’80s love match

Constance Mixon ’88 met Walter Braunschweig III ’86 during her campus visit in 1984 when Wally was her tour guide. “He played a pivotal role in my decision to attend Cornell,” she recalls.

Thirty-two years later they were married on Nov. 26, 2016, the first marriage for both.

Although they were both politics majors, they didn’t date at Cornell, nor did they have mutual circles of friends. After they graduated they met again at an alumni event in Chicago, and Wally asked Connie out. They dated briefly and went on with their separate lives. In 2009 they reconnected via social media, but Wally had moved to Wyoming. In 2010 he returned for his father’s memorial service in Wisconsin and to Chicago to visit John Wood ’86, and the couple met for lunch at the Berghoff restaurant. After four years of a long-distance relationship, Wally moved back to Chicago in 2014, and he proposed in March 2016.

“Cornell College brought us together several times, and our love was worth waiting for,” Connie says. “Lori Pollok Woods ’88 supplied the wine at the wedding and Andrea Herrera ’85 did the catering,” she adds. “We were overjoyed to have so many of our Cornell friends with us at our wedding! It really took a village of Cornellians to get us married!”