Whitworth Friends

Greg Orwig, ‘91

Certainly the most important friendship I made at Whitworth was with the incredible woman to whom I’ve been married for more than 17 years – Kristin (Miller) Orwig, ’91. We met on the first day of freshman orientation when we were paired up in the classic get-acquainted game – Birdie on a Perch. With such an auspicious introduction, it’s surprising it took more than a year to convince her to go out with me. Another great Whitworth friendship has been with Chris Bruzzo who was my roommate for three great years in Stewart Hall. I remember well Chris’ original Mac Plus computer that intimidated most of who were still unfamiliar with personal computers, his enormous pile of dirty laundry, his infamous Gaucho bell key chain, and the many great talks about girls, politics, God, girls, L.A. Law, the relative merits of Sir Mix-a-Lot vs. the Scorpions, and girls. We had several different roommates live in the other bedroom in our suite – Tony (‘what’s with all this snow?’) Pacheco, Dave (Greek God) Reeder, Sung Wook (‘Let God be God’) Chung, Derek (‘Let’s go for a swim, fellas’) Richman and Jonn (‘I can’t be here’) Moomaw. Jonn’s influence led to several memorable moments, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers dash, blue flame contests, and impromptu praise songfests. And I can’t fail to mention the inestimable Keith “Huge” Clerihue with whom I shared many double dates in the Sahara Shark, great times planning The Weekend retreats and doing the best imitation ever of Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man.” Good times. It’s possible, I suppose, that I could have met this great collection of people and developed such deep and meaningful friendships with them at any other college. But I doubt it. Whitworth’s distinctive mission attracts the kind of students who are serious about faith without being dogmatic and uptight and serious about ideas without being humorless and overly-intellectual. I hope that never changes.