Wagner Love Stories: Forever Started in the Philippines

by Myrna Nickelsen | 14 Feb 2026

We were military kids who met as teenagers on the other side of the world. We moved around constantly, and just when we thought we were starting to fit in, many of us had to change schools. We learned early that home wasn’t a place. Home was people. For some Wagnerites, one of those people became forever.

The Yearbook Gamble

John Ward (78) returned to the Philippines between his junior and senior years of college. His sister Cathy wanted to set him up on a double date, but John had standards. He asked to see her yearbook first. Then he literally broke it in half, flipped a handful of pages at random, and stopped at the first face he saw.

Denise.

“I wanna meet her.”

Three days later, fate delivered. John spotted her in the BX parking lot and froze – she was even more beautiful in person! The smooth-talking college man? Lost for words. He mumbled something. She started walking toward the BX for her shift. Panic kicked in. John blurted out an invitation. She said yes.

First date: Mongolian barbecue at the Officers Club, then a disco downtown. He got her home late, apologized profusely to her parents, and, in a moment of uncharacteristic restraint, didn’t try to kiss her goodnight. She found it refreshing.

Three and a half weeks later, John asked her to marry him.

Denise (82) took two days to think about it. Then said yes.

“I told her I wanted at least 50 years,” John said, “because I remembered how special my grandparents’ Golden Anniversary was.”

He flew back to finish his senior year. She finished high school at Wagner. On July 17, 1982—one week short of knowing each other a full year, they got married.

Today they have two sons, John and Cole, and three grandkids: Haylee, Aiden, and Grayson. “She is the best person I’ve ever known. I’m truly a blessed man,” says John.

The Cryptic Flower-Gram

Marie Bissell (77) and Rick Vellila (80) met at a CYO retreat on Grande Island on November 27, 1976. They became friends – hallway conversations, lunch meetups around the 200 wing, the easy companionship of people who just click.

Then, in March 1977, Marie received her very first flower-gram. The sender: Rick. The message: “I’m going to get you, no matter what.”

What kind of message was that? Marie was puzzled, intrigued, maybe a little unnerved. But she could tell something had shifted. Whatever Rick meant by “get you,” it worked.

They started dating on April 1, 1977.

Distance tested them. Coast to coast, they kept it going. In September 1980, when Rick’s dad retired from Dover, Delaware, he moved the family to South Carolina. Marie followed that December. Rick and Marie married on May 21, 1983.

Together, they built a family. Rick died in 2011 in a freak accident, but the love story he began with a cryptic flowergram lives on. He lives on in their four children and eight grandchildren.

The Long Game

Mark Anderson (78) and Liz Wilson (79) became friends in February 1977. Their first kiss came that October. They dated quietly through the rest of high school, apart for short periods during college, then moved in together in 1980.

On April 14, 1984, they made it official.

“There were two things about being at Wagner,” Mark reflects. “First, many of us fought internal struggles between being loyal to a distant romance or giving in to our raging 17-year-old hormones. We fought and fought, and even suffered guilt, but it was unrealistic to believe that our hormones and passion would not win. In my case, I’m eternally grateful that I let go and fell in love at Wagner.”

Mark and Liz stayed in touch with Ed Welch (77) and Lori Neese (76) who seemed to be on the same timeline. Two daughters each. Mark and Liz had Jessica in 1986 and Jackie in 1989. Jessica gave them three grandchildren — Harrison (10), Daniel (8), and Charlotte (5). Jackie lives with them in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

This April, they’ll celebrate 42 years of marriage. Mark retired in 2015 after 35 years in government. Liz is retiring this April after 32 years as an RN.

“There is an emotional phenomenon that binds people who have shared traumatic or intense long-term situations,” Mark says. “Being at Wagner was most certainly an intense, long-term situation. The unique experiences that only Wagnerites shared forged deep bonds, and even forever loves.”

The List Goes On

Ed Welch (77) and Lori Neese (76), Trey Tapman (79) and Janna Vahovich (80), Craig Young (77) and Cindy Weir (78), Debbie Faires (77) and Roy Thelin (77), Jim Cook (75) and Clarita Fumar (75)… The list of Wagner couples goes on — high school sweethearts who never let go, and others who found each other later at reunions, proving that some connections are worth waiting for.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all the Wagnerites who found their forever.

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