Carolyn Morey and Teall Edds went for a walk.
It was 1985, and they had just met. They were both high school students who were on campus with their parents for Denison’s Homecoming, spending the evening in the living room of Marilyn and Bill Dresser ’51, then professor of communication. Teall’s mother, Dyanne Adams Edds ’62, had been a babysitter for the Dresser family back in the day. And Carolyn’s father was on the Denison faculty.
Later, Carolyn recalls, during that walk around campus with Teall, she thought: I wonder if we’ll end up here.
They did.
The choice to attend Denison made sense for both of them, really. In some ways, it already felt like home. Carolyn had grown up on campus. And three generations of his family had preceded Teall at the college. Not surprisingly, the two started dating after that initial meeting in the Dressers’ home.
After they graduated from Denison, they moved together to New York. And then they came back to campus on Aug. 24, 1991, to go for yet another walk—this time down the aisle of Swasey Chapel. They were married before a crowd of 100, including many Denison faculty and staff, as well as some alumni (Lisa Russell ’90, Jennifer Spring Goss ’90, and Todd Lawlor ’91 were members of the bridal party).
When Marilyn Dresser stood to speak at the wedding, she referenced the happy couple, their deep connections to the college, and her hope that the pair would return to campus often.
They didn’t.
Instead, Carolyn Morey Edds ’90 and Teall Edds ’91 spent several years in New York— she studying for a master’s degree in special education, he working on Wall Street with Citibank and Credit Suisse First Boston. And then they hopped on a plane to Singapore with one-way tickets. It was there that Teall co-founded OCP Asia, and Carolyn worked in education in Singapore and Cambodia. They had four children, including Nathaniel Edds.
Then Nathaniel Edds went for a walk.
It was Aug. 24, 2014, and Nathaniel was carrying the banner for his first-year class at this year’s Induction Ceremony. He was chosen for that duty because he had come the farthest of all members of the incoming class, traveling more than 9,000 miles from Singapore to Granville.
And just as a story full of serendipity would have it— Nathaniel’s induction was held on his parents’ anniversary, 23 years to the day after their marriage in Swasey Chapel. Carolyn and Teall made the trip from Singapore, too, and Marilyn Dresser sat with them at the ceremony. (Bill Dresser had died in 2003).
And, of course, the couple couldn’t resist taking another walk. Past Swasey Chapel. Just for old times’ sake.