Scott and Lindsey Vincent: An RBC Love Story

44 summers ago, this couple met at RBC, fell for each other, and have remained in love ever since.

By Amy Lacey

Scott Vincent vividly remembers her son’s expression every time they drove past Richard Bland College of William & Mary (RBC) in the 1990s.

“He would say, ‘That’s where mom and dad fell in love,’” Vincent said. “We made sure the kids knew our story.

“Had I not gone to take classes there, I wouldn’t have met my husband Lindsey. You can call it fate or who God picked for us, but it was definitely meant to be.”

During the summer of 1977, Scott was a rising senior enrolled in summer school at what is now Longwood University. Her two-hour daily commute from her parents’ tobacco farm in Rawlings, Va. to Longwood’s campus in Farmville became a challenge—so she reconsidered her options. She decided to switch her four courses to RBC where her two brothers were also pursuing degrees.

“I didn’t start until the Friday of that first week of summer school at RBC,” Scott recalled. “My very first day in professor Joel Whitten’s psychology class, I felt awkward because the students were already days ahead of me.

“Lindsey was in my class. He had gone to Chowan College after high school but dropped out. He was then 22 when he went back to school at RBC. We became really good friends and started dating.”

Despite the summer heat, the couple would sit in the car and talk for hours in between the two classes they had together.

“That’s how you know you really like someone,” Scott commented. “Neither of us was looking to meet someone.

“We just wanted an education. One day after we met, Lindsey and I went to see his friend Susan Basile, who worked at RBC in finance for many years. Fast forward to the next time Susan saw Lindsey, she told him, ‘You are going to marry that girl. I just know it.’”

The two eventually got married in June 1980. Scott later earned her bachelor’s degree at Longwood University and became a teacher. Lindsey graduated from RBC in 1978 and continued his education at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Lindsey had a different career path, but from the time I met him he wanted to go into the peanut business,” Scott said. “He had grown up on a peanut farm in Skippers [,Va.] and would cook peanuts every night on our kitchen stove using his grandmother’s recipe.

“This was while he was working another job and I taught school.”

In 1989, their business, Good Earth Peanut Company, officially became a reality in Lindsey’s hometown.

“We quit our jobs, had three kids and had no money,” Scott remembered. “I was scared to death, but Lindsey would always say we had to crawl before we could walk.

“He had a business plan and would stay up until 2 a.m. to figure out how much money we had to make to keep going.”

For the past 34 years, the Vincents make frequent commutes to Good Earth Peanut Company, which is about 40 miles from their home. Despite the long travel, an RBC lesson has stuck with them along the way.

“We had a marketing class together and we watched the film, ‘Eye of the Beholder,’ which was all about what people see depending on their vantage point,” Scott explained. “Five people can look at the same thing and see something different.

“I have thought of that so many times in my career.”

Since they met, RBC has held a special place in the Vincents’ hearts. When their children were young, they would take them for walks on the RBC campus.The couple attended dances in the gym for date nights with friends as well. Their daughter Claire credits two classes she took with RBC professor Barbara Morgan as the reason why she chose psychology as her major.

Since the beginning, the couple has had a role in the annual RBC Pecan Festival, most recently serving as a supplier for the event. This year, however, Lindsey is planning to step down from the RBC Foundation Board where he has served since 2018.

But the Vincents’ relationship with RBC will continue into the future.

“We just love it there,” Scott said. “It is our story and I know it is a great story.

“It’s how two people who had no desire to meet anyone fell in love one summer. RBC is so special to us.”