My first wife’s name was Rose Carolyn Knoll McGovern. She was the mother of my five children. We were married in January of 1949 and orchids range in age from 57 to 46. Rose Carolyn died in 1983, and in 1985 I married Peggy. We’ve now been married for 21 years, and I’m the luckiest man in the world. It’s like Frank Sinatra said: “the second time around!” my marriages have been great.

Let me tell you the story of how I met my first wife. When I got back from the service and went to saint Lawrence University I roomed with a guy who was in the V-12 program. The v-12 people were those who were going to go on to midshipman’s school. They had 90-day midshipmen schools at that time. They were trying to rush officers out.

This fellow’s name was Chris Noll. He was my roommate at saint Lawrence University and he was a pain in the ass. We used to have classes together. Chris was Intelligent but not too smart; he would point out to the professor when he was making mistakes on the board. He pointed out to the professor that there were errors in the textbook that he had written. He was a nice guy; he just died about two years ago.

Chris had a wonderful sister who was going to school in Syracuse, New York. He fixed me up with his sister on a blind date. Or, at least he tried to. I’d told him no.

So we went and I met his sister. We spent a little bit of time together then I asked her if she wanted to go out that evening. She tells me that her brother had told her that I didn’t want to go out with her. We apparently clicked pretty well. While I was waiting for her I remember thinking that she might be the girl I wanted to marry. I met her in 1947 the first time.

One summer I worked in Poughkeepsie, New York, which is where she lived. I was working at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, and her family was nice enough to put me up in their house. So we got to know one another a little better.

Her family was Roman Catholic and so was I and they were happy to have me in their house. I was the kind of guy who used to help grandma in the kitchen.

So we got engaged and about six months after that we got married. She was a wonderful woman.

When we got back from the Harvard business school, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. That was in 1962 and she died in 1983. She got worse with the multiple sclerosis but she eventually died from a very virulent cancer that no one was paying attention to because they were worried about the multiple sclerosis. So we lost her in 1983.

So you think that the end of the world is coming. And in my case maybe you drink more than you should have until one of your kids says: “look, pop. This isn’t going to make it any better.”

Nothing drastic ever happened with my drinking, but I would drink rather than eat sometimes.

But I was very fortunate to meet my next wife, Peggy. She was a student of mine. She is about four or five years younger than I am. She was taking a course at Golden Gate university extension program which was being taught at the Palo Alto veteran’s administration. She was the head nurse in the operating rooms there.

Every once in awhile we would get to the class and the doors would be locked. She knew how to get the security guard there to unlock them, so after a while we got to know one another.

When the class was ending she was on her way to Scotland to go to Saint Andrews. She is a golfer. Every summer I would put on a Party for my students that I called the clambake. It was generally hot dogs and beer. We had students from Golden Gate University and Santa Clara University. I taught at the school of engineering in Santa Clara from 1983 through 1988. I taught at golden gate for fifteen years.

I used to work at Santa Clara in the morning from seven to 9:00 AM, work in my own business during the day and then work at Golden Gate University at night. It was a long day but I loved it. I thrived on it. I’d love to contact in the classroom, and I was good. In all my time teaching I think I remember only three bad student reviews. I thought that was pretty good.

So I had Peggy to my home for our clambake party. She was the only one who ever took the time to write a note and say thank you for having me at your home. I set the node aside.

On Saint Patrick’s Day I always like to go out to lunch with the lady. It used to be my wife or one of my kids. St. Patrick’s Day came around and I didn’t have anyone to go out with so I called her up.

She told me know. She said that she had a date.

I asked her if I could take a rain check. We call those our lucky words: “can I take a rain check?”

We decided to go out on March 19, which is Saint Joseph’s day. They are both near and dear to our hearts.

That’s how we got together.

We married in 1985. I told her that one of the biggest reasons I married her was her friends. They were very nice people. About 80% of the people that I knew through her were nurses.

But he had never been married before so she was possibly taking a better chance than I was.

On our twentieth anniversary we had a fabulous time. We had just about everyone who was at our wedding. I had told them that if we lasted twenty years I would invite them to a big party. We have a party at the Hollins house at Pasatiempo. A great time was had by all.

So Peggy is still living with me and we are happy.