Found

Feb 26, 2002

In December, I wrote about my college roommate, Stephan Liozu, and how I’ve been searching the world for him for the last five years. Every few weeks since then, I’ve typed his name into a different Internet search engine (Google, AltaVista, AllTheWeb); this week, finally, I found a mention of his name in a link to a glass-reinforced cement company in Europe. I dashed off a message to the company’s U.S. representative asking him to connect me to Stephan, and today a message arrived in my InBox from the one and only Stephan. I’m ecstatic that I found my friend! He wrote from the south of France, but last week he was in Brazil and he lives in Milan, where he’ll be married this summer. I can’t wait to see him.

My introduction to Stephan was a rude but funny meeting: Charlie McCarthy (the Franciscan friar who married Erin and me) drove me from DeKalb to John Carroll University — this was the beginning of my sophomore year. We arrived late at night and walked up to my room, where I expected to meet a foreign exchange student who would be my roommate for the coming year. I knocked. After a pause, the door opened, a French voice sternly said, “Anton’s not here!” and the door quickly closed. I knocked again. The door opened, and I quickly said, “I AM Anton.” A chagrined look crossed his face, and he stepped forward to embrace me, then quickly turned back to usher a young lady from the room. When he returned, we laughed and laughed. And that started our friendship. Stephan is a talented, smart, energetic guy, and I’m not surprised that he is general manager of his multinational company. He’s opened many a door of opportunity for himself.

Anton Zuiker ☄