1 minute read
A Family Investment
Next Article
Eric and Cheryl DeVuyst have planted roots at Oklahoma State University.
After working at various places across the U.S., the DeVuysts decided to settle down in Oklahoma and raise their daughter, Megan.
The pair has taught at OSU since 2008, and Cheryl DeVuyst was recently named the head of the OSU Department of Agricultural Economics.
“When we met, we were taking classes together,” Eric DeVuyst said. “We don’t know anything different than spending most of our day together.”
Their offices were two doors down from one another, but with Cheryl DeVuyst’s new position that proximity has changed. She has served in various positions on campus so an office change is not something new to her, she said.
“We ride to campus together about 50% of the time,” Eric DeVuyst said. “We have various obligations that will keep us at school, and there are other things one of us may need to go home and check on.”
Working in the same department often leads them to interacting with the same people on a daily basis. This allows them to leave the work talk at work the majority of the time, Eric DeVuyst said.
“Eric has more fun than pretty much anybody on this floor,” Cheryl DeVuyst said. “I enjoy that about him.”
Laughter is a familiar sound near their offices, she said. A constant flow of student traffic goes in and out of their offices, and students truly bring joy to the department, she said.
“We are human,” Eric DeVusyst said. “We have our disagreements, but we enjoy the life we live. We laugh a lot and truly live a joyful life.”
For the past few years, the DeVuysts also enjoyed the on-campus company of Megan and their son-in-law, Jake Fanning. Family is important to the DeVuysts, which is evident in how they treat their students, Fanning said.
“Have your priorities in order,” Cheryl DeVuyst said. “Don’t lose sight of what is most important, which to us is our faith and our family.”
The Ferguson College of Agriculture welcomed this family with open arms and made the unfamiliar territory a place they happily call home, she said.
“When our daughter was considering schools,” Cheryl DeVuyst said. “She told me ‘Why would I go anywhere else? This is family. This is home.’”
