Rick Dickinson was a freshman at William Penn College (now University) in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1971 when he spotted fellow freshman Rae Ann McLean on campus. “I was so attracted to her,” Rick, now 71, said. “She was cute.
So I asked a friend of hers to ask her if she would go out with me. I was painfully shy back then.” But it wouldn’t be that easy for the Sabula, Iowa, native to get a date with the girl from Marion, Iowa.
“I said, ‘If he wants to go out, he can introduce himself to me and ask me himself,” said Rae Ann Dickinson, now 70. So Rick stepped way out of his comfort zone. “I don’t recall if I sucked it up and asked her out that day, but it wasn’t long,” he said.
“That first date was Parents Weekend.” “So he had to meet my parents on the very first date,” Rae Ann added. As an added bonus, Rick also met Rae Ann’s dog, a Schipperke named Evie.
But it was what happened after her parents and Evie left that had Rae Ann hooked. “I was a mess after they left,” Rae Ann said. “Because I was alone.
But (Rick) was very kind and walked me back to my dorm and gave me a sweet kiss. And I was sold.” But Rae Ann was serious about her studies as an education major, and a full-blown romance wasn’t on her agenda.
Rick was a business and history major, and the pair shared a sociology class together. “I would see him in class,” Rae Ann said. “And I would think, ‘No, you’re here to go to school.
You need to just stick to business.’ Bu.