How one couple found themselves and each other on the High Point University campus
An early morning breakfast at High Point University’s Silver Line Diner was part of Deanna Lee’s routine during her undergraduate years at High Point University.
Each morning, Ms. Kathy at the register would grin and tell her, “Deanna, there’s a guy who always comes in after you and gets the same meal. We all think you two would be perfect for each other. His name is John.”
Other dining team members would chime in and affirm Ms. Kathy’s matchmaking beliefs.
You can still hear a smile in Deanna’s voice when she remembers those days. She loved the dining ladies’ persistence.
“They would tell me about how nice he was,” she says. “They couldn’t believe we never crossed paths at breakfast.”
Deanna didn’t know a “John,” but she had been friends with Jack Clemmer for nearly two years.
Somehow in all that time, they had never discussed their full, legal names.
Jack’s Story
John “Jack” Clemmer, just “Jack” to his friends, came to HPU from Baltimore, Maryland.
A military career was always part of his plan. He needed the education and program that could get him there.
Jack visited HPU and learned of the school’s values and the strong ROTC Program.
HPU is a God, family and country school. President Nido Qubein talks frequently about patriotism and how hard work, personal initiative, faith, gratitude and an entrepreneurial spirit built the nation. American flags cover campus, and HPU proudly hosts an annual Veterans Day Celebration honoring thousands of military members and their families. Jack was hooked.
During that same visit, he met with professors in the history department. That sealed the deal.
“HPU checked all the boxes”
“HPU checked all the boxes,” he says.
The history department became Jack’s refuge. Drs. Frederick Schneid, Phillip Mulder and Paul Ringel were the engaging educators and motivators he needed. They taught him essential life skills like time management that have lifted him to where he is today.
Jack graduated from HPU in 2017 and is now a captain in the army. He’s a logistician, meaning he manages the flow of expendable resources like water, fuel and ammunition from the base to deployed environments.
Being in the military requires determination, organization and discipline.
“I went to high school with so many promising students who had the smarts but had never lived in an adult world where they were in charge of their own time,” he says. “They struggled because of that. I learned it at HPU.”
Deanna has a similar story. As a biology major, her field of study differed from Jack’s, but the experiential learning that prepared her for a successful career was the same.
Deanna’s Story
When Deanna came from Arizona to study at HPU, she didn’t think of herself as a scholarly researcher.
Today, she’s a senior research support specialist at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, and has worked on various research projects from HIV to the COVID-19 virus.
She heard about HPU during a college fair at her high school and scheduled a visit.
While the history department sealed the deal for Jack in choosing HPU, Deanna will smile and admit that for her, “It was the food.”
Then, more seriously, she’ll tell you: “You get on campus, and you feel like you can grow here, learn here and build long-lasting relationships. It’s a family atmosphere.”
Deanna had three core mentors on campus: Dr. Veronica Segarra, assistant professor of biology; Dr. Kirsten Li-Barber, assistant professor of psychology; and Dr. Angela Bauer, former chair of the biology department and current HPU vice president of academic affairs.
“Having mentors, especially women in STEM, who were guiding me through my interests and pushing me to my goals, was incredibly pivotal in my journey,” says Deanna.
They encouraged her to take advantage of the research opportunities on campus early and often. Deanna listened.
She joined Research Rookies, a program designed to engage new students in research. Later, she took part in HPU’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program in the Sciences (SuRPS).
“SuRPS provided me with the foundational skills in laboratory research that I still actively use in my research career today,” she says.
Then, there was the HPU Pep Band. She formed a family with the members, and it became her outlet for fun.
“At HPU there’s a vast amount of variety in the people and so many opportunities to get involved,” she says. “Whether it’s a band or a club, or even just being part of the biology department, there are leadership opportunities.”
Deanna says growing her campus circle strengthened her communication skills and taught her how to stay calm in situations where people don’t always agree. But most of all, it gave her a close-knit group of friends.
The closest of those friends was Jack.
Getting to “The Point”
Jack met Deanna on the first night of her freshman year. He was a sophomore.
Deanna remembers standing in line with her new roommate to order food at The Point, HPU’s sports grill. Two guys behind her struck up a conversation.
One was talking heavily about the Roman Civilization, and Deanna was intrigued. It wasn’t the kind of conversation you hear often, and she knew instantly she liked this guy.
She’ll laugh now and admit that she didn’t talk to him, she just stared and listened.
He noticed the stare and turned the conversation to Deanna. The two sets of friends had dinner together that night.
Then comes the “but.”
“But it wasn’t until two years later that we actually started dating,” says Jack.
They formed such a great friendship that they were afraid to risk it by dating.
It was during those two years that Ms. Kathy at the diner was determined Deanna and Jack should meet. Little did she know, they were already close friends.
When Jack reached his senior year and Deanna was a junior, Deanna knew time was running out. It was her final year with Jack on campus. So, she took the risk and asked him out.
The two got married in 2019. Deanna Lee is now Deanna Clemmer and along the way, she learned that Jack’s legal name is actually “John.”
Before graduating from HPU, the two had a day where their schedules lined up and allowed a breakfast together.
When they arrived at the diner hand-in-hand, Ms. Kathy was ecstatic.
“I knew it,” she told them. “I just knew it.”