For many Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) students, juggling life while in dental school includes attending class, performing research, completing homework, and treating patients. What most don’t expect is to meet the love of their life amidst everything else in their busy schedules. These alumni did just that: fall in love. Whether it was during a school event or a chance meeting in Vanderbilt Hall, each of these stories are unique in their own way.
Making an impression
For some, it’s one small act that leaves a lasting impression. Chloe Wong, DMD18 and George Chen, DMD17, coordinated Give Kids a Smile together in 2014-15. They reconnected in 2016 when Chen offered Wong his locker space to help store her pre-clinical materials–the rest is history. Both are pediatric dentists now and live in Ohio together with their two dogs. After much anticipation they are ready to seal the deal and get married this year!
James Hupp, DMD77, met his wife, Carmen, while working in his first job for the anatomy department. Carmen would periodically stop by the lab or visit during research sessions. After a few years of dating, he worked up the courage and proposed on top of the building she was living in at the time on the corner of Dartmouth and Newbury Streets in Boston. Hupp is now the senior associate dean of the medical school at Washington State University and a visiting scholar in residence at New York University.
For Christopher Lugo, DMD01 and his wife Kristin Johannsen, it was love at first sight while they both attended college in the Boston area. The two have been happily together for 21 years and have five practices together. “[I] could not think of life without her,” said Lugo.
Perfect timing
They say when you meet the right person, you know immediately. Charles Bowen, DMD66 and his wife, Gerlinde, met at Vanderbilt Hall during a Harvard Christian Medical Society event in November of 1963. The two are now retired, chasing grandchildren down ski slopes, and cheering them on in their various endeavors.
Sometimes couples meet right outside of Vanderbilt Hall, such as Andrea Haber Cohen, DMD77, MD80, and Raphael Cohen, MD77. The two met while playing volleyball during the first week of school. The pair married during the summer between their first and second year, and recently celebrated their 48th anniversary. They are proud parents of two physicians with multiple Harvard degrees and spend their time juggling five grandsons.
Next door neighbors
It was love at first site for Vlad Shuster, DMD05 and Karindeep Chima, DMD05. The two met in 2001 in Vanderbilt Hall, where they lived right across the hall from each other. Twenty years ago, their first date was on Valentine’s Day. The pair now live in San Francisco, splitting their time between their private practices and spending time with their two boys.
For Timothy Mitchell, DMD91, it was a neighbor who caught his eye. Mitchell joined his friends who were moving from Vanderbilt Hall to an apartment in Brookline where he met the girl next door and his future wife, Denise. The two have been married since June of 1991 and have two children. They live in Maine where Mitchell is an oral surgeon, and his wife is a school nurse.
