February 12, 2025
By Chloe Arrington
Georgia Tech isn’t just known for its top-ranked programs and groundbreaking research—it’s also the backdrop for some truly heartwarming love stories. This Valentine’s Day, the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering is sharing a special one: the story of two alumni whose paths, through a series of chance events, led them to not only start their college and career journeys together—but to spend the rest of their lives side by side. Get ready to be inspired by this Tech love story that proves the Institute is a place where both minds and hearts thrive.
In the fall of 1986, Matthew Rose, ME 1992, arrived at Georgia Tech on a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship, with dreams of a long and distinguished career in the Navy. While his scholarship covered his academic expenses, like any other student, he still needed to find a way to cover living costs and enjoy himself outside of class.
It was during his freshman year that Rose discovered Georgia Tech’s cooperative education program—a win-win opportunity that offered both professional experience and a paycheck. The NROTC unit gave him the green light to enroll, marking the first of many life-altering decisions for Rose. The co-op program extended his time at Georgia Tech by a year and had he not joined the program, he would have graduated in the spring of 1990, before Mary Bennet Dunwody, MGT 1994, began her college journey the following fall.
As a freshman, Rose wasn’t interested in joining a fraternity—his focus was on his studies, the NROTC, and eventually the co-op program. Despite not getting to experience Greek life, he never felt like he was missing out. “I had an amazing first three years,” said Rose, reflecting on his time at Tech.
But in the fall of his fourth year, a friend invited Rose to a rush party, hoping he’d enjoy the band that was scheduled to play. As the music of “Cool Change” by the Little River Band filled the air, something inside Rose clicked, and he felt it was time for a change. He decided to give the Kappa Alpha house a try, and by the fall of 1989, he had officially joined the fraternity—setting the stage for a meeting that would forever alter the course of his life.
Dunwody, born and raised in Macon, GA, is a third-generation Yellow Jacket with strong connections to both Georgia Tech and Kappa Alpha. Her family’s legacy at Tech runs strong—every male in her family who attended Georgia Tech was a member of Kappa Alpha, and her grandfather, W. Elliott Dunwody IV, was the Knight Commander in the late 1940s and the architect of the Kappa Alpha house.
Though Rose had heard of her before, nothing could have prepared him for the moment he first saw Dunwody at another rush party.
“She was across the room. I was standing in the same spot where I had made that ‘cool change’ a year earlier, and I thought she was the cutest thing I had ever seen,” Rose recalled.
Although Rose was dating someone else at the time, a friendship blossomed that first night. Over the next year, they saw a lot of each other, often bonding over the house dog, Teddy. Whether they were taking him for walks or driving around Atlanta with the wind blowing through Teddy’s fur and “Ramble On” blaring from the stereo, their connection deepened. During Memorial Day weekend in 1991, Rose visited Dunwody in Macon, and the rest, as they say, was history.
After graduating, Rose was commissioned into the Navy, but his military career took an unexpected turn when he was medically discharged later that year. He then moved to Macon in September 1993 and began working as an apprentice machinist in a small machine shop.
“When my dream of the Navy ended, even though I had the work experience and the degree, I still didn’t have the confidence in myself that I knew enough to move forward,” Rose said. “That’s why I became a machinist. My lack of confidence in my abilities kept my focus on gaining practical experience.”
While Rose worked as a machinist, his relationship with Dunwody continued to flourish, and just before her graduation in the spring of 1994, he proposed. Now, three decades later, the couple has two children and owns the machine shop where Rose once apprenticed—cheekily referred to as their “middle child.” They later renamed the business Techwood Precision, in honor of Techwood Drive, where their paths first crossed. Rose often jokes that one of the shop’s mantras is, “Machinists… because even engineers need heroes!”
Looking back, it’s clear that fate played a role in bringing them together. From changes in career goals to chance encounters, their love story is full of twists, with one of the most surprising connections dating back 35 years before they met.
In 1955, two students met at a rush party at the Kappa Alpha house, just a few feet from where Rose would later meet his future wife. Gene, a fourth-year student, was dating someone at the time but ended the relationship after meeting Susan, a freshman from Agnes Scott College. The two would eventually marry and have a daughter—Mary Bennet Dunwody.
As Rose reflects on their remarkable journey, he shares just one more thing: “Happy Valentine’s Day, MB. I love you!”
