For these couples, it was something old, something new, something borrowed, and something brown and blue
Jonathan Sokolski, A14, and Anna Daren, A14, married outdoors on the Tufts campus on June 28, 2020.
Photo: Courtesy of the couple
Brian Muse, E09, and Julia Muse, A09, didn’t have romance in mind when they met on Matriculation Day for the Class of 2009. They were both shuffling toward the line of first-year students forming pairs to march into the ceremony.
“We locked eyes right away, and I knew I wanted to pair up with him,” said Julia Muse. Her dad yelled to her from behind his camcorder: “Introduce yourself! Who’s that boy next to you?”
After discovering that they both lived on the third floor of Hill Hall, they became friends and then began dating, saving ticket stubs from the many movies they attended. By the time they reached Commencement, they were starting to plan a future together.
Five years later, they returned to campus for their June 14, 2014, wedding at Goddard Chapel. “Three members of our bridal party were friends from the third floor of Hill Hall—we’ve stayed close ever since. Since Brian and I met steps away from Goddard during freshman matriculation, it felt only fitting to return to where it all began for our matrimony,” Julia Muse said.
“Right after the greeting line, we walked to the back steps of Hill Hall where we shared our first kiss, for some photos of just us. It felt like a full-circle moment,” said Brian Muse.
Julia Muse, A09, and Brian Muse, E09, met on Matriculation Day. They returned to campus for their June 14, 2014, wedding at Goddard Chapel. Photo: Meg Messina
Love stories as old as Tufts itself
People have been getting married on the Hill for more than a century and likely since the university’s charter in 1852.
“One of the most brilliant social events on the hill this season was the marriage of Miss H. Alice Turner, ex-98, to Mr. Willard Stanton Small, ’94, in Goddard Chapel, Wednesday, December 27, 1899,” the Jan. 17, 1900, issue of the Tufts Weekly announced. “The wedding ceremony was performed by President Capen.” (Turner had been a member of the Class of 1898 but did not complete her degree.)
Six months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a story in the June 16, 1941, Tufts Weekly announced: “Wedding bells will mingle with the chime of the Chapel bell of the Commencement Season for six of Jackson’s fair seniors. … Four of the prospective grooms are Tufts men.” One of those weddings took place in Goddard Chapel, another in the former Crane Chapel.
Goddard Chapel, dedicated in 1883, has hosted most of the weddings held on the Tufts campus over the years, including this one in the 1920s. Photo: Courtesy of Tufts Archival Research Center
For many couples, the choice of a Tufts venue has been a way to celebrate the place where they met, studied, or worked. In some cases, it has also helped bridge the different religious or cultural backgrounds of their families.
Goddard, dedicated in 1883 as a replacement for the original chapel in Ballou Hall, has hosted most of the weddings held on the Tufts campus over the years. A Sept. 12, 1986, Tufts Observer story reported that more than 100 weddings took place in Goddard each year—about a third of them involving alumni or faculty—with “one or two in a weekend, and at times, as many as seven or eight.” Couples are still getting married on campus, but there have been fewer weddings in recent years, perhaps because the university no longer offers facilities for receptions.
The cannon was painted for the June 28, 2014, wedding of Ethan Danahy, E00, EG02, EG07, and his wife, Kristina, which they held on campus after Danahy joined the Tufts faculty. Photo: Channing Johnson
In addition to Goddard, couples have also wed at the Granoff Family Hillel Center (built in 1995) and the Interfaith Center (established in 2007). And Anna Daren, A14, and Jonathan Sokolski, A14, will tell you that the Hill itself will suit.
In 2020, the pandemic forced the couple to postpone their wedding plans twice before they pivoted to an intimate al fresco approach on campus.
“We decided not to wait [until COVID restrictions lifted] to make it legal,” said Sokolski, who met Daren in a psychology class their senior year. “Getting married at Tufts was the easiest decision.” Though they planned a reception for 2021, they gathered with eight family members and friends on the brick patio behind Ballou Hall on their “real” wedding day, June 28, 2020, with Rabbi Danielle Eskow, a family friend, officiating.
