One Big, Happy Gator Family
Joan Levin ’63, English and Chemistry
Ronnie Levin, Pre-dental
Ronnie and I met in chemistry class — he was a pre-dent student, and I was majoring in chemistry at the time. One day during our sophomore year, I received a letter from the College of Medicine. They were doing some kind of research for the Space Program, and they asked me to volunteer to have an EEG. I had no idea why I had received this request and called Ronnie to tell him about it. He also had received the same letter. So, we made our appointments together. When we arrived, we asked the technician why the two of us were asked to volunteer for EEGs. We were told that the year before, a survey was given to our freshman chemistry class. They contacted the members of that particular class because it was one of the largest lecture classes on campus, and they wanted a significant sample for their research. It turned out that Ronnie and I had the exact same answers on the questionnaire, and they were interested to know if our brain waves also would be comparable. After the test, we were told that the results were so similar that we could have been the same person! That’s when I figured out that we were meant to be.
My fondest academic memory is passing quant class [quantitative chemical analysis], and my fondest social memories are the parties and the bands that performed at the TEP house, Ronnie’s fraternity. My most frightening memories happened during my internship at Coral Gables High School — exactly during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I graduated in May, 1963. Our wedding was June of 1963 at the Diplomat Country Club in Hollywood, Fla. Ronnie left UF after his junior year and went to the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery and graduated in 1966.
We have three married children, two of whom attended the University of Florida, Dina Levin Fetner ’91, who also attended dental school at UF, and Risa Levin Herman ’88. All three of our children married Gators. We have five grandchildren at the University of Florida — Noah Levin ’18, Jenna Levin ’20, Jake Fetner ’20, Matthew Herman ’20, and Rachel Herman, who is in her second year of veterinary school. We are one big happy Gator family!