Penguin Mates

Since 2013, YSU Magazine has been sharing the love stories of married YSU couples in our popular “Penguin Mates” column. We introduced the couples featured below in the Fall 2017 print edition – you can read about how they met and see all their photos here.

Tom Dailey, ’75 BSBA, ’87 BSEd, and Marlene Maurer Dailey, ’87 AAB, ’90 BSAS, ’96 MBA, were married July 29, 1972, in Youngstown. They live in Austintown, Ohio and both are retired.

How we met … We didn't meet at YSU but I think we were both students at the time. It was a blind date on December 4, 1965 and, even though we graduated from rival high schools (Tom from Cardinal Mooney, Marlene from South High School), we began dating. Of course, it took him a very long time to pop the question on New Year's Eve 1971, but we celebrated our 44th anniversary this past July.

I was a 38-year employee of Youngstown State University and retired as an administrative assistant in the Office of the Provost and Academic Vice President; Tom was an elementary school teacher and retired from the Canfield Local Schools.

We are supporters as best we can (health problems now) of YSU football and the YSU Alumni Association. I also enjoy belonging to the YSURA and the Women Retirees of YSU organizations. We recently purchased a condo in Austintown after having lived in our only house on Schenley Avenue, Youngstown, for 43 years!

We miss our house, but do not miss the many things that go with owning a home: grass cutting, snow shoveling, climbing steps, etc. We love our new place. – Marlene Dailey

John Irwin, ’10 BSBA, and Whitney Jennings Irwin, ’09 BSEd in Middle Childhood Education, were married Aug. 1, 2015, in Steubenville, Ohio. They live in Smyrna, Del. with their two children.

How we met … We met in Youngstown where we grew up as neighbors on Crandall Street. There were a lot of house parties back then!

Now, John is regional sales manager for JJ Haines in Baltimore, a flooring distribution company, and I am a teacher at Smyrna Middle School. I also earned a master’s degree in Secondary Administrative Leadership from The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. – Whitney Irwin

Nicholas Volinchak, ‘13 BS in Accounting, and Crystal Thomas Volinchak, ‘14 BA in Psychology, and were married Dec. 3, 2016, in Boardman, Ohio. They live in Austintown, Ohio.

How we met … They met while working on campus together as student employees in the Student Success Office, located in Williamson Hall.

He is an operations manager for Sage Data Service and also owns and operates ResearchFantasy.com. She is employed at YSU at the Ohio Small Business Development Center in the Williamson College of Business. Both are also completing MBA degrees at YSU.

Penguin Mates is a continuing feature in YSU’s alumni magazine. If you and your spouse are both YSU graduates, let us share your story. Tell us how you met, and a little about your life today, in 300 words or less, and send it with one or more current photographs and/or wedding photos. Please include your degrees, graduation years, city of residence, email address and phone number so that we can contact you. Email your information to: universitymagazine@ysu.edu, or mail it to: YSU Magazine, Youngstown State University, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555.