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Under
the dim light of the Milky Way
in the Math and Science Building planetarium, Sarah Vanderhoof
’02N and Jonathon Price ’02C sat quietly side
by side.
Department
of Physics Chair Ray DuVarney had invited them to stay
for a quick demonstration of the new Zeiss projector—or
so Vanderhoof thought.
 He
used the pointer to isolate a single star in the Sagitta
constellation. “This star was unnamed until recently,”
DuVarney said. “Now, its name is Sarah.”
Slowly
the lights came up, DuVarney handed Sarah Vanderhoof the
documentation for the star that had been named in her
honor, and Price got down on one knee beside her.
“The
woman I love . . .” he began, reading a poem he had
composed for the occasion. Then, voice shaking, he pulled
out a diamond ring. “Sarah, will you marry me?”
“I
can’t breathe,” Vanderhoof said, but quickly
accepted the proposal.
DuVarney,
witnessing the emotional proposal from behind the control
panel, dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief. “Now
you’re making me cry,” he said.
This
was the first, but perhaps not the last, marriage proposal
in the new planetarium—an idea Price had after he
read in a magazine that he could buy and name a star.
“I wanted to be able to show Sarah her star, and
then I heard about the new planetarium at Emory,”
said Price who, although a French and literature major,
took an astronomy course as an undergraduate.
Vanderhoof,
a nurse at Emory Hospital, said although she and Price
have dated for five years, she was completely surprised
by the ruse. “We have been together so long, we always
planned to get married,” said Vanderhoof, who met
Price in sixth grade at a boarding school in Kenya (both
their parents were African missionaries). “But this
was just a random morning. I thought we were going to
a meeting.”
Price,
who works part time for Alston and Bird, also runs an
expedition business, African Adventures, with his roommate,
Daniel Grass ’02C. The couple plans to return to
Africa to live in the future, and Vanderhoof’s dream
is to work in a public health clinic there.
For
now, though, they are happy to focus on planning an August
wedding while wishing upon a very special star.—M.J.L.
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