Rain led them to move a planned picnic on the Quad into Bendetson Hall, where Sokolski now works as associate director of admissions. During every info session, he loves to tell visitors the story.
Generations of Jumbo love
Diana (Bentley) Grenier, E88, and Roger Grenier, E88, held their wedding on campus on Oct. 12, 1991. They are part of a three-generation Tufts love story: Her parents met as students at Tufts in the 1960s and the Greniers' daughter, who graduated from Tufts in 2018, also married a fellow Jumbo. Photo: Courtesy of the couple
Diana (Bentley) Grenier, E88, and Roger Grenier, E88, met during a first-year engineering class and became best friends, pooling their pennies for coffee at the former Big Dipper II coffee shop on Boston Avenue.
By senior year, they couldn’t imagine life without each other. It seemed like fate, Diana Grenier said, considering that one of the speakers at orientation had told the incoming class to “look around,” as some of them would find their future spouse amongst the crowd. She beamed: Her parents, Susan (Alemian) Bentley, J66, and Christopher Bentley, E66, met at Tufts.
Diana Grenier, raised in the Armenian Apostolic church, and Roger Grenier, raised Catholic, were married on Oct. 12, 1991, with lots of Tufts friends and Tufts relatives in attendance and her college roommates in the bridal party. “We both loved our time at Tufts,” she said. “At the chapel, we could have both of our priests participate in the ceremony. And a meaningful connection to my family is a plaque commemorating the Armenian genocide outside the chapel.”
Their family’s Tufts love story carried into a third generation when their daughter Sylvie, A18, married Aidan Hartigan, A16, in 2023 (though they married off campus).
Clyde Ward, E66, married his childhood sweetheart, Joan "Murph" McLaughlin, at Goddard Chapel on Aug. 27, 1966. In May 2025, he returned to campus to see his granddaughter graduate. Photo: Courtesy of Clyde Ward
When Clyde Ward, E66, came to Commencement last May to see his granddaughter Carmen Smoak, A25, he made a stop at Goddard Chapel, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Joan “Murph” McLaughlin, on Aug. 27, 1966. They met in eighth grade in nearby Arlington, Massachusetts. Smoak undertook a photography project during her senior year, using a camera her mother had given her father as a wedding present, to document her grandparents’ history—including the site of their first date, skating on Hill’s Pond in Arlington’s Menotomy Rocks Park.
Ward’s younger brother was best man and pulled him aside before the wedding ceremony. “He said, ‘You’ve got one more chance to decide whether to go through with this,’” Ward remembers. “I assured him, ‘She's my best friend. I don’t want to lose her.’ And she remained my best friend the rest of her life.” (She passed away in 2021.)
Rob Bayless, E09, and Sara (Douglass) Bayless, A08, at Shoemaker Boathouse the night before their June 13, 2015, wedding. Photo: Michele Conde
Finding joy—even in the mishaps
“Weddings were definitely one of the most joyous of my activities,” said Scotty McLennan, the university chaplain from 1984 to 2000. He always told couples “not to worry if something went ‘wrong’ in their ceremony, because years later those moments would be remembered as the most endearing.”
Just ask Peter Fontneau, who grew up near campus. His father, Nelson C. Fontneau, A42, was associate director of the University Health Service and built pipe organs and harpsichords on the side, a hobby he picked up while serving as the carillonneur at Goddard as a student.
During the rehearsal the night before Fontneau’s May 1, 1971, wedding to Karen Friis (whose father, Bjorn Friis, was a member of the Class of 1922), a tracker broke in Goddard’s organ. Trackers play a key role in the instrument, linking the keyboard to the valves, allowing the organist to control the amount of air going into the pipes.
