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Celebrating 52 Years Of Marriage And Family With Dick And Joanne Harter

photo by provided While it was over fifty years ago, to the Dick and Joanne Harter these photos marked the beginning of their journey.

photo by provided Their first home in New York was the beginning of a wonderful careers and family time.

photo by provided Loving to travel to National Parks, the Harters will always always loved Grand Teton National Park.

photo by provided Grandchildren are the light of their lives and soon there will be a great-grandchild!

photo by provided The Harters love to travel and cruises are a great way to see parts of the world!

Friday September 1, 2017

By Cookie Steponaitis

Their connection is evident when you meet Dick and Joanne Harter and begins with shared memories of dates, family, careers and moves. One may start the story and the other interjects facts. After a momentary debate on a certain date, there is a small nod of agreement from both and one picks up the tale of a friendship that turned into a marriage and has continued as a partnership for over fifty years.
    It was 1964 at Owaso Lake, New York when a triple date to a local amusement park called Roseland brought Joanne and Dick into each other’s path and while they were not dating each other it was the beginning of their courtship. Dick asked Joanne out a week later and the pair dated for a year before marrying in 1965. A date back then was not always about the destination and sometimes led to unique experiences. “Dick borrowed his parents’ car,” chuckled Joanne. “It was a white convertible. We drove around and down these dirt roads. All of a sudden, we came upon a pool and a line of wrinkled old naked men. I was trying to slouch lower in the seat and they came up to the car. I was mortified.” At this point Dick picks up the story and shares that ending up at that particular spot was not quite accidental. During the prior week, he and some friends had heard about the local nudist colony and had tried to find it following power lines down different dirt roads. “They were quite polite,” shared Dick with a grin. “They were swimming and invited us to come. Of course, we didn’t, but I always got a chuckle out of their pool rules. Ladies had to wear bathing caps and rule number two was no horseplay.” While Joanne never questioned her choice to consider the relationship after that date, she did think long and hard about sharing it for this story. “My daughter Missy said Mom you have to tell that story.” So, there it is.
    Dick was still an engineering student at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York and the couple corresponded for a year and to this day treasures those letters. While the couple both dated and exchanged letters, the letters were a link and a way to share events of the day, their love for each other and plans for the future. “We get them out every now and then and read them together,” shared Joanne. “They are special to us.” Dick remarks that while letter writing is almost a lost art today, the couple valued communicating and treasures them as part of the family story and memorabilia. They married in 1965 and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia for Dick’s graduate schooling in Electrical Physics at the University of Virginia. A team even then, Joanne worked as an executive secretary helping her husband and typed his reports and papers.
    The couple moved to Corning, New York in 1968 and Dick followed his parents into education by taking a teaching position at SUNY in physics and engineering. The town was so supportive of the college staff and families moving to the region that the banks there helped Dick and Joanne with the purchase of their first house. “We had no money,” shared Dick. “After finding out that I worked for the college the bank loan officer called a bank down the street and arranged for us to borrow the down payment from their bank and then financed our mortgage through their bank. The furniture company in town let us purchase furnishing on credit with no interest and no set time limit. We were homeowners and could hardly believe the response of the community to families associated with the college.”
    Watching man landing on the moon in 1969 on a small black and white television with reception so scratchy it was hard to see what you were watching, the pair was beyond belief just a short time later when they got to see the first moon rocks which were brought to Corning, New York by NASA. As the new decade dawned, daughter Missy joined the family and the community faced a major challenge in the storm and flood called Agnes (1972) in Corning that devastated most of the town. Coming up to the third floor of the famed Corning Glass Works, the event put in motion the movement of the family and juggling of Dick’s career and Joanne’s pursuit of a college degrees and the busy life of having young children.
    The family arrived in Vermont in 1974 and was already complete with the arrival of daughter Jill while still living in New York State. Dick’s career took on a dual focus including nine years as an engineer at Simmonds Precision and teaching on the staff of Vermont Technical College and Champlain College totaling almost thirty years. The combination of industry and teaching kept him intrigued and a part of the transition in engineering that occurred in technology from the 1980’s to late 2000’s. Dick also has over thirty years of community service as a lay monitor for the Water Resources Department, concerning himself with the water quality of Lake Champlain.
    While juggling a family, Joanne decided to return to school and being a partner Dick supported her as a husband at home with chores, meals and juggling the sports schedules of two growing daughters. Joanne earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and a specialty in Special Education and taught in Middlebury and worked long term for both Bridport and Monkton School Districts. When cancer diagnosis for both Joanne and Dick brought about her retirement in 2005, Joanne undaunted began a volunteer role with Addison Elementary that has continued for over twelve years.
    While the upcoming birth of their first great-grandchild is huge on the list of exciting adventures to come, both Dick and Joanne are as focused on family now as they were when they joined hands and said ‘I do’ in 1965. Both have a bit of advice for young couples starting out. “We live in a throwaway society today,” remarked Dick. “If something or a relationship doesn’t work people just throw it away. You have to communicate in a marriage and you have to share the workload, whether it is financial, emotional or tasks.” Completing the advice Joanne added, “You have to work at your marriage as hard as you would a job and really be friends first.”
    The couple loves to travel and in recent years has collected small heart shaped keepsakes from each place they traveled. This is a fitting shape for a couple that has for over fifty years kept family at the center of their lives and a connection that binds them to each generation past and present. The Valley Voice celebrates with the Harters and all couples whose story can be told in decades of family, love and marriage.

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