Ms. Heller and Mr. Gleicher first exchanged glances in March 2006 at a student lounge at Yale, where he, then a prospective law student, was casually chatting with current students, Ms. Heller among them. He was hoping they would help him decide whether to attend school there. Ms. Heller, who already had noticed Mr. Gleicher's green eyes, made the first move; she said she'd be happy to answer any of his questions. Mr. Gleicher said he thought she was "gorgeous" and immediately sat down with her for what became a wide-ranging four-hour conversation that included a discussion of the Peace Corps. "Everyone thought it was a cushy assignment on a Caribbean beach," he said. But in reality, he told her, in his two years there he found poverty and AIDS, and wrestled with the area's odd inconsistencies. (People had cellphones and flat-screen televisions, he said, but often no running water.)
Saint Vincent RPCV Nathaniel Gleicher marries Brittan Heller
Brittan Heller, Nathaniel Gleicher
Published: August 7, 2009
Brittan Kathleen Heller and Nathaniel Jurist Gleicher were married Saturday in Groton, Vt., at the bridegroom's family home. Dr. Gary R. Hopper, an uncle of the bride's and a Universal Life minister, officiated.
The bride, 27, and bridegroom, 28, have been named Luce Scholars for 2009-2010. At the end of the month they leave for Seoul, South Korea, where the bride will specialize in international human rights law and the bridegroom in technology policy and legislation. They received law degrees from Yale, where they met.
Ms. Heller, who is keeping her name, graduated with distinction from Stanford, from which she also received a master's in English.
She is a daughter of Helen Vega Heller of Upland, Calif., and Stuart D. Heller of Tucson, Ariz. The bride's father, who is retired, was a lieutenant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and later was the chief of police of Sahuarita, Ariz. Her mother is the principal of Maxson Elementary School in El Monte, Calif.
Mr. Gleicher graduated from the University of Chicago. From 2003 to 2005 he was a Peace Corps volunteer in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where he taught computer skills. He is the son of Deborah Jurist and Mark H. Gleicher of Groton, Vt., who own Mountaine Meadows Pottery in South Ryegate, Vt.
Ms. Heller and Mr. Gleicher first exchanged glances in March 2006 at a student lounge at Yale, where he, then a prospective law student, was casually chatting with current students, Ms. Heller among them. He was hoping they would help him decide whether to attend school there.
Ms. Heller, who already had noticed Mr. Gleicher's green eyes, made the first move; she said she'd be happy to answer any of his questions.
Mr. Gleicher said he thought she was "gorgeous" and immediately sat down with her for what became a wide-ranging four-hour conversation that included a discussion of the Peace Corps.
"Everyone thought it was a cushy assignment on a Caribbean beach," he said. But in reality, he told her, in his two years there he found poverty and AIDS, and wrestled with the area's odd inconsistencies. (People had cellphones and flat-screen televisions, he said, but often no running water.)
Ms. Heller, in turn, talked about her travels in India and how excited she was to be going to Tanzania in May for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
"I also kept talking up Yale," she said, hoping he would enroll.
Under the pretext of researching local restaurants and neighborhoods, Mr. Gleicher made frequent trips to New Haven, where he and Ms. Heller went out for dinner and long walks.
Although it was because of Ms. Heller that he enrolled at Yale, they initially resisted dating. Nevertheless they found excuses to be around each other. "He even joined some of the clubs I worked on," she said, including the Latino Law Student Association, even though he wasn't Hispanic.
Unknown to Mr. Gleicher at the time, however, Ms. Heller was dealing with a very private pain, having become the target of vicious, anonymous cyber attacks, which began in the summer of 2005.
As Mr. Gleicher became aware of the attacks, he said he "spent a lot of time taking care of her and making sure she was O.K."
Ms. Heller remembered, "Several times we tried to go on vacation but were called away by law enforcement or by lawsuit related distractions."
Instead of scaring Mr. Gleicher off, he grew ever more impressed with her determination to put a stop to the cyber campaign.
"She didn't want this to happen to anyone else," he said. "She has this steel in her spine and she believes so strongly in justice."
He added, "We had each other, which helped a lot." And having been forced by events to closely examine the intersection of human rights and technology brought new focus to their post-law school plans.
The incident made her see how reliable Mr. Gleicher is, Ms. Heller said. She is also impressed with his fair minded approach to her ongoing battle with cyber harassment and other situations.
"I saw that he didn't automatically take my side," she said. "He looked at research and logic. He took everything in, and when in the end he thought I was in the right, it made me more confidant I had done the right thing by bringing the suit. He made me trust my judgment."
