Professors in Love: CMU faculty members reflect on building lives and careers together
Central Michigan University is known to bring couples together from all sorts of backgrounds and passions. For these three faculty couples, CMU is not only the place of their employment, but also where they continue to grow their love.
Study buddies to married
In August 2003, a young Michigan State University student sat in front of her classmate. Both pursuing biology, they decided to do homework together. Little did they know, what started as study buddies would become life-long partners. Now married, Kevin and Wiline Pangle are professors in the biology department.
They wed one year before they completed graduate school in 2008. Soon after, Wiline gave birth to two girls that are now 10 and 13.
Wiline said competition does not exist in their relationship because they are each other’s biggest supporters.
“Instead of divide and conquer, we believe in this together, stronger kind of feel,” Wiline said.
The Pangles not only work on the same campus, but within close proximity of one another. In the Biosciences Building, they are two doors down from one another. Wiline said she is extremely lucky to have a relationship with someone that understands her line of work.
Distance doesn't matter
Jack Day and Amanda Suchy, originally from Utah and Wisconsin, respectively, moved around the United States for 13 years until settling in Michigan. Now, with a 2-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter, Day is an assistant professor in the education and human sciences department and Suchy is a post-doctoral researcher in the biology department.
The couple met through OkCupid in 2009 when they were both 27 years old. Nonetheless, they were in different places in their lives. Day was half-way through his master's degree while Suchy was applying to graduate schools.
“Indian food and a walk by the river,” Day said, recalling their first date.
Suchy decided on Arizona for graduate school and Day followed.
They bounced around the country for over a decade and even did a long-distance relationship for two years.
The couple said their differing interests, similar sense of humor and unique personalities keep their relationship alive.
Suchy said she and her husband work in adjacent buildings and often grab coffee together or run into each other unexpectedly.
Uniting on Wolverine territory
Michelle Steinhilb was an undergraduate student at Wayne State University when her future husband, Steve Juris, was enrolled at Boston College. The two met in a class of 11 students when they began graduate school at the University of Michigan.
Their friendship progressed into an over 20-year marriage. Juris and Steinhilb now work together in the biology department.
Steinhilb said they bonded quickly after meeting, but that did not stop her from initially rejecting Juris.
“It was hard to determine if we should go into a romantic direction or maintain friendship,” Steinhilb said.
He finally convinced her to go on a date. Now, they have two sons, ages 10 and 13.
Being in the same profession, they said they value understanding each other's struggles. Juris said they also “spring-board ideas off of each other" and eat lunch together almost every day.
