Former Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin, age 72, and retired Dartmouth professor John Hennessey, 80, never expected to get remarried at this stage in their lives. But this Sunday of Winter Carnival, the couple will unite in a personalized civil ceremony at the Equinox Hotel in Manchester in front of 34 family members.
"It's a big step, even at our age," Kunin, who will be keeping her name, said. "But we realized we were happy when we were together, and we wanted to be together."
The ceremony will include readings of the couple's favorite poetry and prose by authors such as Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, John Dunne and Elizabeth Bishop. Both their children and grandchildren will participate in the service, and Hennessey's granddaughter Elizabeth Hennessey '09, who is competing in two Carnival ski races tomorrow, will attend the Sunday ceremony.
"We all get along very well and we're just happy that he's happy," Elizabeth Hennessey said.
The couple first met in the 1985; both served as trustees for the University of Vermont, and Kunin consulted with Hennessey on ethics in her role as Vermont's governor.
"I wanted to meet with him to get some advice on forming a committee on ethics, regarding bioethics, in vitro fertilization and AIDS," she said.
Hennessey, who has served as both faculty member and dean of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration during his 30-year career at the College, helped found the Dartmouth Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics and served on its executive board from 1981-87.
Kunin served as Deputy Secretary of Education for President Clinton and ambassador to Switzerland subsequent to her position as governor, and their careers have intersected several times since their first meeting, Hennessey said.
"I have always known her as a public figure, and I read her book, 'Living a Political Life,' which was very well done," Hennessey said. "So I always felt I knew her pretty well and always admired her."
The two reunited in May of 2004 when Hennessey asked Kunin to serve on an advisory board for Americans for Campaign Reform.
Kunin had divorced her husband in 1995, and Hennessey's wife, Jean, passed away in June of 2004.
"He happened to have a condominium that was a five minute walk from my condominium, and we got together some months later to discuss campaign reform," Kunin said. The two also had adjoining seats at a Vermont Symphony Orchestra concert. "We went to concerts together and fell in love," she said.
The couple will split their time between Hennessey's home in Hanover, NH, and Kunin's home in Burlington, VT. Kunin, a former Montgomery fellow, said the College is dear to both her and Hennessey.
