If you’ve ever heard a Ringo Starr hit from the 1970s or a White Lion one from the ‘90s, you may believe that love just “don’t come easy.”
Nothing could be further from the truth for Drs. Charles Middleton and Faith Peckham, graduates of the ACPHS Class of ’24.
“It kind of just evolved,” Faith said of their relationship. “We just kind of knew.”
Chuck and Faith are part of a long tradition of Panthers finding not only their career paths but also their life partners on campus. While there’s no data to verify the trend, the anecdotal evidence is strong. Ask almost any graduate from any decade if they know of couples who met on campus, and you’ll get more than a few examples.
Chuck and Faith’s relationship started their first semester here, Fall 2018. Part of the same group of friends early on, they gravitated toward each other. The more they talked, the more they realized they had in common:
- Area of origin? Central New York. Check.
- Area of study? Pharmacy. Check.
- Sport? Soccer. Check.
- Family pets? Golden retriever. Check.
- Winter activity? Snowmobiling with dad. Check.
Is it a coincidence that they both have names that are also words?
Speak with them, and you’ll notice a similar friendliness and social ease. Their families immediately hit it off too, they said, having met at Panther soccer matches when both men’s and women’s teams played.
Their commonalities engender respect for each other. Faith recalled Chuck’s elation when the women’s soccer team, which Faith co-captained, won the national championship in Fall 2022. His excitement was borne in part from being captain of the men’s team, and knowing what kind of effort that achievement required.
While they’re similar, they’re not identical, they insist. Chuck can be sarcastic; Faith is polite. Faith is a planner; Chuck wants to go with the flow. When it came to studying, Chuck was the one to keep the couple on point; Faith was known to procrastinate.
“There are good differences that we have to straighten each other out a bit,” Chuck said.
Ask them to nail down when their capital-r “Relationship” started, and they pause. There were few formalities for them; it was more of a seamless progression. Chuck finally identified a spur-of-the-moment dinner at Applebee’s when just the two of them were together.
Their most memorable event was the All the Way formal at the end of their fifth year. The dance is so named because it’s for students who have made it “all the way” through their didactic training, before clinical rotations start. Chuck and Faith thought it also pertained to their time as a couple at ACPHS; they had made it “all the way.”
If they faced a challenge, it came soon after the dance. After five years of taking the same classes, being on the soccer fields together and even participating in the same clubs, they found themselves occasionally separated during clinical rotations. But they made it through.
After graduating in May, they moved into an apartment in Syracuse in August. Faith has worked in retail pharmacies, while Chuck completes a residency at the Syracuse VA Medical Center. Their schedules are busy, but they like to go to the gym together, try new restaurants, and attend sporting events and concerts.
They got engaged in November and are planning a wedding on a Friday evening in June 2026. They want their ACPHS friends to come for the whole weekend – like a mini-reunion.