clubbies, but we actually started hanging out and had our first date on a May Sem to Santorini after our junior year. And then we got engaged under the bell tower!

^{Published February 2018}