Burt Lee (’70) and Susan Milch (’73) Seifman

Go back

The Red Apple Rest. Yes, that was it! The place where, 37 years ago, my husband first laid eyes on me and swears he vowed we’d someday marry.

We were on our way to the Baruch College Colloquium at the Granite Hotel, where freshmen could register for classes and mix and mingle with new fellow classmates.

I was a freshman and he a senior and president of House Plan Association. He helped me register for classes and suggested I get involved in House Plan. I did and became an original member of Hour House. We were each dating others at the time, but not seriously.

One freezing night in November 1969, just before Thanksgiving, our paths merged at a Knight House Plan party in Queens. He made his move! We danced and talked most of the evening. When it came time for my friend and me to schlep back to Brooklyn, he and his friend, both of whom lived in Queens, offered to drive us home. I interpreted that as his being more than casually interested but the clincher was the long, hard goodnight kiss despite my being in the throes of a coughing, nose-blowing cold.

I remember our first date: A show at Circle in the Square Theatre and late-night snack at Bernie’s Diner on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. I knew this was a match made in heaven when I was comfortable enough to order my usual pizzaburger, a sloppy mess to eat.

For the next two years, we were “joined at the hip,” as our friends would say.

He went off to grad school, and we continued to date long-distance. He proposed on New Year’s Eve 1971, and we married in ’73.

Now, two grown children and almost 33 years later, we look back on our years at Baruch as some of our best. Oh, and by the way, our Baruch friends, Bob and Kim Widman, who drove from Queens to Brooklyn with us that fateful night, are also married, and my own sister and brother-in-law, Eileen and David Kornberg, also fell in love at Baruch.