Their 50-year benevolent reign

Homecoming king and queen of 1973 return as grand marshals of 2023 Homecoming parade

By Donna Boen ’83, MTSC ’96, Miamian editor

“Stuart listens, and I jabber.”

“Jan cooks. I do the dishes.”

“I write the list,” Jan said.

“I follow the list,” Stuart responded, not missing a beat.

Like peanut butter and jelly or bagels and lox, Janice Deutsch Strasfeld ’74, MEd ’75 and Stuart Strasfeld ’74 complete each other.

The two, now married 48 years, met the beginning of their freshman year at Miami in the fall of 1970, when boots were vinyl, skirts were short, and pants were eye-poppingly plaid —men’s as well as women’s.

Jan and Stuart reigned together as Homecoming king and queen in 1973. They are returning this fall, 50 years later, to serve as grand marshals of Miami’s 2023 Homecoming Weekend festivities Oct. 20-21.

Freshman connection

From Youngstown, Jan moved into South Quad’s fancy new Emerson Hall in 1970. She came to campus a week early to rush, pledging Alpha Chi Omega. A New Yorker, Stuart settled into Dennison on East Quad. He came to campus a week early to take the ACT.

They met through a mutual friend, Robin, who remains a dear friend today.

“We would date and then break up, date and break up. Spring break we would get back together,” Jan said.

“And then we saw each other in the summertime because Jan worked at a camp in upstate New York, and I was living on Long Island,” Stuart said. “So we would see each other in the summertime even though come fall, we would break up again.”

“We knew it was meant to be,” Jan said. “We were just too young.”

“We really didn’t get serious until spring quarter of junior year,” Stuart added.

Jan and Stu on the Miami football field 50 years ago
Janice Deutsch’74, MEd ’75 and Stuart Strasfeld ’74 are crowned queen and king during halftime of the 1973 Homecoming game on a soggy Miami Field.

They were also busy. Stuart was a Beta majoring in political science with his sights on law school. Jan got really involved with Angel Flight, becoming the national Little General. She also helped found the Miami University Student Foundation (MUSF), learning a great deal about fundraising and networking from John Dolibois, Dave Lawrence, and Doug Wilson during her graduate assistantship in the alumni and development offices.

Life after college

By their senior year, Jan was wearing Stuart’s fraternity pin. Still, their reign together as king and queen was a coincidence. The student body voted back then, and the two figure that their many activities accounted for their success.

Jan and Stu's wedding photo
Jan and Stuart are married in 1975, after she finishes her master’s degree and he completes his first year of law school at Case Western.

Homecoming was an extra special time with Jan’s parents as her mother was quite ill with cancer. “When we were crowned, they got to drive onto the field so she could watch from the van,” Jan said.

Jan and Stuart were engaged the following spring.

“I had nothing to do with my ring,” Jan said, sitting nearly shoulder to shoulder with Stuart in their kitchen during the Zoom call chat. “He and his mother designed the ring. It was a little … em … extreme.” Stuart laughs at the memory.

Jan continues, “Word got out that we were engaged, and I was walking on campus and Dr. Shriver was president then, and he was coming the other way, and he said, ‘Let me see this ring I’ve heard about.’ ” Jan pokes Stuart’s right arm, and they laugh together.

Jan kept her promise to her mother and finished her master’s before she married Stu, who had finished his first year of law school at Case Western Reserve University.

They spent their career years in Youngstown. Jan, an entrepreneur ahead of her time, started two home healthcare agencies in the 1980s. After she and her partner sold them to a hospital system, she became senior vice president of the regional Youngstown Chamber of Commerce and eventually president of the Youngstown Foundation, the fourth oldest community foundation in the country.

Comparing his resume to Jan’s, Stuart said his is quite short as he’s had only one job — as an attorney practicing general corporate law and commercial real estate law. While working, they were raising their children, David, Cindy, and Lizzy.

A few years ago, they retired to Park City, Utah. Well, Jan retired. Stuart, who eventually became partner and president of Roth Blair Roberts Strasfeld & Lodge, works remotely and returns to Youngstown every couple of months. Sometimes he flies into Cincinnati to see their two youngest grandsons. They have six grandchildren total.

When they return for Homecoming, they plan to fly in early and babysit before heading to Oxford.

A ticket to ride?

Maybe this time when they lead the parade down Tallawanda to Millett Hall and Yager Stadium, they won’t get a ticket. That might be a first for them.

Jan: “I had my mom’s car after she passed away, and it was a yellow Buick Electra, as long as an old Cadillac, a massive car. I would drive home from student teaching every day, and I would go down Tallawanda, and I got a speeding ticket every day, and then one day … ”

Stuart picks up the story. “I am there visiting her, and I’m driving my car, and the same place … ”

Jan: “Same cop.”

Stuart: “We get stopped. Cop looks at her and goes … ”

Jan: “You again?”

Jan and Stuart today
Jan and Stuart are enjoying life in Utah these days, hiking, riding e-bikes, and playing pickleball.
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