Frederick High School lovebirds to retire together at end of December

Dec. 27—In a conference room inside of Frederick High School's main office on a recent afternoon, Linda and Carl Reed recounted the many different ways their paths could have crossed — but didn't — in the years leading up to their first date.

The two New Englanders attended the University of New Hampshire at around the same time. Later, when Linda's best friend from college married Carl's best friend, they were both at the wedding. Carl was the best man.

"I know I shook her hand," Carl said. "I probably shook the hand of everybody who came through the wedding party."

But the first time they remember meeting each other, they were a long way away from Durham, New Hampshire. Nearly 6,000 miles away.

Carl and Linda Reed, who have been married for 51 years and retired from Frederick High School together at the end of 2022, started to get to know each other while strolling the streets of Heidelberg, Germany.

Linda, who was in charge of attendance at the local high school since 1995, had stopped in the city while touring Europe after her first year of teaching home economics in Connecticut. At the time, Carl, who ran the high school's front desk, was stationed there as part of his military service. Linda's best friend from college, the same friend whose wedding Linda and Carl both attended, suggested she meet up with him.

When Linda wrote to him, he responded, promising to show her around. They wound up spending a whole day together. For lunch, they went to Carl's favorite pizza restaurant. It felt like they had managed to fit 10 dates into one.

In some ways, Carl is grateful it took him and Linda so many years to meet.

"I needed to grow up," he said. "I was 17 when I went to college. It was good for me to mature. I needed to see Miss Linda when I was in the Army."

Carl was drafted for the Vietnam War when he was working on his master's degree at the University of New Hampshire. He didn't want to fight, and he wanted to finish his studies, so he appealed the draft all the way up to the governor's office.

In the end, he was able to graduate. He defended his thesis on a Friday and joined the Army that Monday, a day before he knew he would be drafted.

In another turn of good fortune, he was stationed in Europe, instead of Vietnam, and was allowed to remain in Heidelberg as a clerk, rather than become an officer.

After he and Linda met, they wrote letters to each other every day. When Carl got out of the Army three months early to work on his friend's Christmas tree farm in Connecticut, Linda came to visit him every weekend.

They were married on July 11, 1971, and moved to Gaithersburg, so Carl could work at the National Institutes of Health. Linda soon began teaching home economics at Frederick High School and West Frederick Middle School.

Their two sons later graduated from the local high school.

"I feel like we've been cadets forever," Carl said.

Linda nodded. "A long time."

She stopped working at the high school after her children were born but continued volunteering at the school. She returned to work in the attendance office in 1995. After her husband retired, he followed her there five years later.

It was always their dream to work together, they said, and for the past 22 years, it's been wonderful. They walk to the high school together every morning, rain or shine, and use their summer vacations to travel.

For many years, when Carl took over manning the front desk, they worked just a few feet away from one another.

They also love their coworkers. Carl survived two heart attacks and a bout with cancer while working at Frederick High, and the school's employees were so supportive of him and Linda.

But now feels like the right time to move on, the couple said. Their last day at the school was Dec. 22, the last school day of the calendar year for everyone attending Frederick County Public Schools.

It probably won't sink in that they aren't going back, Linda said, until she and Carl are in Australia — the first destination in their post-retirement voyages.

While they're sure they'll miss their coworkers and students, they know their last day won't be goodbye forever. They plan to stick around the Frederick area. Some children have joked that they'll probably still walk to school every morning and stand at the door, waving hello.

"Well, we might," Carl said, chuckling.

"Not that early," Linda said with a grin.

Follow Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier