Augie Sweethearts: Susan Grupe '94 and Michael Wahlmann '95

Submitted by Susan Grupe of Rock Island, Ill.

The time was fall of 1992. She sat in the front of Dr. Mary Em Kern's art history class; he sat in the back. They competed for the top grades. Michael knew who Susan was – he read her stories in the Observer and had seen her artwork in Saga. Little did they know they would meet a year later and over 4000 miles away in London on Augustana's European Foreign Quarter. It was the fifth day of the trip; the students had just finished a class trip to the British Museum. Susan and Michael both lost the people they came with, and Lynn Chindlund '95, introduced them. They spent the rest of the day walking around Trafalger Square and Whitehall, talking about everything under the sun. They spent the next 11 weeks getting to know one another, travelling to Rome, Munich, Paris, Venice and sites in between.

Michael and Susan were married on July 14, 1995 at Ascension Chapel. After 22 years, they are still going strong. Michael and Susan still live in Rock Island, not far from the Augustana campus. They coincidentally live in a house previously owned by former Augustana English professor Harry Stelling, and built by the Boejte family. They have a daughter, Emma, who is a sophomore at Rock Island High School.