For some people the thought of living and working with their significant other is almost too much to bear, but for others it is a natural and desirable progression in their relationship. Dudley Greeley and Nancy Artz, and Doug Cook and Elisa Boxer, are two couples who presently, or have in the past worked together. All of them enjoyed working with their spouse and welcomed the time spent with one another.
Boxer/Cook
Elisa Boxer and Doug Cook don’t work together anymore, but they wish they did. Boxer and Cook anchored together on Channel 8 news, WMTW, for four years before Boxer decided to take a permanent leave to raise their child.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed it until she was gone and now there’s this big void there,” said Cook.
Cook still works for WMTW and Boxer has become a part-time teacher at USM. Boxer teaches a news writing class every fall.
Both Boxer and Cook said they enjoyed working together at the news station.
“When you’re out there you’re surrounded with all this news and it’s bad news,” said Boxer, “It was really wonderful for me to have someone there that was at arm’s length.”
They also felt their relationship helped them to be better at their job, because the talk news anchors are required to engage in between stories came more naturally.
Cook said they didn’t talk a lot about their relationship on the air.
“The beauty of having a married anchor team is the comfort that they share and not talking about being married.”
On occasion, though, the couple did share their personal lives on the air. After one story about a person who won the lottery, he turned to his wife and said: “If I won the lottery, I’d buy you some maternity clothes,” indirectly announcing that they were going to have a child. Boxer turned several shades of red.
While they didn’t always anchor together, Boxer first saw her future husband while she was watching a bloopers reel at her studio. In the video an over-the-shoulder graphic was accidentally displayed over Cook’s head. The first time they spoke, at a press conference in Waterville, Boxer said she had seen him on video. He said he was crestfallen when it turned out she had seen the blooper reel and not work that he was proud of.
They did not choose to work together. In fact, Channel 8 lured Cook away from Channel 13 where he was anchoring at the time. Cook said the prospect of working with his then fianc? excited him. Even though coworkers said they couldn’t understand how Boxer and Cook could work together, they both said they loved it.
To Boxer and Cook, one of the funniest things about being married and anchoring together was when viewers would see them shopping and because of their different last names, not realize they were married. “Sometimes people would see us in a grocery store and think they’d uncovered some secret scandal,” said Boxer.
Those days are gone now and Boxer and Cook both wish they could work together again. Cook says that with his new shift, which requires him to work from 4 a.m. to noon, he’s like a zombie when he gets home. Because of the toll his work takes on him, Cook said, “the together time isn’t there.”
They both are looking forward to having that together time again. Boxer said she would like to go back to the newsroom and Cook said he wants to stay home with his wife and son.
Boxer said the couple may work together again: “We have some things in the works.”
Greely/Artz
For the last three years Nancy Artz and her husband Dudley Greeley have worked and taught at the University together.
“We have one life,” said Greeley, “We try to integrate work, play, exercise and community activities.”
Artz and Greeley share a car and carpool between USM and their home in Cumberland. “It’s great. You get to see somebody you care about a little bit more of the day,” said Greeley.
They have taught classes together twice in the past. Both said the experience was enjoyable and Artz said she felt it worked better than other classes she had cooperatively taught.
“As team teachers, we’re more effective because we know each other’s style and we have all that commute time to talk,” Artz said.
In her consumer behavior class Artz likes to tell a story about her husband and a trip they’d made to Yosemite State Park for their second honeymoon. Greeley wore the shoes he was wearing when they were married and forgot to pack hiking shoes. Over the course of their vacation he ended up destroying his shoes. Artz said that some students who have taken her class meet him and immediately check out the condition of his shoes.
Greeley said when they taught class together the “teasing and energy would center around, usually, my wife dredging up some aspect of my behavior and presenting it to the delight of the class.”
Greely said he didn’t mind being the subject of a lesson in class.
“If you can synthesize the take-away of any course through a story, people will remember it forever,” he said.
As far as whether or not their relationship has a positive effect on the University environment, Artz said it was “both most efficient and more effective.” She said the comments from the students who took their classes were predominantly positive.
“One student said he was dubious in the beginning, but by the end he was pleased,” Artz said.
The few minor problems Artz and Greeley experience with working together are external. Artz said coworkers have to remember the two are different people.
“People will assume that if they’ve told one of us, they’ve told us both,” Artz said. She also said she’s had “interesting conversations with people who didn’t know we’re married.” She said she tries to avoid hearing someone talk about her husband when that person doesn’t know they’re married.
Artz and Greeley both said they enjoyed teaching together and they look forward to doing it again in the future. The pleasure they take out of working together are often smaller than getting to spend time together. They work in separate departments and so often their daily contact takes the shape of one leaving a snack or lunch on the other’s desk, just to let them know they’re thinking of each other.