AMY and DAN

“My name is Amy Mager ’85. I met my husband, Dan Garfield ’84, my first day of class at Brandeis in Luis Yglesias’ class, “Imagining How We Are” which was a UHUM, University Study of Humanities, class. Dan had taken his first year at Brandeis, then gone to Israel for a year, and when he came back, the requirements to graduate had changed.

It was a small class. Dan sat down next to me wearing a Yin/Yang shirt and put his electric blue moped helmet on the table.  My heartbeat changed rhythm, and I thought, “why is this happening — I’m totally in love with someone else.” It was the start of a deep and meaningful friendship.  We were friends for many years.  In January 1985, Dan was in a life-altering accident, hit by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the highway.  It was a very scary time, and we wrote many letters during his recovery.  He came back to Brandeis for my graduation, and it was a blessing to see him alive and moving.

Fast forward to 1990, when we ran into each other at the Grateful Dead New Year’s Show, each having gone to the concert with someone else.  We started writing again and were each finishing our graduate degrees, him in Chiropractic and me in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. We talked about opening up a practice together.  

That spring, we went on our first date (a get-together with other Brandeisian alums to watch the Bill Moyer-Joseph Campbell conversations) and said that we would give it six months to know if we wanted to get married or if we should bless each other and move on.  Inside of a week, Dan decided to move out to California with me, and we decided to get married in the fall. Dan had been planning a return trip to Israel celebrating his graduation from Chiropractic school and attempting to fill a spiritual void.  It worked out at the very last minute that I could go with him.  His mother said, “Don’t get married in Jerusalem.”  We didn’t.  We did, however, have an incredible wedding in Tsfat, at Beis Chabad, married on Tu B’Av 5750.  

We have been married for 27 years and have six tremendous children whom we love with all our hearts, including Eitan, class of 2020.”

DAVID and MARCI

“David Baxter ’86 met Marci Silverman Baxter ’87 in October of 1983. We both lived in East Quad at the time. We were introduced by David’s roommate Brian Berman ’86. We dated throughout our Brandeis days and beyond. Marci went to law school at Boston College and David went to graduate business school at Boston University. We moved to Connecticut in 1990, and were married in 1991.

We had triplets in 1998 (Dana, Andrew, Aaron). It has been a crazy ride, but we are absolutely blessed to have gone to Brandeis, to meet and fall in love at Brandeis and to have three amazing children.

Our son Andrew Baxter ’21 is a freshman at Brandeis this year. We are so proud of him and are so happy to be able to visit Brandeis often. While there have been many changes on campus since the mid 80’s (many new buildings!), so much of what is great about Brandeis is still the same as when we were undergraduates there. A sense of community, service and a relentless pursuit of knowledge and truth even unto its innermost parts. Andrew is having a great time at Brandeis. He is on The Justice staff (David wrote for The Justice too!). He is also working hard as a Biology major. Who knows, maybe Andrew will meet the love of his life at Brandeis, just like his parents.”