“My dad dashed to the Health Service, picked up some tongue depressors and adhesive tape, returned to the chapel and 'splinted' the tracker!” Fontneau said. All was well—at least for the rehearsal and wedding.
“[I always told couples] not to worry if something went ‘wrong’ in their ceremony, because years later those moments would be remembered as the most endearing.”
A chapel ‘open to all’
Though the chapel, situated at the center of campus, was built to reflect Tufts’ Universalist roots, it has evolved into a much-loved, welcoming space for interfaith, nondenominational, and Jewish wedding ceremonies.
Lynn Cooper, A02, has served as Catholic chaplain at Tufts since 2008 and associate director of the University Chaplaincy since 2021. She and her spouse, Unitarian Universalist minister Andrew Tripp, chose to be married in Goddard Chapel in 2015. Two of their mentors, a United Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony. “It was important to celebrate how different traditions and spiritual paths brought us together,” Cooper said.
Greg McGonigle, a Unitarian Universalist minister who served as chaplain from 2013 to 2019, has warm memories of the many alumni weddings he performed.
The first was that of Ethan Danahy, E00, EG02, EG07, and his wife, Kristina. Danahy had joined the Tufts faculty as research associate professor at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and the Department of Computer Science, and the couple had fallen in love with the chapel during walks on campus.
Though not religious, Danahy “snuck in” to hear one of McGonigle’s sermons, which resonated deeply with him. He and his fiancée met with McGonigle several times as they planned their June 28, 2014, wedding. “He listened to our story. He incorporated all of our ideas into the ceremony and brought his own, which made the whole event wonderful,” Danahy said.
Willa Zhou, EG13, married Richard Lok on Sept. 29, 2018, with the Rev. Greg McGonigle officiating. A Unitarian Universalist minister, McGonigle served as the Tufts chaplain from 2013 to 2019. Photo: Courtesy of Willa Zhou
When Willa Zhou, EG13, arrived on campus from China as a graduate student, she knew no one. Looking for community, she began attending the Protestant services at Goddard.
She met her husband, Richard Lok, after completing her graduate studies, but when they began to plan their Sept. 29, 2018, wedding, she knew from the start that she wanted it to be at the chapel.
“Richard and I didn’t want an old-fashioned wedding,” Zhou said. “We liked that Greg was quite young, like us, and he understood we wanted something Christian, but simple, something modern.”
More than half a century earlier, Jeff Drazen, A68, raised in the Conservative Jewish tradition, and Erica Drazen, E68, raised Congregational, held their nondenominational wedding at Goddard on July 27, 1969. “Erica and I wrote our vows together,” Jeff Drazen said. “There was no ‘love, honor, and obey,’ but rather ‘love, honor, respect, and support one another.’”
After Erica Drazen died in 2023, a commemoration of her life was held at Goddard. “Tufts molded our lives,” Jeff Drazen said. “Erica was active in the engineering school as an advisor. Goddard was the place to recount and celebrate her life, our union, and our children. We both felt that education was the one asset that could not be taken from you and that Tufts had provided that nourishing environment for us.”
Alan Hicks, E73, and his wife, Peg, were married at Goddard Chapel on May 20, 1973, with their two Paulist priests presiding. Photo: Courtesy of the couple
Charles Schiappa, A69, and his wife, Barbara, also chose Goddard for their Sept. 28, 1974, interfaith wedding. At Tufts, Schiappa was active in the Newman Center, home to the university’s Catholic community. His wife was raised Protestant.
“We shared a core set of beliefs and decided it was not necessary for either of us to ‘convert,’” he said. “Goddard was open to our having both our ministers consecrate the marriage.”
Alan Hicks, E73, and his wife, Peg, who attended nearby Northeastern University, were also both active in the Newman Center, and Goddard held a special place in their early relationship. They were married at the chapel on May 20, 1973, and were able to have their two Paulist priests preside.
