Stephanie & Ryan

Stephanie Schaefer ’93 and Ryan Frick ’93

Ryan and Stephanie at their engagement party in 2004

How did you meet? We met on my first day at ASL in February 1992; I was a junior and it was my 17th birthday. Ryan and I were both “Ford kids”—our fathers worked for Ford Motor and we lived in Essex with other Ford families. We were a tight-knit group that met at the station every morning and traveled to ASL together via train, tube and shuttle. Ryan was among the kids I traveled to school with on that first day.

What was your first impression of Ryan? That commuting group was very boy-heavy, and I found them to be pretty loud and obnoxious (not surprising for a gaggle of 17-year-old boys). Once I got to know Ryan, I realized he was smart, talented and funny, and had a happy-go-lucky personality. We were friends but never dated in high school.

What was your first date? Ryan and I saw each other a handful of times in the college years. We celebrated “Friendsgiving” together on three different occasions, along with our other ASL friends. Our parents had both left the UK by this time and were coincidentally living in the same town in Michigan. If Ryan and I overlapped in Michigan while visiting for the holidays, we would sometimes meet for drinks.  It was all platonic. Flash forward to the summer of 2002, when I was living in Los Angeles and Ryan was in business school at Stanford. He accepted an internship in LA for the summer and had reached out to all of his friends in the LA area. They say timing is everything, and I guess this time something just clicked between us. Our first date was in July of 2002. Ryan took me to dinner at a restaurant in Santa Monica and then we went to see Austin Powers in Goldmember. The movie was not good, but the company was excellent.

How would your ASL friends and teachers describe your relationship in high school? At ASL, we were just friends. Now that we are married, it’s fantastic because all of Ryan’s best friends from ASL are also my best friends! Pre-pandemic, we organized reunions and vacations with our ASL crew, and still continue our “Friendsgiving” tradition with fellow classmate Erin (McCormack) Mand ’93 and her family. Having that shared history and bond with our mutual friends is really unique and special.

What is your favorite shared ASL memory? While flying home for winter break our senior year, we randomly ran into each other at Heathrow, both traveling solo on the same flight from London to Michigan. Ryan’s parents had already moved to Michigan, and he remained in London with our dear friend Sean Brecker ’93 to finish his final year at ASL. Ryan was traveling home for the holidays, and I was flying to Michigan a few days after my parents. We ended up switching seats so that we could sit together and spent the whole flight talking and making jokes. I am not sure I had spent much one-on-one time with Ryan prior to this flight, and my sides were hurting from laughing so much. When we arrived in Detroit and made our way through baggage claim, Ryan’s dad was there to pick him up and I met him for the first time. Little did I know that this kind and friendly man would end up my father-in-law!  

What is your favorite thing about Ryan? His optimistic spirit. Ryan finds humor in any situation and does not take himself too seriously. He has a big heart and is the most wonderful father. Despite working long hours in a high-pressure environment, his priority has always been his family. For years, he coached our son’s Little League and basketball teams, as well as both of our daughters’ softball teams. He is a true partner in every sense of the word, and I am so grateful that fate brought us back together.

Describe your life today. We got engaged on Valentine’s Day in 2004 in Napa Valley. We married in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2005, and there was a very strong ASL contingent at our wedding. After bouncing from place to place early in our engagement and marriage (Southern California, Manhattan, Connecticut, Scottsdale), we settled in Palo Alto, CA, where we have lived for almost 12 years. We have three awesome kids, Tyler (15), Scarlett (13) and Juliet (11). We love our community and friends and everything that the Bay Area has to offer. We spend a lot of time in Tahoe, enjoying skiing in the winter and hiking and swimming in the summer. We love to travel and are looking forward to more family trips post-pandemic.

Where do you see yourselves in 10 years? I hope we will be traveling the world together and spending lots of time with friends and family. We are fortunate that we are still strongly connected to our ASL friends and try to see them as often as possible. We took our kids to see the ASL campus back in 2016 while vacationing in London. It brought back so many fond memories. ASL is a very special place.

The Fricks at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia in 2019