Love at First Sight
As students at Roseburg High, Mark and Marlyce Robbins flirted with the idea of being something more than friends. Nearly a half-century later, they finally became sweethearts.
Story by Jim Hays Photo by Thomas Boyd
On a page in the back of the former Marlyce Carey’s copy of “Umpqua,” Roseburg High’s annual, is a black-and-white photo of downtown Roseburg’s Jackson Street as it looked in 1955.
Above the photo is an inscription, handwritten in a tidy cursive.
“Marlyce,” it reads, “I’m still waiting for that first date with you — someday, somehow it will happen. Good luck, Mark.”
“I would have gone out with him if he had asked me. But neither of us had a lot of time for dating.”
— Marlyce Robbins
In 1955, Mark Robbins was a handsome prep track star who had won the mile at consecutive high school state meets and also claimed back-to-back state cross-country championships.
He was student body treasurer his senior year and worked swing shift on the green chain at Roseburg Lumber.
He also had a crush on the redheaded, athletic Marlyce, who was active in RHS’ Pepsters and president of the school’s chapter of Future Business Leaders of America while holding down a part-time job at Kim’s, now called Pete’s Drive-In.
But Mark and Marlyce, members of the same class and born just a week apart, never quite got together. At least not then.
“I would have gone out with him if he had asked me,” says Marlyce. “But neither of us had a lot of time for dating.”
Mark remembers it being less a matter of time demands and more an issue of nerves. “I wanted to ask her, but it wasn’t easy for me to approach the prettiest girl in the school,” he says.
It would be 45 years before Mark got another chance. After graduation, the two lost touch but ran into each other at the 2000 RHS class reunion — the first such event either had attended. By then, both had married others and divorced, had adult children (in another coincidence, both their sons and daughters have the same names), had retired and were living far from Douglas County but looking for a reason to move back.
They talked. They swapped phone numbers. They corresponded. Then came that long-awaited first date, a weekend trip to Florence. That led to a long engagement, a beach wedding in Yachats, a home together in Sutherlin and, last October, their 10th wedding anniversary.
But that’s just the short version.
Marlyce, who grew up in Wilbur, met Mark when they were sophomores signing up for algebra. He had just transferred in from Corvallis. The two also wound up in the same RHS bookkeeping class.
“Mark had a reputation as being very courteous and considerate,” Marlyce remembers. “He was a total gentleman. And still is.”
“I wanted to ask her out, but it wasn’t easy for me to approach the prettiest girl in the school.”
— Mark Robbins
Mark, who had started running competitively at Corvallis, became a star distance runner in Roseburg under coach Frank Purdy. He competed at the state track meet all four years, the last three for RHS.
He got to the top of the medal stand as a junior in 1954, finishing in 4 minutes, 27.7 seconds at Oregon State College. He repeated as a senior, winning in 4:28.1 on the same track.
The two state track wins, plus his cross-country titles, got the attention of legendary University of Oregon coach Bill Bowerman, who offered Mark a scholarship. He became a three-year letterman at Oregon, competing mainly in the two-mile run.
He also met a teammate named Phil Knight, who would co-found Nike with Bowerman. Mark and Knight became fraternity brothers and have kept in touch. Mark was among the invited guests at a recent Nike luncheon.
Graduating with a business degree, Mark worked in Washington and Idaho as an accountant and supervisor and then a CPA before retiring. In addition to two adult children, he had numerous business and real estate interests.
Marlyce, like Mark a straight-A student, got a partial scholarship to Oregon State to study accounting but left after two years to get married. Her husband was in the Air Force and she moved often, but never lost her longing for her hometown.
“My ultimate dream was to move back to Douglas County,” she says.
After her marriage ended and she became a single mom, she worked her way through Utah State University to finish her accounting degree, then was hired on by the school’s finance department, where she worked for 25 years while raising three children.
In 2000, she returned to Roseburg to visit her sister and decided, as long as she was here, to attend her 45-year class reunion.
Mark was present, too, led there by a premonition. “I had a feeling Marlyce might be there,” he says, “so I decided I would go.”
Marlyce thought he looked familiar.
“We were only a couple feet apart and he looked like somebody I felt I knew,” she says. “But thank God for name tags.”
It took time to get reacquainted, but after two years of phone calls, emails and the occasional in-person visit, Mark proposed on the Roseburg High Quad in 2002. However, it was another seven years and countless dates and RV excursions, however, before they actually tied the knot. What’s the rush, when you’ve already waited 45 years?
But when they did decide it was time, they didn’t waste any more of it.
“I was taking it slow because I wanted to be sure,” Marlyce says. “Finally, he asked me, ‘When are we going to get married?’ and I said, ‘How about next week?’”
On Oct. 22, 2009, Mark and Marlyce said their vows before a minister on the beach at Yachats.
“I’m kind of slow, but I have a good finish,” jokes the former champion runner, Mark.
Now in their 80s, the couple live in Sutherlin. They walk together, play golf, watch sports on TV and in person, dance and are active at the Moose, Elks and Eagles lodges. Mostly, though, they enjoy each other and making up for all that time they didn’t have together.
“It’s a beautiful life,” says Marlyce.
