The Benefits of Foreign Travel - From Talking About it at the UO to Living It Together
Willem shares, ” I have been married almost 54 years to Carol Putnam from Oakridge, Oregon, who was an anthropology major at the UO when I met her.
We met at the office of Dr. Kenneth Ghent, at that time the UO Foreign Student Advisor. We ended up talking about the benefits of foreign travel. Carol had just returned from an extensive trip through Europe. It was quite clear that we were both interested in exploring new countries and studying new cultures.
The relationship developed slowly at first, but on Valentine’s Day 1966, Carol sent me a handmade Valentine’s card (see photograph). This turned out to be the key signal that something more serious was brewing!
From then on, things speeded up. I got my MBA in August 1966 and in February 1967, exactly one year after the memorable Valentine’s card, we were married in my home town in Holland (see wedding day photo).
Our mutual love for cultural adventures has never ceased. We lived in Brussels, Toronto, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, and Chicago – in that order. And now we are back in Amsterdam.
Apparently, we passed on this gene to our children, too. Our son lived in Chicago, The Hague, Antwerp, Mumbai, and Copenhagen and he is now in Busan, South Korea. Our daughter lived in New York, London, Bangkok, and Singapore and now is home again in Amsterdam.”
Listen to their songs
Willem and Carol share that a special song for them is Strangers in the NIght by Frank Sinatra. You can hear this song along with others shared by our international alumni couples on our Spotify playlist – simply click below to listen!
