Rick & Joanie Houck Reed

Joanie Houck Reed, BS ’77, Life Member, and Rick Reed, BA ’78, JD ’82, Life Member, met at UT while training to be resident assistants. Their first date was to a Longhorn Singers concert. But Rick and Joanie were both in relationships at the time, so instead of dating they became “best friends.” Although they parted ways after graduating and married others, Rick and Joanie never lost touch. Decades after that first concert, Joanie and Rick, single again, reconnected and were married in 2001. The following year for Joanie’s birthday Rick took her back to the Forty Acres to see a Longhorn Singers concert. At the end the singers performed “Happy Birthday” to Joanie, 25 years after Rick’s and her first date. For their 10th anniversary this year, Rick painted a portrait for Joanie from a photo of them with fellow RA’s at Barton Springs.