ThisWeek CW 09/24/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/09/21/one-year-3-milestones-for-central-ohio-couple.html

A Canal Winchester couple is marking three significant milestones this year: two 90th birthday celebrations and 65 years of marriage.

And it all started with an impromptu blind date.

Ray and Pauline Stemen, who have lived in Canal Winchester since 1957, marked their 65th anniversary in March. Ray celebrated his 90th birthday Sept. 7 and Pauline will turn 90 on Oct. 13.

After World War II, Pauline was working at Owens Corning in Newark, where she was raised. Ray, too, was in Newark, where he accepted an apprenticeship “to help with construction of the new atomic plant in Kentucky” after serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during the war and attending the Milwaukee School of Engineering to learn the heating and ventilating trade.

“Owens Corning used to throw these big balls once a year and a girlfriend of mine wanted to go that year with a particular man she was interested in,” Pauline said. “Well, we had to go to a bar to meet up with him, and he was at the bar with Ray, and he said he’d only go with my friend if I went with Ray, so that’s how it started.”

The couple married in 1950, about a year later, and spent the next few years moving around because of Ray’s job. Eventually, Pauline said she wanted to be more settled, so they returned to New Lexington to be near family while Ray took what work he could get out of the local union hall.

“It was New Year’s 1957 and I’d been offered a position with Columbus Heating and Ventilating,” Ray recalled. “It was an inside job so I knew I’d be warm through spring, but I thought they were a little too old-fashioned, so I figured I’d find something else when spring hit.

“But 44 years later, I retired from there at 75 years old.”

The couple has four sons: John, Glen, Randy and David, three of whom still live in the area. They are the proud grandparents of eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

“This was a very nice place to raise children,” Pauline said of Canal Winchester. “My greatest accomplishment was raising four sons who all turned out wonderful.”

Ray acknowledged that his career meant Pauline had a lot more of the responsibility at home.

“We always got along and, of course, I drank my share of the beer at times with the fellas, but we always got along,” he said. “My wife did a great job of keeping the boys in line, taking care of them as children while I worked, because I did a lot of traveling.”

After her youngest child entered fourth grade, Pauline went to work as a pediatric medical assistant, which led her to take on charity work with Grant Medical Center and the Stargazer organization. She said she’s helped organize several charity balls over the years, including the Grant Women’s Service Board’s Candy Cane Charity Ball.

“We’ve always liked to dance. We even have a dance floor in our basement,” she said.

The couple has witnessed a lot of changes in Canal Winchester, but said it’s still the safe place where they raised their family.

“We took part in the Labor Day Festival and it was fun,” Pauline said. “We used to build a float for it every year when the boys were small, and we still like to participate now.”

When asked what’s made the years together special, Pauline said honesty is the best policy.

“We’ve always been very honest with each other and our children have always kept us happy,” she said.

Her advice to young couples who want a long married life together is simple: “Just keep working.”