Shenandoah Sweethearts: Pete and Caroline Phillips
When Pete Phillips ’61 and Caroline Bateman ’61 Phillips first met on the Dayton, Virginia, campus of Shenandoah College and Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, they were each dating other people. That didn’t stop Caroline from taking an interest in him. “We ate family style,” she said. “We would all sit around the table and pass around dishes of food, so I would always try to sit at the table where he was.”
However, it wasn’t until after the college moved to Winchester that Pete first took note of Caroline. “We were in the same math class,” remembers Pete. “She said she was having a lot of trouble getting ready for the exam, so I offered to help her. But I think she lied to me,” he teased, “because she made a better grade on the exam than I did.”
The couple began dating during their last week of college.
“We went to a picnic together, and then we had a long-distance courtship,” said Caroline. After finishing at Shenandoah, Caroline continued her education at Shepherd College (now Shepherd University) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, while Pete took a teaching job in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Pete and Caroline were married on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 1962, at First United Brethren Church in Winchester. Caroline’s family lived overseas, so the wedding was attended by their Shenandoah family. Pete’s father was the only family member in the wedding party who was not affiliated with the college. Even their flower girl, Beth Collins Sharp ’79, ’80, daughter of Dean Emerita and Professor Emerita Charlotte A. Collins ’85 and Professor Emeritus Verne E. Collins ’84, would go on to receive two degrees from the school.
Shenandoah has remained a part of their lives through their involvement with the Dayton Alumni Weekend, a reunion for those who attended the school while it was located in Dayton, and the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) Archives, which are housed in the basement of Alson H. Smith, Jr. Library on Shenandoah’s main campus.
In 2012, the couple received the Distinguished Alumni Award for Service to the university for their work with the EUB Archives. The couple first got involved when they were asked to write a biography about Caroline’s father, an EUB minister. Since then, they have traveled to former EUB churches to photograph the sites and collect information for the archives.
“A lot of them are closing, and we’ve had two burn in the last three years,” said Peter. “They’re just not there anymore, so we’re trying to document as many as we can. We’ve visited all but about five or six.”
Pete and Caroline exude love — both for each other and for their alma mater.
“Shenandoah basically made us what we are today, and we owe a lot to Shenandoah,” said Pete. “The archives and various other things we do, that’s our way of giving back. It’s just love of the school.”
Caroline echoed this sentiment, saying, “I think everybody should do something with their life to give back. And, as you get older, you realize how important that is. So when you give back to a place that you really love, it’s not just a charity, it’s giving back with love.”
Contributed by Hillary Legge ’14
For more alumni news visit the January 2015 e-News and February 2015 e-News.