College is a typical place to make friends. For two couples, it was inevitable their friendship would bloom into more, leading them to one day not only be colleagues at TAMUK, but husband and wife.
Dr. Roger Tuller and Dr. Shannon Baker met in graduate school at Texas Christian University in 1991. The department frequently held meetings so students could collaborate or simply get to know one another. That’s when the pair first met and got to know one another. And the rest? It’s history.
Dr. Tuller and Dr. Baker were both hired here to teach History. The hiring process was relatively smooth for this couple.
“The two positions we ended up with here, opened up at the same time so we came back,” Dr. Tuller said. Prior to being hired at TAMUK, the couple was living in Upstate New York.
Together Dr. Tuller and Dr. Baker have one daughter and also enjoy going on annual trips, but each time to a different vacation spot.
“Last summer was Colorado and this coming summer is something really new,” he said.
The couple will be celebrating a new type of trip in honor of their 25th weding anniversary on an Alaskan cruise.
Dr. Roberto Vela Córdova and Dr. Michelle Johnson-Vela have been married for 20 years and both teach Spanish at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Dr. Michelle Johnson-Vela recently reminisced on the couple’s early days.
“We met in 1995 at Indiana University in Bloomington during graduate school,” she said.
The couple met in 1995 and just four years later were married in November 1999.
Dr. Johnson-Vela recounts the hardships she and her husband endured early on in their marriage. While their first son was just a few days old, she was also in the process of defending her dissertation.
“He was born on April 18 and I defended my dissertation on April 24,” she said.
Finishing school and being new parents was hard for the Velas, but Dr. Vela Córdova says that his mother-in-law, Marie Dawson, has played a huge role when it comes to helping with their children.
Together, the couple now has four children. His mother-in-law helps trasport them to school and makes dinner for the family a few times a week.
“If it weren’t for her, it would probably be a different story,” he said. “She’s a great solid rock to have.” He credits his mother-in-law for being their biggest supporter through the harder days.
Outside of the classroom the couple likes to attend their sons’ sporting events, enjoys dancing and they even take an annual summer trip to Puerto Rico.
“We’re always traveling with soccer and basketball, we’re always traveling when they’re in sports,” Dr. Vela Cordova said.
“We go to the islands on (our) boat and we spend evenings floating on the boat with the boys.”
The annual summer trip to Puerto Rico is something the family looks forward to every year.
Although the Velas encountered hardship, one process that was smooth for them was the hiring process at TAMUK, just like Dr. Tuller and Dr. Baker. Dr. Johnson-Vela said TAMUK was advertising for a position and luckily enough another position was open at the same time, allowing the couple be hired together.
“That’s not usually how it happens so easily, so of all the difficulties and obstacles, that was one thing that was actually smooth,” she said.
Their stories of love can remind us this Valentine’s Day that through hardship comes love.