Rosalie (Larson) and Stan Hadley met one Friday in September 1977 in TJ Hall. Rosalie’s roommate was a lab partner with a friend of Stan’s, so they were eating lunch together in the hall’s cafeteria. Later that day, Stan, a junior, had already decided he’d like to ask Rosalie, a freshman, out when he caught a glimpse of her studying at her desk in her first-floor room. He went up to the window and asked her to go with him to a coffee house that the Student Union Board was sponsoring that night. 

“She agreed, and we went,” says Stan. “During the performance, she started laughing at one of the songs, but I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t until the way home that she said he sang the song ‘Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe.”

Stan, being terrible at names, had forgotten what her name was, but she went out with him the next evening anyway.

“The rest is history,” says Stan.

As students, the two sang in the Concert Choir under Joel Kramme, Stan a tenor and Rosalie an alto. 

“But a most memorable time was when a bunch of people from TJ rented canoes to go down the Big Piney River,” says Stan. “We missed the pullout spot and ended up floating through the demolition zone at Fort Leonard Wood and finally stopped right before the dam and waterfall on the base.”

Stan earned a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering in 1979, and master’s degrees in nuclear engineering and engineering management in 1981. Rosalie earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1981. The couple married in May 1980.

Their relationship advice?

“Realize a marriage has to be split 100/100 not 50/50,” Stan says. “Give each other a lot of grace.”

Rosalie adds, “Buy a house that one salary can pay for; it relieves a lot of stress and opens options.”