Mary Maddox and Joe Heumann share a house, a life and an office in Coleman Hall. Maddox, an English instructor, and Heumann, a communication studies professor, met at Knox College in Galesburg, attended graduate school together at the University of Iowa, lived together, married and both eventually ended up working at Eastern.

Their junior year, Maddox was being published in a literary magazine at Knox called “Catch.” Heumann accompanied his friend, the editor, to meet with her to discuss her story’s entry in the publication. The next day, he asked her out on a date to Baskin Robbins.

After the first date, the two did not see each other much until senior year, when they started dating more steadily, Maddox said.

“It was an on and off again kind of thing,” Heumann said.

Heumann got a job at Eastern in 1976 as an assistant speech communication professor, and the couple relocated to Charleston. Four years later, Maddox applied for a job at Eastern as well, and both have been working here ever since.

At one time, Heumann managed the radio station and had offices in both Coleman Hall and Buzzard Hall. Not having a long-term position, Maddox moved into his Coleman office.

“She needed a nice place to work, so I opened up my office to her,” Heumann said.

When he stopped managing the radio station in 2000, he came back to Coleman and they ended up sharing the office.

“He hasn’t kicked me out, so I’m still here,” Maddox said, even though she thinks one day he might.

Heumann said he doesn’t mind sharing the space. Maddox said the the only problems they encounter are the conferences she likes to have with her freshman English composition students because of the time they take in the office.

The couple’s office hours overlap only a little, and they see each other while passing from class to the office and vice versa.

“Funny thing is, I don’t see him as much as you’d think,” Maddox said. “I like sort of running into him from time to time.”

The couple married in 1973 during a small ceremony at the Iowa City courthouse in the presence of three friends. More friends came around to celebrate later that night. Family was “a thousand miles away in two different directions” and didn’t have much involvement with the event, Heumann said.

Maddox and Heumann have opposite personalities, and Heumann can’t explain why they attract, but they do, he said.

“You shouldn’t overanalyze things like that,” he said.

Anniversaries and Valentine’s Day aren’t really a big deal for the couple, Maddox said.

On their one year anniversary, Maddox received a phone call from someone who wanted to congratulate her.

“I said, ‘For what?'” Maddox said, forgetting what day it was.

The couple doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary for these occasions, Heumann said.

“Anniversaries are a little more special than Valentine’s Day,” he said, adding that Valentine’s Day is something for everybody and not just the two of them. The couple likes to go to the movies and go out to dinner occasionally, and Joe likes to travel to St. Louis and Chicago and go see museums, she said.

They used to go out and party and have a good time, but not so much anymore, Maddox said.

“Once you get into a routine, you just get too tired,” Maddox said.

Maddox and Heumann aren’t the only couples teaching on Eastern’s campus.

Other couples include John and Terri Johnson, of the journalism department; Ralph McCausland, the head wrestling coach, and his wife Joan, a health studies instructor; Lisa New Freeland, an assistant sociology professor, and her husband Charles Freeland, an art instructor, and more.