HOLIDAY BRINGS LOVE'S GENESIS, RENEWAL; CLASSROOM PROPOSAL AT SEMO

He brought flowers, a teddy bear, a diamond ring and professed his love in her history class. Would she share his life and be his bride?

She was stunned by the question and flattered by the attention. With her professor tape recording and photographing the event, she whispered, "Yes."

Chris Steiger proposed to Kimberly Sides Friday during her American History class at Southeast Missouri State University.

Kim said Chris is typically a shy person. His flamboyant proposal certainly took her by surprise.

"He said he was only going to propose once in his life," Kim said. "He wanted it to be special and great. That's what he did."

Chris began planning the proposal in November. Co-conspirators were Kim's history teacher, George Suggs, and her university adviser, Tom Harte.

The plan came Friday afternoon during Kim's last class before the Valentine's weekend.

Chris was nervous, so nervous he was afraid to kneel at first. He feared toppling over. So he stood in front of Kim's desk before the class and professed his love.

He came armed with a basket of daisies surrounding a single red rosebud and a big white teddy bear with a red heart.

He said, "Twenty-five years ago I was put in the fields of life to find one special person."

He handed Kim the basket of flowers.

"Like this rose, I've found the perfect person with great possibilities," he said. "I'm expecting you, like this rosebud, to blossom into a beautiful rose."

He then brought out the teddy bear, with his hand covering the bear's red heart.

"You often have called me a big teddy bear," he continued. "This represents the size heart I have to offer you."

He dropped to his knees and removed his hand from the bear's heart. A diamond ring was pinned to the heart. "Will you marry me?"

At first, Kim's stunned reply was "Oh my God! Oh my God!" In a whisper, she said, "Yes."

The class erupted in applause.

Four days later, Kim is glowing and glancing at the diamond still new to her finger. "We had talked about marriage, but I was totally surprised," she said. "I couldn't remember the speech I was so shocked."

She said such a public profession of love is completely out of character for Chris.

"He is usually soft spoken and he is very caring, but he hates to be called a sweet person. He is," she confided.

Chris picked a university classroom to pop the question because Kim plans to become a professor.

Of course, Chris said he adores Kim, but he also admires her.

"She has definitely got her own personality, but the thing I really like is that she knows where she's going and how she's going to get there," he said.

They are planning an August wedding.

Chris, a draftsman in Kansas City, is originally from Ste. Genevieve. Kim, a senior speech major, is from Jackson.

They first met two years ago at a New Year's Eve party, but nothing blossomed. A year ago September, Chris' sister was married, and his best friend brought Kim to the wedding. "The next day we went four-wheeling and we've been together ever since," he said.

By November he knew Kimberly was his true love, but Chris couldn't afford an engagement ring worthy of his bride-to-be.

He thought he might use an income tax refund to buy the ring, but he didn't want to miss Valentine's Day. His cousin owns a jewelry store in Ste. Genevieve and helped him out.

Harte and Suggs helped Chris set up the proposal. Harte did the leg work on campus. Suggs contrived to move Kimberly from her regular seat in the back of the class to one in the front.

About five minutes into class, Harte knocked on the door and said he had a student who just had to see someone in class.

"Kim turned her head and I think she was terribly shocked," Suggs said. "Chris marched right up to the front and without hesitation started to tell her how much she meant to him, how much he loved her and wanted her to be part of his life."

Always a historian, Suggs documented the momentous occasion by tape recording the proposal and taking photographs.

"This is the first time in 31 years of teaching I've ever had anything like this happen," Suggs said. "I was delighted to have it happen in my class. They seem like a wonderful couple."