Romance was the last thing on Charlotte Perrine's mind when she agreed, reluctantly, to go to her 50th reunion last October. But there she first met classmate Fred Horton -- and after a whirlwind courtship, she married him on March 13. "We should be the poster children for attending your class reunion," laughs Charlotte Horton, '48, MA '54.
It was Charlotte who made the first move, asking Fred to join her and her friends for dinner at a Woodside restaurant. They struck up a correspondence, then a friendship. But Fred wanted more, reasoning, "This is stupid when you've got a nice woman here." On Christmas Eve, he proposed. She accepted immediately. Two days before Fred's 75th birthday, the Hortons were married in Carmel, Calif., in front of 30 friends and relatives, including three classmates.
A widow, Charlotte had enjoyed a 41-year marriage. But Fred, retired and living in San Francisco, was a lifelong bachelor. Nevertheless, Charlotte says he has proven "very well domesticated. I didn't have to deal with any of that Playboy business." The couple has settled into Charlotte's home in the wine country town of Glenhaven, Calif. The Hortons say they knew their romance was charmed when they ran into President Gerhard Casper in the Maui airport -- on their honeymoon.
