Mercer University’s Connell Student Center served as a backdrop for Dr. Stanley and Marie Roberts’ relationship to blossom as students. While dating, they spent a lot of time together inside the building, and they got engaged right outside of it.
Stanley, School of Music associate dean and choral conducting professor, and Marie, senior lecturer of voice, both graduated as music majors in 1984 and have been Mercer faculty members for 31 years.
They met as freshmen in 1980, started dating in early 1982, and shared their first kiss while on the Mercer Singers’ tour in Vero Beach, Florida, during spring break that same year.
“Of course … we saw each other all the time because of the cafeteria (in Connell). So we were always together,” Stanley said. “The co-op was such an integral part of our lives. For four years of your life, you spent a whole lot of time in that space.”
Like other campus organizations at the time, the music sorority to which Marie belonged, Delta Omicron, had a tradition of holding a candle-lighting ceremony whenever one of its members got engaged.
Stanley conspired with friend Tonda (Barron) Solomon, also a Delta Omicron member, to plan a secret ceremony for Marie. That day, Marie saw pink flyers announcing a ceremony at 6 p.m. in Ware Hall and tried to guess which of her sisters it might be for.
“All day long that day, I felt this sense of expectancy but not really knowing what it was,” Marie said. “Stanley was going to drive me down to campus for the candle lighting. He did, and we were sitting in the Connell parking lot. I said, ‘This is so frustrating. I don’t know what this is. Do you know?’ He said, ‘Well, it’ll be your candle lighting if you will marry me.’ And he pulled out my ring, and I cried out, ‘yes.’”
The couple married on May 5, 1984, three weeks before graduation. They both worked on campus for two years — Stanley as assistant director of admissions and Marie as Administration Building receptionist — before leaving Mercer to complete their higher education journeys. In 1995, they returned as music faculty members.
Knowing Connell will soon be torn down to make room for a new student center, the Robertses recently stopped by to stand in the exact spot where their engagement occurred.
“Mercer is really, truly intertwined in our journey, and Connell was the place where we spent a lot of time,” Marie said. “Even though the co-op will forever stand in my mind as this unique hangout place we had, I’m really thrilled that the students can have a new gathering place of their own.”
One of Marie’s best Connell memories was going to the student organization supply room to create a huge banner that said, “Half a Century,” which she sneakily hung up in then-Mercer President Dr. R. Kirby Godsey’s office on his 50th birthday.
Stanley fondly recalled watching movies in Connell’s Room 310 on the weekends; hanging out with Thelma “T-Lady” Ross; stopping by the post office to pick up letters from home; and eating in the cafeteria with Marie and their friends.
“You learn a lot about life and living and each other’s joys and sorrows when you’re sharing meals,” Stanley said. “For me, so much of Connell was the cafeteria. For 20 meals a week, that’s where you met your friends and caught up. Your hope is that for the next generation, (the new student center) will be a place that has the same type of social impact and a place of gathering where people can share each other’s lives together.”
