The first time Ruth Kratzke met William, there was no chemical reaction at all.

Engaged in a hand of bridge, they were seated across a card table from one another in a chapel at the University of Minnesota.

“She told me that I wasn’t a very nice partner,” William recalls on a recent afternoon at his Bellevue home.

“He was so smart,” said Ruth, now 81. “He made me feel as if I couldn’t play cards.”

That was more than 60 years ago. Now, the couple, who just celebrated their diamond anniversary, can’t keep away from each other.

Over the years, they haven’t been apart much. William, now 84 and a retired physicist and mathematician, worked for The Boeing Company for many years and said he tried to avoid traveling.

“So we haven’t spent a lot of nights away from each other,” he said.

But that is not their only secret to a successful marriage.

The couple also has shared a drive for education and accomplishment.

Ruth points to a stack of red books piled on the mantel in their living room – a volume of nearly 2,000 pages she has written about her family history from 1945 to the present. Though a musician by trade, she also has found a niche in writing books and poetry.

On the other side of the mantel are piles of more publications written by their five children, including one son who is a law professor and another who teaches English at the University of Colorado.

Though well into their fifties, anytime their children have something published they’ll still send it home for the mantel, Ruth said.

In all, the family has earned 18 college degrees. And for Ruth and William, that didn’t come easy.

“William earned a bachelor’s degree and we had a baby,” Ruth said. “He earned his master’s degree and we had another baby and he earned a doctorate and we had another. Then we had a bonus of two more.”

She recalls their most eventful year was when they moved from Minnesota to Connecticut. They had leveled the back seat of their car so that they had a playpen for their first son and drove to Connecticut. Not even a year later, they drove back to Minnesota with two children in the back seat.

The first 10 years of their marriage, the Kratzke’s moved 12 times. They later moved to the Lake Hills neighborhood where they stayed and raised their children for the next 30 years.

While William worked at Boeing, Ruth was a music director at the Christ the King Lutheran church in Eastgate for most of her career.

Now, they live in a quiet neighborhood “a mile-and-a-half in distance and a light year in lifestyle because this is quite different from ball in the backyard,” Ruth said of their downsized living.

But it is also one of the best times of their marriage to date, Ruth says.

Every morning, the alarm clock goes off and the couple goes through their morning routine – get up, get dressed, get out. Ruth doesn’t like to swim so she takes to the streets to walk, while William has a bad knee and can’t walk, so he goes to the Samena Club for a swim. At 9 a.m., the couple meets back for breakfast and then the day is theirs.

They also enjoy worship services for shut-ins at the Crossroads Retirement Center, Brighton Gardens and Wynwood of Bellevue where William reads and Ruth is the minister of music. On some days, William still plays bridge at the Bellevue Senior Center, though Ruth accompanies the Bellevue Senior Chorus instead of her husband at the card table.

They spend some time talking about their 12 grandchildren and their accomplishments.

“One of the most pleasant surprises to me is how lovely it is to be together now,” Ruth said, adding that they don’t have the same responsibilities or financial concerns.

She pulls out a poem that she wrote for her husband during an English class at Bellevue Community College for their 50th wedding anniversary. Entitled, “To Bill,” the first four lines read: Be near me in the twilight’s glow; when all is still, the day away; the children grown, and temples gray; give way to temples white as snow.

“It’s about aging,” Ruth said, wiping her eyes. “It is so beautiful and we’re both in good health, so we’re enjoying this so much.”

Is there a secret to a happy, long lasting marriage?

“Oh, yes,” Ruth says. “One thing – you can’t give up. Anybody who says that 60 years passed without any conflict is telling a big fat lie.”

Marriage takes a lot of work, but it’s very worth it, she added.

William said it has also helped that they both come from the same religious background so when the rough times come they can approach things similarly.

Other secrets: Keep up the courtship, take the long way home and put a surprise confection into the grocery bag, Ruth added.

Carrie Wood can be reached at cwood@reporternewspapers.com or 425-453-4290.