Follow Your Heart: Findlay Faithfuls Nick ’93 and Laurie (Lasley) ’91 Scheck

As part of a week-long series alongside Valentine’s Day, we’re featuring stories about UF couples, past and present, called “Findlay Faithfuls.” Did you meet the love of your life on campus? We want to hear about it! Share your story via Facebook or Twitter using #IHeartUFindlay #FindlayFaithfuls.

Teen love is often fleeting. In fact, those who fall in love in their teen years are most certainly ridiculed by those saying things like, “You’re too young to know what real love is,” and “It’s not love; it’s a crush.” The couples who defy those barbs, regardless of from whom and where they come, think they know better. When it turns out that they actually do, such as in the case of Nick and Laurie (Lasley) Scheck, the enduring love that “springs eternal” for the pair can be a very specific and inspiring example of real love.

Evan, Laurie, Amanda, Elyse, and Nick Scheck at Amanda’s wedding on the University of Findlay campus.

The Schecks actually met before coming to then-Findlay College. He went to high school in Upper Sandusky, Ohio and she in Carey, Ohio, and the two connected while members of the Junior Fair Board that they were both a part of. Nick was a grade ahead of her, so Laurie knew it would take some adjusting when he was off to Findlay College after graduating. They both kept themselves busy with studying and social lives, apart and different, but together as a couple for the year.

Their young love was strong, Laurie said, and so were Nick’s feelings about Findlay. “He constantly spoke so highly of the College. I had other universities to look at also, but, since he was there and loved it so much, I visited and toured, and I fell in love with Findlay, myself.”

And to make sure that the couple would be together, not just in location, Nick asked Laurie to marry him before she even became an official Oiler. “Right after I graduated high school, actually,” she said. “I guess I might have been a little naïve because I had no idea what college life was like, but we were young and bold, and made plans and hoped that it would work.”

It’s safe to say that it has, indeed, worked. The couple will celebrate 32 years of marriage in June of 2020.

Eric and Amanda (Scheck) Butler

Though, back in the late 80s and early 90s, they found themselves as non-traditional college students. They got married, bought a house, and kept jobs like most newly married couples aspire to do. The difference, however, was that, as it happened at the end of Laurie’s first year of college, the pair also had studying and classes to contend with. And that wasn’t it. “I was pregnant, coincidentally, for both of our grad years,” Laurie said. “I ended up graduating before him with a B.A. in Education, and our daughter Amanda was born that following November; and when he graduated with his degree in Business Administration, I was pregnant for Elise.” It wasn’t an easy life, they recalled, but with love lighting their path, they saw their way through.

A few years after graduating, and after clerking at the firm of her father-in-law where he was a partner, Laurie decided to go to law school. There hadn’t been many teaching jobs opening up locally, so she found it to be a sensible path. She graduated from Ohio Northern University’s College of Law, and, as fate would have it, had her third child, a boy named Evan, shortly thereafter. Evan recently graduated from Ohio University with a B.A. in Health Care Management.

The two share a connection with University of Findlay that goes beyond just them. They say that they still hold the University dear, because, as Laurie explained, “UF cares about their students and their success a whole lot. That’s very clear. There’s a personal connection. You’re not just a number. UF makes sure students are successful, and that they have every opportunity for all of the ‘experiences’ that they can have.” And how does she know that this is still the case, some 30 years after she and Nick were Oilers? Well, it seems that their love for the University rubbed off a little on some of those closest to them. Their daughter Amanda graduated from UF in 2014 with a social work degree, and their daughter Elyse in 2015 with a degree in education. And to put the “family” in “Findlay Faithfuls” even more firmly, Elyse met her husband, Steven Gehret, a 2014 graduate, when they were seniors at UF, and the pair both teach at Elmwood Middle School in Bloomdale, Ohio.

But it doesn’t end there.

Even further solidifying the family’s love and loyalty to UF, Amanda chose University of Findlay’s campus on which to have her wedding. “It meant a lot to me to be an Oiler like my mom and dad,” Amanda said. “Eric (Butler) and I met when I was a freshman at UF. I lived in the dorms and worked at a local restaurant. I wouldn’t have met him if I wouldn’t have moved to Findlay. The campus is just so beautiful and family friendly. We have the best memories from that time in our lives when we first met. I loved every minute at UF.”

It’s a glowing review of the University across the board for the Schecks and their children, and, maybe even down the road, their grandchildren; they have one, Eric and Amanda’s daughter, Piper.

“UF has always been and always will be a special part of our lives,” Laurie said. “We all hold it very near to our hearts.”

And that, dear readers, is real love.