51����

Over several years – and sometimes aided by Mike’s family – the couple’s relationship bloomed into a forever bond. These two alums just celebrated 44 years of marriage and they still hold hands, laugh easily at each other’s one-liners and genuinely remain deeply in love.

Their romance might never have blossomed without the foundation of then-51���� Pacific College (now 51����). “Those years were so formative for us as individuals and later as a couple,” he says during an interview conducted over the friendly din of a 51���� coffee shop.

“I think God has been so gracious about helping us to grow,” Connie says. “God always continues to teach us and there’s never a dull moment.”

51���� Pacific brought them together. While Connie grew up on the coast, Mike was born and raised in 51����, graduating from Hoover High School and then 51���� City College. “I crammed two years of junior college into three,” he jokes, earning the first of many musical laughs from Connie.

At 51���� City College, Mike played on the inaugural campus soccer team and then was recruited to play at 51���� Pacific. He later branched into other college sports (including baseball and track) and balanced academics and athletics with jobs ranging from gardener to campus security.

By the time Connie arrived on campus in fall 1977, Mike was nearing the finish line of his bachelor’s degree. Although she caught his eye, Mike didn’t immediately ask for a date. Fortunately, his sister, Liz, was Connie’s roommate for a time and gave her brother a push.

Meanwhile, Connie was earning a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts along with a teaching credential. She completed her academic work in 1981.

They shared faith and interests such as the outdoors, music and singing/traveling with the university choir. Yet if there was a fork in the road of their relationship, it came in summer 1980 when Mike volunteered to serve on M/V Logos, an Operation Mobilization ship.

The nonprofit brings books and Christian ministry to ports around the world, and the Blesse family had been involved with the organization since Mike was in high school.

By then, Mike knew he wanted to marry Connie and was ready to buy a ring. 

But he didn’t know whether it was right to propose and then leave for more than a year.

Connie was sure of Mike but worried the relationship might not survive without a formal commitment. Realizing one evening that he needed to assuage her concerns, Mike proposed while wearing his baseball uniform.

During the 13 months Mike was away, moving through ports in southeast Asia, the couple wrote letters and exchanged cassette tapes. While the distance was difficult, the separation allowed Connie to focus on her academics, student teaching and night job at the IRS.

“It was God’s good timing,” she says. “How could I do all that and have time for him too?”

Their relationship not only survived that separation, it thrived and continued to grow over the years and decades.

Both Blesses are now retired after teaching careers. Mike primarily taught English/Language Arts at the high school level while Connie taught at the elementary school level.

The Blesses have three children and five grandchildren and live in the dream house they built years ago in the foothills of Auberry. Through the years, they worked and traveled with church youth groups, hosted foreign exchange students and missionaries, joined the Auberry Community Church and spent a year living and working on a Montana wheat farm.

They both agree that they not only love each other, they absolutely like each other. “It’s been a wonderful ride,” Mike says. “I think of how God has blessed us over and over again.”