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Ken Smith ’74 and Mary Lynn (Knutson) Smith ’70

Where and how did you meet while students at UW-Eau Claire? We grew up in Durand, living around the block from each other, but we didn’t date until Mary Lynn’s junior year at UW-Eau Claire. Coming from a small town, with many mutual friends, it was “inevitable.”

Although technically we were not students at UW-Eau Claire at the same time, it felt like we were. Ken’s second year at Chippewa Valley Technical College was its first year on Clairemont Avenue. It wasn’t much of a walk to/from Towers dorm. We really felt "connected.”

Was it a “love connection” from the start? We were engaged to be married eight months after our first date.

Special place on campus:  We have fond memories of the lounge in Towers, where we spent lots of time ostensibly watching the “soaps.”

What is your fondest memory as a couple that connects you to UW-Eau Claire? Two weeks after we were married, Ken was sent to Vietnam and Mary Lynn finished her junior year final exams. Although married, Mary Lynn was granted permission to stay in the Towers dorm for her senior year. Ken fondly recalls a picture he kept in his billfold of Mary Lynn looking out her Towers room window — the same window Ken looked up to while attending the Chippewa Valley Technical College. We still try to spot that window when we visit Eau Claire and drive by on Clairemont.