For Robyn and Sol Gittleman, the term "summer love" isn't just a thought marked by fleeting nostalgia. The two still look upon Lincoln-Laurel Summer Camp in Blairstown, N.J. with fond memories of their first meeting.
Hundreds of miles away and several decades later, Ms. Gittleman works as Tufts
ExCollege director while her husband, a former provost, is a German professor.
Though the two never were campers at Lincoln-Laurel, which they called a "camp for overprivileged children," they both came to the camp during the summer of 1955 as counselors.
"We were both in charge of the senior campers - which means [Sol and I] had all of the socials together," the ExCollege director said.
"Robyn was 18 at the time, and I was 22," her husband said. "Wait, I mean 21."
"He lied, so you won't remember how old he is," his wife interjected.
Even after their 52 years of marriage, such witty banter like this is not uncommon for the couple. In fact, it appears that little has changed between the two since their counselor days as teenagers - more than half a century later, the couple has found romantic and professional harmony as they work on the same campus.
After their first summer camp experience, Professor Gittleman began his graduate studies at Columbia University, while his future wife attended college in Brooklyn. The two made it a point to see each other often, despite the commute between their respective schools.
"We had a date or sleepover at least once a week at that point," Ms. Gittleman said.
Not long after the two had begun their respective studies, her husband applied for a Fulbright grant, which would later transplant the couple to Europe. Although he was eventually awarded the grant, Professor Gittleman wasn't fully honest about his marital status in his application at first.
"[Sol] applied for the grant as a 'married person,'" Ms. Gittleman explained. "As soon as he told me, I said, 'Well, who do you think you're going to marry?'"
"We were engaged before the Fulbright came through," her husband said. "By September, we were married."
The Gittlemans were married on Sept. 9, 1956 in Ms. Gittleman's native Brooklyn, and afterward they promptly jetted off to Europe to begin Professor Gittlman's Fulbright program in Tubingen, Germany. The two returned to America a year later, where they hoped to find a place for Professor Gittleman to pursue his Ph.D. and for his wife to complete her bachelor's degree. The best offer they found was from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
After Ms. Gittleman got her degree at Michigan, she taught at a local public school while her husband finished up his Ph.D. work.
But life for the Gittlemans wasn't all academia - the couple had their first child, Julia, now 45, during their time in Ann Arbor. A year after Julia was born, Robyn gave birth to their first son, Peter, in South Hadley, Mass., while the Gittlemans were situated at Mount Holyoke College. Thomas, their last child, was born after the Gittlemans found themselves at Tufts in 1967.
Since coming to Tufts, the Gittlemans have made their home in Winchester, where they now live with all of their children and grandchildren nearby.
"All of our children live in the area," the former provost said. "We see each other often - there's a lot of Chinese food."
"And a lot of pizza," his wife added.
The Gittleman family remained close even when they weren't all living in the same house. While still keeping their Winchester home, the couple lived on the Tufts campus for nearly 21 years, from 1982 to 2002, at the former provost's house on 48 Professor's Row. Although all of their children had moved out, the children still had their own rooms, which the Gittlemans used to house guests and other family members who came to visit.
"We would hold family dinners there - it was 'our house,'" the Gittlemans said, reminiscing about their days living on campus.
While they said the banter of the crew and sailing teams passing by their home on the way to early morning practice could sometimes be distracting, the Gittlemans enjoyed their time living on campus.
"We didn't mind it at all," Professor Gittleman said. "We liked the noise."
"Except for those skateboarders at the campus center at 4 a.m.," his wife added.
In 2002, the Gittlemans returned to their original home in Winchester, where they now reside, making the nine-minute commute to Tufts every day.
The commute for the two of them is one that has become habit - Professor Gittleman has been doing it for his 44 years at Tufts, and his wife for 37 years.
Although Professor Gittleman has been teaching an assortment of classes at Tufts for more than four decades, his wife said she's never sat in on any of his courses.
"But I have heard Sol speak many times," she said.
"Like, thousands," her husband said.
Peter Gittleman had the opportunity to take his some of his father's courses during his undergraduate years at Tufts. Appeasing his mother at the same time, he also enrolled in an ExCollege course.
Even after Peter's graduation from Tufts and the end of Sol Gittleman's role as provost, the couple still makes the Gittleman presence clear on campus.
"We run into each other on campus, and we talk every day," Professor Gittleman said.
"Being on the same campus, the fact that we both know a lot of the same students and faculty has made it a much easier partnership for both of us," his wife continued. "We have a common base of knowledge, a common concern for the university."
"Sharing a university has been terrific - it's been very good for us," Professor Gittleman said.
His wife shares similar feelings. "I would definitely agree with Sol on that," she said. "And I don't always, you know."