Finding love in surprising places Finding love in surprising places (February 11, 2005)

Romance blooms in anatomy lab
by Deborah Grossman

Harley and Steve Williams fell head over heels in love while spending a year in dental school dissecting a corpse.

This is not your everyday love story.

Cupid's arrow - and fate - worked in special ways to draw this couple closer together and to attract them to the Tri-Valley. From a professor's match-up to an unexpected side trip, their personal and professional union took some unlikely twists and turns.

At Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston, professors normally assigned students to project teams or lab groups based on alphabetical order. During the lab associated with anatomy class, four to six students worked together to learn all about the human body by dissecting a corpse.

But for some fortuitous reason in the anatomy lab at Tufts of October 1986, Harley, whose last name began with an "A" was paired with Steve Williams. By chance, the two other students assigned to their corpse dropped out of dental school. Getting to know 'Elaine'

Since everyone else was already paired up, Harley and Steve became the sole students to work on "Elaine," dissecting her entire head and neck, and the right side of her upper body.

Other less conscientious students may have complained that having only one lab partner meant more work, but the chance to explore the human body - and their own friendship - was not lost on the couple.

It was an amazing experience to see how the body works," said Harley. "It is incredible to see the same veins in the same place in everybody. Meanwhile, we got to spend extra time with each other in anatomy lab, and then we studied together for hours in the library. The professors would flag a vein and we would have to name it. The class was hard work, but it seemed natural for us to spend so much time together."

Anatomy lab wasn't the only lab in which they worked together. They also had dental lab where they made wax teeth or practiced their newly acquired dental techniques on wax teeth.

As Thanksgiving approached, Harley's parents knew she had a male lab partner. And that this gentleman would be staying in the dorm over the holiday since he wasn't going home for turkey - or his late November birthday. Her father hesitantly asked Harley if she would like to bring Steve to the family dinner in Brooklyn. Getting serious

"My Dad was concerned that it might feel like a 'serious step,'" said Harley. "We were more than happy to join the family. We had been together so much and gotten to know each other so well, we already had big crushes on each other."

Though they had been hanging out with a group of six other dental students during the fall semester, their first real date was a trip to the Boston Aquarium followed by an Italian dinner. In the New Year, their friendship bloomed and their dating status became official.

Their budding relationship easily survived their first actual dental procedures. Harley injected a numbing agent into the mouth of her first test candidate - Steve - and filled his tooth.

The couple married after their third year of dental school in a ceremony near Tarrytown, N.Y., by the Hudson River. By this time, they both knew they wanted to specialize, Harley in periodontics or gum disease, and Steve in endodontics or root canals.

Both were accepted at University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine - another fortuitous event. Rarely were two students from the same dental school accepted for the Penn post-doctorate programs. Getting to Pleasanton

When Steve and Harley graduated, they planned to set up practice together since their professional interests were complementary with some overlap of clientele. Their chosen destination was Steve's home base in Southern California.

But one of their Penn instructors knew a dentist in Pleasanton and asked them to consider stopping by during their search for a practice. As a side trip on their way south, the couple spent the night at a motel by the Oakland Airport.

"The next day, as soon as we drove on I-580 coming into the Tri-Valley, we thought the area was special," said Harley. "And when we got to Pleasanton, we loved it and we made the decision to settle here right away."

The couple first lived in San Ramon where they found an apartment that would accept Max, their new Yorkshire terrier. In 1993, the couple moved to Pleasanton. Last year, they moved their practices from Pleasanton to Stanley Boulevard in Livermore.

Along with their busy dental practice, Steve and Harley enjoy family activities with Emily, 10, and Evan, 8, and "parenting" two lizards and the dogs, Max and Jack. They are also active in various community functions.

Evan enjoys looking at pictures of his parents as students working together on wax models of teeth. When asked what he thinks about his parents meeting in dental school, Evan replied, "It's kind of weird that Mom and Dad became friends while dissecting a human body."

But that doesn't dissuade Evan from expressing the desire to be a dentist when he grows up. Emily, 10, whose drawing pad is usually close at hand, wants to be an architect.

Meanwhile, Harley and Steve visit with their dental school friends on a periodic basis and reminisce over the sleepless, late nights spent in the anatomy or dental lab while learning the mysteries of the human body and dreaming of the future. Their smiles light up the room when they talk about their circuitous route to finding love, in part thanks to "Elaine."

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