Orange & Blue

Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Features

Yearbook photos of Vickie and Sheridan Barker

Susan and David Underwood

With the current season of reality television shows such as "The Bachelor," many students may be thinking about how to meet the love of their life, and one sure place to look is around campus. That is exactly how some C-N professors met their spouses.

Students may be also familiar with the professors and their spouses who work here, too. However, they may not know that some of their professors, such as the Barkers, Underwoods, and Collins met their spouses here on campus.

It can be confusing for students who have a class with a Dr. Barker in Henderson Humanities because there are actually two professors by that name in the building. Victoria Barker is an English professor and her husband, Sheridan Barker is a professor of Communications. They have been married for 37 years, and their story begins here in an American Literature class.

"We were both English majors at the time," she said, "and we were both in the honors program Sigma Tau Delta." So their paths crossed a lot, but the C-N then was quite different from the one now. "It was insane what some of the rules were," she said. Since there were few things to do around campus, they often had to go to Knoxville for concerts or entertainment.

"The night he proposed, we went to see 'The Godfather' and at that time C-N students had curfews," she said. The movie got out late that night and, since the women had curfew times, the dorms had already been locked. As a result, she got "campused" and was not allowed to go out for two weeks.

The Barkers got married three months after graduation. It was a while before they returned to C-N. He came back to teach first, and she began teaching here three years later. "I got offered this job and it made it more flexible," she said.

The best part about working at the same place is "the convenience to communicate," she said. If ever they need to find one another, they can just pick up the phone or drop by. "The goals for being in education are also the same," he said.

The Underwoods have a similar but unique story of how they met at C-N. "I like to tell people we met in the dark room," said Dr. Susan Underwood of the English Department. She and her husband, Dr. David Underwood of the Art Department, were photography majors. They met through several classes they had together.

"With other art majors we would go out to shoot film in various locations, on trips to the Smokies or to little Tennessee towns," she said. At first they critiqued each other's work, but soon they became great friends.

Upon his graduation, they were still just friends, but since he did not own a car or have a phone, they wrote letters. It started with one letter every couple of weeks. "In just a few months, we were faithfully writing each other a letter a day, sometimes two." she said. "I just about lived in my P.O. box."

After they were married, they both began teaching here on a part-time basis at the same time in 1990, and in two years later they moved to full-time.

"One good aspect of us both working here," he said, "is that we both totally understand each other's work day, joys, characters involved, challenges, and atmosphere."

The Underwoods will be celebrating their 25th anniversary this March. She advises students to "never underestimate those 'friends' because they soon become lifelong spouses."

Unlike the other couples, Dr. Joc Collins in the Psychology Department and his wife, Dr. Shannon Collins in the English Department, met here as professors. He had worked at C-N over ten years before they met in 2002 in the faculty dining lounge. "He was the last one left [at the table]," she recalls.

"I came here for a job and found a husband too," she said. He proposed on the Friday after Thanksgiving, when they were visiting her dad. The whole family went for a walk knowing what was about to happen because he had already asked her dad for permission. "He was very sneaky," she said.

They got married over spring break, and this March they will celebrate six years of marriage. Now they have a two-year-old girl who enjoys hiking to keep them busy.

"There's a lot of laughter, sing songs, and rushing around in our house," he said.

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