Will I What?

David C. McPhie '98-'00 and Erin H. McPhie (nee Holsinger) '98-'00 met during their first week back in 1994, at a get-together for Mormon first-years at Herrell's.

After learning during introductions that Erin had lived in Taiwan, David introduced himself to her using the only phrase he knew in Chinese: "Will you marry me?"

Little did he know he would repeat the phrase four years later, in English, and mean it.

So what was Erin's original answer?

"She pretty much just blew me off," David says. "When I asked, she just laughed and walked away."

Luckily, his second try yielded a better result.

The Facts. Erin, an English concentrator affiliated with Leverett House, is from Arlington, Va. David, a physics concentrator from San Diego, Calif., is affiliated with Adams House. The two started dating sometime sophomore year. David proposed for real during first-year week 1998, and they were married at Christmastime that year in Salt Lake City. They now live together in an apartment in the Harvard-affiliated Terry Terrace.

How Many Weeks in a Year? Erin and David are both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and took two years off from college to serve as missionaries, Erin in Hong Kong and David in Spain. They say that, though they missed each other, some aspects of the separation were fun.

Under the church's rules, they were only permitted to correspond with one letter per week. When they returned from their missions, Erin didn't believe that David had actually sent a letter every week, so they counted. Exactly 104 letters--David hadn't missed one. They also traded audiotapes by mail.

Study Buddies. David and Erin have found that they love taking classes together and, somehow, marriage has made them both much better students. David did, however, have to get used to Erin's habit of getting better grades on Historical Studies A-80 essays.

"It's so great when you have someone else sort of looking out for you," David says. "Erin makes me go to bed at a reasonable hour, for example, so now I stay awake during lecture."

"That almost never happened before," he laughs.

Early Graduation Present? Erin is nine months pregnant, and the baby is due any day now.

"It's convenient that the family will be in town anyway," she says.

Plans. David will start this fall at Harvard Law School. Erin will stay home to care for the baby.