Music, love and education all make for a solid foundation in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mensch. Tom and Heather Mensch have become more than just the school's band directors, but in a word inspirational.
The couple met June 27, 1995 at the Brevard Music Center of Brevard, North Carolina. At the time Heather was 21 and played Bass trombone while Tom was 23 and played tenor trombone in the same section of orchestra. The camp they attended was a six-week camp where students were around each other for at least 18 hours a day. Mr. Mensch met her and knew she was the one within the first week and, they started dating three weeks into the camp.
"He kind of chased me around a little bit," said Mrs. Mensch.
At the music camp, high schoolers had curfews, but since they were in college they didn't have one. They had to wait until all of their performances and rehearsals were done. When the curfew hit they could leave. On their first date they attended a movie with friends then separated and went out to eat.
" The only thing open at 1 a.m. was the Waffle House so we went to the Waffle House on our first date and had pancakes and sat and talked," said Mrs. Mensch.
Mr mensch made it clear that for the entire courtship he knew she was the one.
"I kind of gave in about halfway through the camp because we were engaged six weeks later, yes it was very quick," said Mrs. Mensch
"We were just sitting on the couch and I said will you marry me?" laughed Mr. Mensch.
He said that that was one of the things he loved about her, what's important to her is the long-term aspect and not all of the theatrics.
Mr. Mensch went to Penn State University in central Pennsylvania while Mrs. Mensch went to University of Kentucky in Lexington, a nine-hour long distance relationship.
They visited each other one weekend a month.
"It was before of course video conferencing and all that other stuff even before IM chat and before cell phones where you could have a texting conversation," said Mensch "we would go into our computer labs and write out short e-mails and then wait 20 seconds for an email to come back," he laughed.
Mr. and Mrs. Mensch were married Aug. 10, 1996 in Washington D.C. and have been together ever since.
Mr. Mensch was the first to have a job at TJC while Mrs. Mensch was doing some adjunct teaching at other schools. One day while helping Mr. Mensch at a game the former president Dr. Bill Crowe pointed out Heather out and asked one of the department chairs who she was. He replied that she was the wife of our band Director Mr. Mensch and Dr. Crowe decided to offer her a job after seeing her working so hard.
Students often wonder how they get along so well.
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