Hofstra's Best Couple

Thank you to all of you who participated in Hofstra’s 75th Anniversary Best Couple Contest. There were over 4,000 people who voted for Best Couple. The race was close between our top three couples but in the end there can only be one winner.

Special thanks to all the contestants who shared their love stories with us.

The winners of Hofstra's 75th Anniversary Best Couple contest are:

Ron DeMartino’61 & Marianne Kruger DeMartino ‘64

I met saw my future wife in the cafeteria of the old campus. She was pledging AOB Sorority. I was immediately struck by her good looks, but decided not to approach her as she was carrying a brick, which at the time was an AOB pledge requirement. Not knowing her personality, I did not want to risk getting literally struck by the brick.

Several weeks later, armed with information about her that a UGA pledge obtained for me, we met at an AOB/UGA party. She was impressed that I knew so much about her (I did not tell her how I obtained the information) and as it turned out, her personality was great and there was little risk of being clobbered by the brick. That was May 5, 1961 and exactly two years later we were married on May 5, 1963.

Immediately after the wedding, we drove directly to Amarillo, Air Force Base Texas where I was stationed as a 2nd Lieutenant. Most of the trip was on the old Route 66. Thus began our life together – 49 years, 3 children and 1 grandchild later we still visit the old campus whenever we can and enjoy sharing memories of our days on the Hofstra campus.