Abbott Dressler, B.B.A. ’59, was sweating through finals during his senior year at the University of Miami when his pregnant wife, Phyllis, B.Ed. ’60, went into labor.

“He dropped my mother off at Jackson Memorial Hospital and returned to school,” laughs event planner Sherri Klein, who didn’t attend UM but considers herself a ’Cane by birth, marriage, and motherhood. “He didn’t find out until early evening if I was a girl or boy!”

The Dresslers met as freshmen. Rhode Islander Abbott was a Tau Epsilon Phi member and Brooklyn native Phyllis Bernstein, his fraternity’s “sweetheart.” In 1960, the young couple moved back to the Northeast, their infant daughter in tow.

When their daughter returned to the city of her conception for a job more than 20 years later, she met and married die-hard Hurricane Gary Klein, B.B.A. ’79. Though the Kleins also relocated to Sherri’s native Rhode Island to raise their two children, they kept their Hurricanes bond strong, often dressing the boys in UM sweatshirts and making annual pilgrimages to campus with Sherri’s parents, who eventually retired to South Florida.

Now the Kleins’ sons are enthusiastic members of the ’Cane community, proudly continuing the legacy that has been part of their family for half a century. UM was the first choice for both of them. And though they say it was fun to hear UM stories growing up, they’re glad to be adding a few of their own.

Jared, a sophomore in the School of Business Administration, has entrepreneurial ambitions and is a sports booster and fraternity member like his grandfather. Older brother Josh, a junior accounting major at the school, is a resident assistant, scholarship recipient, and President’s 100 ambassador.

“When you meet Josh and Jared,” Sherri says, “you see their passion as soon as you witness their Miami handshake.”

“It’s a real kick for me to return to campus,” adds Gary, chief operating officer for Merchants Overseas, Inc. “It was a great experience in my lifetime, and now that my kids are experiencing it in a different way, it makes me smile every time I talk to them.”