When they were freshmen at Syracuse University in 1949, Zoe and Ed Veasey went on a blind date that their roommates set up. Ed thought the date went well, but Zoe didn’t plan on seeing him again.

“It was not an immediate hit,” Zoe said. “I wasn’t planning on seeing him again mostly because he was outspoken about not liking SU. But I think he asked me out again, and I said, ‘I’ll meet you at the library after I’m done studying.’ And he said, ‘Where is the library?’ He wasn’t a serious student in those days.”

Less than four years after their first date, the couple married the week of their graduation from SU in 1953. Sixty-two years later, the Veaseys are happily married with five children and 13 grandchildren.

Zoe, a Gamma Phi Beta sorority sister from Munnsville, New York, and Ed, a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother from Haverhill, Massachusetts, were both very involved on campus. She was a cheerleader and he was a lacrosse player. But what they both remember best is spending time with their friends and with each other.

Zoe said she and Ed would meet and go on dates with each other on campus due to 8 p.m. curfews during her freshman year. Ed said their relationship didn’t become serious until their sophomore year, when there were later curfews and they attended many DKE parties together — particularly formals.

“During the fall, she was a cheerleader, so she would be on the field and I would be on the stand with fraternity brothers,” Ed said. “Saturday was a big day for sports, and then you would go out and party afterwards. On Sundays you would go someplace, maybe the parks or the movies.”

The couple got engaged at the end of their junior year and married the year after. Ed said he went into the U.S. Marines Corp because he knew he was going to get drafted, but his leaving didn’t affect his and Zoe’s relationship at all. The two kept in touch through letters and an occasional phone call.

Ed was eventually sent to Japan, leaving him and Zoe separated for one year. When he returned, they finally settled down together in Massachusetts and started their family of five.

“We’re very lucky. We’ve had a wonderfully strong family. But the first one of all of them to go to Syracuse is (our granddaughter) Lucille,” Zoe said. “Boy, it sure is wonderful. We love it.”

Lucille Sirois, a sophomore mathematics education major at SU, said her grandparents are the most caring and loving people she knows. They first introduced her to SU by sharing their memories, which inspired her to attend the university.

“They’re so cute. They’re not like the young couple, holding hands when they’re out and it’s gross,” Sirois said. “They’re that old couple you see and say, ‘Aw.’ We go to a dance right before Christmastime, and when they dance together, my cousins and I look in awe because it’s just so nice.”

Zoe and Ed have visited Sirois on campus, and Sirois said it was very interesting to hear how the university has changed since her grandparents attended school over 50 years ago. Her grandfather told her stories of how he used to live where the Goldstein Alumni and Faculty Center is because it was the old DKE house, and her grandmother kept calling the Hall of Languages, “HL.”

One of Sirois’ favorite stories is one she heard on her grandmother’s 80th birthday. Sirois saw a picture of her grandparents at a DKE formal, and her grandfather said he knew he was in love because he made sure Zoe had the nicest flowers of all that night — he had help from a fraternity brother’s father, who was a local florist.

Zoe and Ed said SU has influenced their lives in friends, family and each other. They had many accomplishments on campus, and will always cherish their four years at the university.

“The DKE house — the fraternity — was the real key,” Ed said of his time at SU. “Plus, I met Zoe, and once that happened, I had no intention of ever leaving.”

Published on February 12, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Jackie: jmfrere@syr.edu | @jackie_frere