Lindsey M. Parker ’10 likes views of bright city lights. Early in his career at the College, he and then-girlfriend Stephanie J. Brinton ’10 spent nights together running his favorite city trail through the streets of Cambridge, along the Charles, and then onto a spot just beyond the B.U. Bridge, where the bright view of Boston arose before the jogging couple.
So when he decided that Brinton should become his wife, he proposed to her during a hike one winter evening at Ensign Peak, a foothill overloooking a snow-covered Salt Lake City. It was the spot where, years before, Brinton’s father had proposed to her mother.
“I knew I wanted to marry her from the moment I first saw her,” Parker said, laughing as he added, “It took her a little while longer to come to that conclusion.” “The first thing I said was ‘Are you serious?’”
Brinton remembered of her husband’s proposal, “Not because I didn’t think he was serious, but because I was so happy that I couldn’t believe it was happening then. He had been so calm throughout the evening that I didn’t even think anything was up. It was a wonderful surprise, and he proposed just how I dreamed of.”
According to a close friend of the couple, Robert C. Parker ’10, “Stephanie and Lindsey were the first to be engaged in our circle of friends. From the beginning, they set an exemplary example with regards to way that they treat each other.”
Parker and Brinton were married in Salt Lake City on Aug. 7, 2009 in what friends described as a small, intimate, and “reverent” ceremony, with roughly 50 people present.
The groom recalled the days surrounding his marriage as filled with “a lot of talking and a lot of smiles.”
Married undergraduates are few and far between at Harvard, and Parker noted that life as a married couple in such an environment can be difficult. Both originally Leverett House residents, Parker said he and Brinton were required to move to nearby Peabody Terrace in order to live together.
Still, he said, the pros of married life far outweigh the cons. “Our friends have been very supportive, very happy for us. Plus, it’s fun interacting with them as a married couple,” he said.
According to Brinton, “There are so many wonderful things about married life, but I think the best would have to be that Lindsey inspires me to be a better person. Whenever I’m around him, or even when I’m not, I want to be better, kinder, and work harder because I want to be that kind of person for him. And I know that he’s doing the same for me.”
As for the future, Parker said he foresees having a family “with a couple of kids. I’ll have my law degree and Stephanie will have a nutrition degree. We’ll be happily married, even more in love with each other than now and—hopefully—still going on runs with each other.”
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