Joining an elite group of Pacific Palisades couples, Stephen and Kathleen Fast will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on September 14. They’re traveling at the moment’a cruise from Copenhagen to Monte Carlo’but when they return at the end of the month, they will celebrate. The pair met in Washington D. C. in 1955, when Stephen, who lived with five friends, was invited to a bridge game by one of Kathleen’s five roommates. Both worked for the National Security Agency, where Stephen was a lieutenant in the Air Force and Kathleen was a technical writer. The main mission of the agency was to break codes, and Kathleen’s job consisted of taking all the technical information used in that process and putting it in a ‘readable’ form for officers. As they played cards that night, the pair soon realized there was a mutual attraction, which led to additional dates. They continued dating for two years and at that point Stephen’s enlistment was over and he planned to move back to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to finish his MBA at the University of Michigan. Before joining the Air Force, he had graduated from Dartmouth College). Deciding he didn’t want to move without Kathleen, he took her to an Italian restaurant in Georgetown and popped the question. She accepted, and they were engaged about four months before they were married in the Chapel of the Carpenter, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Georgetown. After the wedding, they had a small reception before getting into their car and leaving for Ann Arbor. The first night they drove as far as Bedford, Pennsylvania, which served as their honeymoon. After Stephen’s graduation from Michigan, the couple moved to Kalamazoo, his hometown, where Stephen took a job at a bank. Kathleen is from Strasburg, Pennsylvania in the Delaware Water Gap area.) The couple’s first child Patrick was born in 1960. After living there for three years, Stephen took a job in Chicago in an investment counseling firm and the family lived near the North side. Their second child, Stephen II was born in 1962. During the time in Chicago, Kathleen worked for Playboy magazine in editorial research. Her job involved verifying what the authors wrote in their articles. They spent 11 years in the windy city, and in 1972 moved to Palos Verdes, California. ‘We decided to change our lifestyle,’ Stephen said. They had lived there for two years, when a good friend, Mo Gurlick who lived in Pacific Palisades, told them, ‘Look up here.’ They did and bought a house in 1975. Their two boys attended Palisades Elementary, Paul Revere and Palisades High School. The boys adapted well to the California lifestyle, taking up surfing and spending time at the beach, as well as playing AYSO soccer. Both parents became active in that organization as well as the Dartmouth Club of Southern California. During that time, Stephen worked as a charted financial analyst/CFA serving as the regional senior vice president for Wells Fargo in the investment management division. He retired in 2003. Both sons have stayed in California, Patrick and wife Michele live in Seal Beach, with their three children Patrick, Jr. Laura and Lisa. Stephen II and his wife Molly Corridan live in Santa Monica. Stephen offers his thoughts about why their marriage has lasted, ‘being flexible and trying to understand differing points of view. ‘We have a healthy respect for each other as individuals,’ he added. Stephen also pointed to their common interests’hiking, reading, cruises and world travel’as a uniting factor.
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