Leslie E. Nightingale ’09 and Daniel J. Rinehart ’09

When Daniel J. Rinehart ’09 proposed to his fiancé Leslie E. Nightingale ’09 last May, his plan did not unfold exactly the way he intended.

On their first date their freshman year, Rinehart, a religion concentrator from Northfield, Minn., took Nightingale, a history and literature concentrator from St. Louis, Mo., to the Bunker Hill Monument. So when he decided to ask Nightingale to marry him, that monument seemed like the logical choice for location. This time around, Rinehart decided to take the bus instead of the subway in order to keep the proposal a surprise.

After losing the monument from their sight on a walk that quickly became painful for Nightingale in her new high heels, the two feared that they might be lost until a passerby indicated they were on the right path. Rinehart and Nightingale finally arrived at the monument, which was surrounded by approximately 10 school buses and a hoard of tourists.

“One of the main reasons why I thought Bunker Hill would be such a great place to propose is because the first time we went nobody was there,” Rinehart said with a slight smile on his face. “And so I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll see how this goes.’”

After waiting for the tourists to thin out to no avail, Rinehart leaned into an alcove near a window, pulled out the ring, and proposed.

“We stood there and enjoyed the moment for a little while until a woman who wanted to take a picture out the window asked us to move,” he said.

“But then we went out for dinner later and that was nice,” Nightingale added, gazing into Rinehart’s eyes.

The couple met their freshman year in a Russian class. After getting to know each other while studying for the class in Weld, where they both lived, the two became fast friends and soon started dating.

“Daniel’s always sweet to me. He’s a good guy and he makes me laugh,” Nightingale said. “I always feel comfortable when I’m around him.”

The couple plans to spend the next year teaching at an international school in Korea, where Nightingale will most likely teach history and Rinehart will teach humanities and social studies. They plan to attend graduate school in the future.

“Leslie’s really loving and really caring and takes really good care of me,” Rinehart said. “I feel like home is wherever Leslie is.”

The wedding is scheduled for June 6. The ceremony will take place on the North Shore.