Ryan '98 and Eve (Harley) Hunter '00

Eve and I met when I was a senior and she was a sophomore at Linfield. We got to know each other on an Outdoor Club spring break trip to Steens Mountains in southeast Oregon. We remember staying up together to gaze at the incredible starry night sky. We never expressed or acted on our mutual attraction for each other at the time.

I graduated a few months later and joined the U.S. Peace Corps where I served in Slovakia working with an environmental non-profit. Eve remembers Professor Joel Marrant sharing my reports from Slovakia in her Anthropology class. I visited Linfield on a brief visit to the U.S. during my Peace Corps service. I ran into Eve and remember seeing her painting representing the environmental damage done to the earth and she remembers smelling campfire smoke in my jacket when giving me a hug.

After graduating from Linfield, Eve joined Americorps and served in Portland doing environmental restoration work. I returned to Portland after my Peace Corps service ended and I had traveled SE Asia for several months. We were both looking for roommates and a mutual Linfield friend put us back in touch with each other. The roommate plans fell through, but we agreed to meet at a café in the city to catch up. We wound up staying at the café talking for hours. A few days later we went on a date to see a band, consisting of several Linfield graduates, play at a bar on St. Patrick’s Day. Needless to say, the date went well. We dated for six years and were married in 2007.