Although Erin Hayden and Matthew Garger were both students at S&T for an overlapping year, they didn’t meet until the Spring Career Fair in 2012.

“I was recruiting entry-level automation engineers for the firm I worked at,” she says. “I had no idea I was also recruiting a husband!”
Erin earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 2008 and currently works at Mars Wrigley. Matthew earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering in 2012 and currently works at EN Engineering. The couple married in July 2017.
Their relationship advice?
“Don’t focus on being so close to family right after graduation,” she says. “Be flexible in location because so many amazing opportunities are out there. Also, if you can marry an engineer, do it. Our dinner conversations together are some of my favorites. No one quite understands the daily struggles you go through like someone who does the same thing as you.”
Share This Story
Spark a Memory?
Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).
Brandon Moore and Mackenzy Vedder
Brandon Moore met Mackenzy Vedder while working as a bartender at Hoppers Pub in September 2019 at Hoppers Pub. “I…
Once-in-a-lifetime cab ride
Tamerate Tadesse is a SCADA automation engineer but started his career as an airport taxi driver. “I like to talk…
One man’s WWII timeline
Jesse Bowen, EE’49, joined the Army during peacetime and was a radio operator for B-10 bombers. Immediately after Pearl Harbor…
Major league research
Three S&T faculty helped strike down claims that “juiced” baseballs were the cause of a spike in Major League home…
Kirstin Rigger and Holden McComb
Kirstin Rigger and Holden McComb were freshmen living in TJ Hall when they met in 2015. Holden, who lived on…
David and Karen (Miller) Sorrell
In the spring semester of 1979, David Sorrell was looking for an “easy A” during his senior year at Missouri…