More than 50 years later, the couple returns each May to sing in the Mass for graduates, alumni, and families on Commencement weekend. “We were delighted and honored when Chaplain Lynn Cooper invited us to join the Catholic Alumni Choir a few years ago—what a joy to be back at Goddard Chapel!” Alan Hicks said.
“The fact that so many alumni couples have chosen to be married at the chapel because of its interfaith and nondenominational ethos is a testament to its legacy as a sanctuary open to all,” said University Chaplain Elyse Nelson Winger. “Through the years, the university has changed, the student body has changed, and our understanding of what it means to be an inclusive community has changed. For decades, we have been a multifaith chaplaincy. And to me, that's what makes it such a vibrant space.”
James Brawer, A66, and Rosalind Brawer were married by a rabbi on June 11, 1967, at Goddard Chapel. Now their eldest son is the Jewish chaplain at Tufts and one of their grandchildren is a student at the university. Photo: Courtesy of the couple
Joyful Jewish weddings
As they look toward their 59th anniversary, James Brawer, A66, and Rosalind Brawer fondly remember their June 11, 1967, wedding ceremony at Goddard. They were married by a rabbi under a chuppah, a traditional Jewish wedding canopy.
Decades later, they find it remarkable that not only is their eldest son, Rabbi Naftali Brawer, the current Jewish chaplain at Tufts, but his youngest son is a junior at Tufts. “It all started on that beautiful summer morning long, long ago,” Rosalind Brawer said.
On Feb. 9, 2020, mere weeks before the COVID-19 lockdown, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, AG88, AG95, officiated the wedding of Jonathan Ataria, AG22, then a graduate student in musicology, and his wife, Halely, then a postdoc at MIT, at the Granoff Family Hillel Center. Summit was also a professor at Tufts for 39 years, and Ataria had taken one of his seminars.
“Rabbi Summit helped us feel very involved,” Ataria said. “We even decided to write and decorate our own ketubah [Jewish wedding contract]. He helped us make our wedding just as we wanted it, egalitarian and humanistic but very meaningful.”
Their wedding date fell on the evening that marked the start of the holiday of Tu BiShvat, which celebrates the beginning of the tree planting season in Israel. “It was lightly snowing over the Tufts hill on that day, and through the window of Hillel we could see a tree branch with early buds,” he said.
On Feb. 9, 2020, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, AG88, AG95, officiated the wedding of Jonathan Ataria, AG22, and his wife, Halely, at the Granoff Family Hillel Center. Photo: Courtesy of the couple
Coming back to the Hill for anniversaries
Some alumni couples return to campus every year or on special occasions to revisit the place where they first fell in love.
Nelson Winger, the university chaplain, fondly recalls one fall evening in 2023 during an open mic night at the chapel led by rapper David “Dee-1” Augustine Jr. during his yearlong residency as the Alan Solomont Artist/Scholar-in-Residence. “People were singing, sharing stories, and playing piano,” she said.
An older couple saw the bright lights and wandered in through the open doors. People began talking to them, and their love story tumbled out: They had been married in the chapel in the 1970s, and every year on their anniversary they walk around campus. “Someone invited them to take the mic, and they shared their wedding story with the crowd,” Nelson Winger said.
Summit vividly remembers that several years ago the husband of an alumni couple reached out to him to arrange a surprise “vows renewal” for his wife on the roof of Tisch Library (where they’d become engaged) to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
On the designated evening, Summit left about 160 people at Shabbat dinner at Hillel and walked over to the library. A light rain was falling, and the lights of Boston were twinkling in the distance. The wife was totally surprised—and as the couple ceremoniously replaced each other’s rings under Summit’s “chuppah” umbrella, the Jackson Jills a cappella group appeared. The wife had sung with the Jills, and the husband had arranged their appearance too.
“Tufts is more than a university,” Summit said. “It’s a community where deep friendships and connections are formed. And sometimes, people even get married.”
Thanks to Alexandra Bush of the Tufts Archival Research Center for her help with research for this article.
