When Marsha Powers and Dick Ambrose were seated together in Mrs. Woodrum's 9th grade Latin class, a spark lit that exists to this day.  An unlikely couple on the surface, Dick was 5'2", athletic, competitive and rather irreverent, and Marsha was 5'6", studious, naive and a teachers' pet.  Even they didn't see themselves together past high school, let alone for the rest of their lives.  And Marsha's parents certainly didn't.  The culture of the 50's didn't include 'mixed marriages' between people of different faiths, and when Dick got a golf scholarship to a public college, Marsha chose differently, a private religious one that was the same one her Dad had gone to.  But destiny was strong, they graduated together and after a 7 year courtship were married by both a protestant minister and a catholic priest in 1965 following Dick's first year in graduate school.

Both were good students, logical thinkers, and organized, leading them to much career success.   They also shared a sense of humor and self-discipline that they would need in the years ahead.  Marsha was hired as a computer programmer for B.F. Goodrich, and Dick finished his Ph.D. taking a lab job at Firestone in Akron.  While career success gave them the early security each wanted, family success was more elusive.   Dick wanted 5 children, but after their first son was born and Marsha became a stay-at-home mom, they found that neither of them could instill logic and organization and especially not self-discipline in a creative child not interested in athletics at all.  The early years with their 3 sons were a challenge they did not anticipate.  Marsha became depressed and Dick became angry.  Trying to maintain the traditional roles of their parents and live near Girard was not working for them in the 1970's.  Dick needed a more challenging job and Marsha needed to find an outlet outside the home.

Eventually they made the decision to leave Ohio for better opportunities. Normally not risk takers, they moved to Erie PA where Dick took a technical management position with an unknown private company and Marsha began to work again as a part-time temp.  It didn't make parenting any easier, but in 1984 their patience paid off.  Dick's company decided to move their research to North Carolina.  Although the move so far from their Girard families was painful, this decision changed their lives more than they could have ever imagined.  Dick became the Vice-President of Research for his company, and Marsha returned to the computer field, this time managing call centers and eventually having her own training business.   

Their sons got the education that was the primary parenting goal of their parents, two earning Master's degrees and one becoming an M.D.  The drug addiction of their eldest son became a positive force in their lives as deeper personal faiths were opened to them through his recovery and 24 year sobriety.

Today, having taken on each others’ lifelong hobbies, they play golf and travel to historic places together.  They enjoy the retirement culture of Florida 7 months each year and the joy of 4 North Carolina grandchildren every summer.  They especially treasure the teenage history and Girard friendships they still share 56 years later.