November 13, 2024
Meet a Colleague: Seth Jones
Meet Cute From stolen sandwiches to stolen hearts, these W&L alumni share their stories of how they met their significant other.
Washington and Lee University has provided the perfect backdrop for many alumni love stories over the years.
Elise Bryant Darden ’92 and Jay Darden ’93
Jay and I started dating when we served on the Executive Committee of the 1992 Mock Convention. Jay served as treasurer, and I served as secretary. Many hours in the Executive Committee office in preparation for the convention allowed us to become very good friends . . . the rest is history. We just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and have two children, Harper Elise Darden (W&L Class of 2023) and John Corbet Darden (a junior at Sewanee: The University of the South). W&L is — of course — very near and dear to our hearts. And we both still love to discuss politics!
Noelle Rutland Camp ’17 and William Camp
I met my husband, William Camp (Virginia Military Institute, Class of 2016) on a blind date to the VMI Midwinter Formal dance in 2014. We dated all through college, attending W&L sorority formals and VMI dances alike, and ultimately got engaged during my senior year. We took our engagement photos on the W&L Colonnade and were married in 2017. We have now been married for seven years and live in England, where William is stationed with the U.S. Air Force as a pilot, and I work as an international consultant on nuclear security and nonproliferation.
Bill Kauffman ’57 and Sandy Kauffman
I first met my wife-to-be during our senior year in high school — Sandy was attending a rival neighboring high school. The relationship grew during the senior year and continued through summer. However, fall brought a separation of distance but not of affection. I was off to Lexington as a freshman at W&L, and Sandy was at State College, Pennsylvania, for her first year at Penn State.
After numerous adventures of me visiting Penn State and Sandy visiting W&L for big weekend events, it resulted in giving her my Delta Tau Delta fraternity pin, followed the next year by an engagement ring, which resulted in a wedding Aug. 18, 1956. This was just before my senior year in 1956-57.
We enjoyed a wonderful senior year living in the government-built prefabs that were built for GI families attending college after World War II. There were times we shared our apartment with fraternity brothers’ guests, which was fine — as long as there was no rain. The beaver board and tar paper construction was not that dependable at keeping us dry! But who could complain when we were only paying $35 a month, including utilities?
This Valentine’s Day will have us looking forward to celebrating our 69th wedding anniversary come Aug. 18. To be continued … we’re not done yet!
Madison Lilly ’25 and Malachi Eberly ’24
Sophomore year, I accidentally stole a guy’s sandwich in the D. Hall line (it looked similar to mine – oops!). We talked for the first time that day, then we became friends through RUF. Our first date was Third-Year milkshakes, and we have been dating for almost two years now! Thanks, W&L Dining!
John Torell ’14 and Crawford Rhyne Torell ’14
We started dating December of our freshman year. We were both the Class of 2014. We got engaged on the Colonnade in 2017 and were married in June 2018. Now we live in Bronxville, New York, with our two girls.
Lidia Kurganova ’23L and Connor Donaldson ’17, ’23L
Connor and I met at W&L Law and were in every single class together. We started dating in 2L and are now engaged to be married at University Chapel on Sept. 27, 2025.
Tim Halloran ’91 and Nancy Halloran ’90
We met at W&L, but our romance didn’t start until we were both baby “deans” working in the Admissions Office. We got married in 1994 and have three children, two of which are seniors applying to W&L!
Kayla Monaghan ’24 and Nic Zamaloff ’26
I had been taking a Spring Term English class on love and had started writing a final paper about how I wasn’t sure I would ever fall in love or get married. The final title of the paper ended up being “How a Boy Ruined My Paper,” and here’s why. Nic and I had never met or heard of each other, with truly no idea to this day how that is possible because we know many of the same people, until the last week of Spring Term classes last year. We met at a hoedown dance that the campus ministry RUF hosted and instantly hit it off. Nic was going back home to New Jersey for the summer just two days after that, and I was graduating the following week. That first night we danced and then talked for hours, both drawn to each other but also hesitant because I was going to be moving to Nebraska that summer after graduation to start teaching as a middle school Latin teacher. He asked me to hang out the next day and we agreed to join a sunrise hike to the gazebo that RUF was hosting. He forgot to get my number so we both went to the hike uncertainly, hopeful the other would be there. We talked that whole walk. He finally got my number at the end and asked me to go on another walk later that day. We ended up starting on campus and traveling down the Woods Creek Trail all the way to Boxerwood and back. He eventually dropped me off at Third-Year where I had to start my final on-call shift as an RA, and he needed to pack to leave the next day. We planned to see each other the following day and went back to the gazebo. He brought a speaker for us to swing dance more, which I had taught him that first night we met.
We talked and texted daily and developed a steady pattern of long-distance dating. From getting up early for our FaceTime routine of playing NYT word games and reading the Bible to ending our days with virtual date nights (such as cooking the same meals over the phone, playing digital board games or pressing play on a movie at the same time), we fell deeper and deeper in love with each other. We are practically sponsored by American Airlines for the now nine (soon to be 10) flights we have done to see each other since August 2024.
Nic proposed on New Year’s Eve in Blacksburg, Virginia, at the stroke of midnight, and we are getting married at the end of 2025 in Blacksburg, close to my family. Our favorite spot in Lexington is probably the gazebo, which holds a lot of memories for us, or the Colonnade, where we have spent time whenever I come back to visit W&L. A favorite memory we have is stargazing on the Colonnade at the end of Winter Break when we came back to town for a few days. (We are doing engagement photos at the gazebo over Feb. Break.) We are looking forward to Fancy Dress, which I will be coming back for, especially since as a 2020 Covid-19 freshman I only have experienced three Fancy Dress dances so I am thrilled to make it a full set of four.
Christina Savory Medick ’22 and Will Medick ’21
I walked into DHall after a restless night of sleep, focused on writing a paper that morning before the end of Winter Term got too crazy. I saw some friends who asked me to sit with them. I tried to say no, wanting to have a grab-and-go breakfast, but eventually I caved. I went to sit with them, and one of their wrestling teammates, Will, was sitting with them too. We started chatting, and I immediately felt bad for trying to skip out.
Will and I were friends for the rest of that year (my freshman year, his sophomore), connecting through Greek Life and more mutual friends. When we came back to campus the next fall, our friends worked hard to set the two of us up. The rest is history! Our first date was Sweet Things ice cream. We have been back many times since.
We got married on Oct. 26, 2024, surrounded by loving family and friends, including lots of W&L grads.
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