Fond memories from Pritchard Hall

Pritchard Hall holds some sweet memories for 1984 UB alums Howard and Amy Ressel.

Howard met the then-Amy Rosenfeld in 1980, during the first week of classes their freshman year, when he went to Pritchard to visit a girl he had met during orientation. Amy was one of her floormates at the South Campus residence hall.

Howard and Amy did not officially begin dating until February of their senior year — that, Howard says, is another story — although they had been friends since they first met at UB. The couple, now living in Rochester, have been married for 31 years. Howard, who earned a BS in civil engineering, works as a project design engineer in the highway group at the state Department of Transportation, a career he said he’d wanted to pursue since he was 13. Amy, who received a BA in art history, teaches religious classes at the couple’s synagogue.

So when Howard read in AtBuffalo, UB’s alumni magazine, that Pritchard is slated to be demolished soon along with MacDonald and Schoellkopf halls, “I was a bit saddened because of the sentimental value of the building,” he told UBNow.

He sent an email to UB Facilities, detailing his story.

“Fast forward 34 years later, we married in 1987, have three kids and three grandchildren. All that started in Prichard Hall,” Howard wrote. “As you can imagine, Prichard Hall has special memories for both me and my wife. … If there is any way we could get a small memento from the building, perhaps a brick, I think it would be a really nice remembrance of our stay at UB.”

And he wanted the brick to be a surprise for Amy.

Howard’s request went from UB Facilities staff, who extracted a brick from the building, to Tom Tiberi, director of campus living, who arranged with Howard to present the brick to the couple on Monday. The Ressels met Tiberi outside Pritchard Hall as part of a brief visit to campus before taking their granddaughter, Amalia, to the Buffalo Zoo.

Amy’s reaction to the Pritchard Hall surprise? “Oh, wow! Very cool. This is so him,” she said, laughing, explaining that Howard is a bit of a romantic who likes to set up surprises.

The Ressels’ story is just one of the many great stories tied to UB and its residence halls, Tiberi said. “Many great relationships are formed while living on campus. Some may even end up as lifelong partners,” he said.

Howard and Amy spent about a half-hour at Pritchard reminiscing and telling stories about their time at UB — tales about roommates and dorm pranks, and a shy civil engineering major who debated whether to send an art history major a white (friendship) or red (love) rose for Valentine’s Day their senior year. He chose red, and it was delivered to her room in Wilkinson Quad, where she had moved after spending the spring semester of her junior year in Italy.

“What does this mean?” Amy asked Howard after getting that rose. “Are we going out?”

“Yes, I guess we are,” he replied.