They met at a party. He was a policy wonk. She was an art history major.
Neil and Ann Kerwin met nearly 40 years ago while both were undergraduates at AU. They first met as juniors at a party and felt an immediate connection to each other.
“I felt something pretty strong. He was serious, so he made me look at things from a different perspective,” Ann Kerwin said. “He was funny, and he still is.”
Although the two felt a connection, they left the party without even knowing each other’s last names.
Soon after their first encounter, the two ran into each other near what is now the Katzen Arts Center. They began dating, spending their first date celebrating Neil Kerwin’s 21st birthday with friends at a local bar, the Old Styme.
The Old Styme, featuring a sing-along accordion player and décor resembling an old German beer hall, was a favorite of the Kerwins, as well as many other AU students.
The two graduated in 1971 and married in Indianapolis in 1972.
“So much of our lives are invested in the University,” Neil Kerwin said. “AU has been an enormously large part of our lives.”
Forty years later, the Kerwins still enjoy spending time with college friends, visiting their favorite restaurants in D.C. and along Bethesda Row. Just as they did as students, the Kerwins enjoy taking advantage of the city’s museums and cultural events, in addition to speakers and events on campus.
“We’ve always had a close connection to the quad,” Neil Kerwin said. “We spent a lot of time there together. It was always a special place, and I think it still is.”
Ann Kerwin said that her husband made her a better student because he was very serious about his schoolwork.
“I so wish I would have met him freshman year,” she said.
Many of Neil Kerwin’s memories of AU involve his academics, whether as a student majoring in Political Science or as an undergraduate teaching assistant.
Even their son Michael attended AU and similarly met his wife while earning his undergraduate degree here.
Michael Kerwin, a 2005 alumnus of the School of Communication, met his wife, Kara, a 2007 alumna of the School of Public Affairs, at an off-campus party when she was a freshman. The two carried on as friends for years before finally realizing that they had much more than just a friendship. The couple married in 2008.
Something special the elder Kerwins enjoy about Valentine’s Day are the handmade cards they have shared in the past.
Ann Kerwin’s favorite is an anatomically-correct heart drawn by her husband.
“On the inside, he wrote me ‘My heart pounds for you,’” she said.
kfaherty@theeagleonline.com
