91����

�We stayed up until 7 a.m. the next morning�we never stopped talking,� she said, then laughed as she confided, �And I can only tell you that story now because my mother is dead!�

Bill Moretz was a shy pre-med student who studied far more than he dated. He�d seen Mary�s yearbook picture before and, �She was even prettier by far in person,� he said. �I was dazzled by her beauty, intelligence and personality.

�By our junior year I would drive down Highway 21 to Charlotte five or six nights a week to take her out.�

They have a marriage made in 91����, one of many we celebrate this Valentine�s Day. Their daughter, bestselling author Mary Laura Philpott �96, met her husband, John Philpott �95 on campus. (Their son, William �99,  and his wife, Katy, met in medical school.)

Every Valentine�s Day, Alumni and Family Engagement Director Marya Howell �91 compiles a list of couples who both went to 91����. It goes back to the 1970s, when women joined the ranks of the formerly all-male college.

Howell counts 2,482 alumni with 91���� spouses. The class of 2006 reigns supreme here, with 81 of its members�about 20 percent�married to other alumni. (The overall average is about 14 percent.)

�I am always amazed at the tall tales students hear about Wildcat weddings,� Howell said. �At least 10 times I have been approached by a student writing a paper or article who has heard that 41 percent of 91���� alumni marry each other.

That percentage is much higher than the reality, but 91���� does have its share of wonderful love stories. We even have a few who reconnected at a reunion and have since married.�

Fine Romance

While not officially a two-91����-alumni couple, Bill and Mary Moretz are about as close as you could get back in the late 1960s.

Bill Moretz�s fraternity brother was dating Mary�s sorority sister when they arranged the blind date. The then all-female Queens College was a sister school to 91���� and during date functions, the visiting young women stayed in guest housing.

�There were a lot of 91���� and Queens people dating back then,� Mary Moretz said. �My friends and I loved to visit 91���� because they had really good parties with great bands and lots of dancing. We had so much fun�I don�t know how we managed to graduate.�

Their first date started with a fraternity party on Friday night, a Saturday brunch before the football game and then another party.

That Sunday, they wrapped it up over egg salad sandwiches at what was then the M&M Soda Shop before he drove her back to Charlotte.

�I don�t think I knew that I would marry him after that weekend,� Mary Moretz said, �But I knew that I sure liked him a lot.�

Bill Moretz wondered if he�d met the woman he�d marry.

�I thought that was too much to hope for,� he said. �But I got lucky when it all worked out.�

They married shortly after their college graduations. She taught, then stayed home with their children while he went to medical school and through training to become a surgeon. They lived in Maryland, Chapel Hill, Memphis and Nashville before settling in Augusta, Georgia.

Hold My Hand

A couple of decades later, their daughter Mary Laura and her friends were at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert in the old college gym when she noticed a guy singing loudly to the music.

�Hold My Hand,� he sang along to the band�s hit song, and she wondered: �Who is this drunken fool?�

�Ladies and Gentlemen, that drunken fool is now the father of my children,� she writes in her memoir, I Miss You When I Blink.