We Met at Ecolint – Charles (LGB, 1965) and Sue Zeynel (LGB, 1967)

We Met at Ecolint – Charles and Sue Zeynel

Charles Zeynel joined the International School of Geneva (Ecolint) in 1960, after attending an English boarding school for 5 years. His father, confident in Charles’s academic readiness, placed him two years ahead of his age group without Charlie’s consent. While this may have been a success academically, it had an unexpected social drawback: Charles remembers himself always seen as the "younger brother" by the girls in his class, making dating prospects slim. Known affectionately as Charlie among his friends, he graduated in 1965 at just 16. He often jokes that most of his growing up happened after Ecolint. Still, that didn’t stop him from joining La Grande Boissière’s senior basketball team mostly as a reserve.

Sue O’Brien arrived at Ecolint in 1965 with her family and her sisters Sara and Tica; her brother Scott, was born shortly after their arrival in Geneva.  The O’Briens, who were part of the “”Caterpillar expatriate” community were well known to Cliff Wright at that time, a close friend of Charlie and also Al Lodge (LGB “65).

Charlie remembers Cliff rallying him and Al to ride their bikes to help the new neighbours settle in on the day they arrived, but actually it was to “check out” the O’Brien sisters. It was during this move that he first met Sue and her sister, Sara. Though they didn’t connect deeply at the time, the impression stayed. Sadly, Cliff was later killed in Vietnam in 1970, and his memory was honoured in the poignant song “My Sister’s Boyfriend” by Lori Lieberman.

Sue describes herself as very shy during those school years, but the “O’Brien sisters” were quite famous among their peers and the 1967 Yearbook amusingly predicted her future as “Miss World 1984.”

After Ecolint, Charlie headed to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, while his family remained in Geneva, where his mother had opened one of the city’s first Chinese restaurants, “La Dynastie.” He then returned to Geneva to attend the University of Geneva HEI program which is when he truly learned to speak French. After her Ecolint graduation in 1967, and after University in the US, Sue went to Paris to study fashion design.

During the winter holidays of 1969, both happened to be in Zermatt with different groups of Ecolint and Uni de Genève friends. By chance, they ran into each other in the narrow village streets—and decided to spend New Year’s Eve together. That serendipitous reunion marked the beginning of their relationship.

Their early romance thrived on long-distance phone calls and lengthy train rides between Paris and Geneva, long before high-speed rail made it easy. Charlie still remembers those hours spent travelling just to see Sue. In 1971, they were married in a grand ceremony at Geneva Cathedral on December 18, with over 350 guests, of which maybe 20-30 were their friends and fellow students. “We completely lost control of the wedding!” Charlie laughs. A close friend even played the organ for them, which required special permission as it was several hundred years old!!

After 3 years of living in Certoux outside Geneva, the Zeynels later moved to the United States, first to California for 3 year,s after which Charlie accepted a position at Union Carbide thanks to an old Geneva contact. Over the years, they lived in Morristown, NJ, then mostly in Newtown, Connecticut, with a 5 year stay Montreal, Canada and eventually settling in Austin, Texas. After a 24-year career with Union Carbide from sales to management to corporate M&A, Charlie founded his own company ZAG International in 2001 and remains involved in the business as an advisor, having handed the reins to the next generation.

Though they returned to Geneva from time to time to visit his parents and sister who remained in Geneva, it wasn’t until an Ecolint reunion in Washington DC around 2010 that they reconnected more deeply with their former classmates. Charlie’s sister, Laura—a dedicated member of the Ecolint Alumni Association until her passing in 2024—convinced them to attend the 2014 Alumni World Reunion in Geneva. Walking the campus again brought back a flood of memories and reignited old friendships, and a desire to rebuild some of those connections. Sue and Charlie have decided to set up a scholarship fund for an academically gifted female student to honour Laura and are hoping many of their fellow alumni will support this endeavour to help create the same wonderful Ecolint experience for a future alumna.

Reflecting on their time at Ecolint, Charlie says: “In the 1970s, internationalism at Ecolint was something truly special. It was a unique bubble in time. Unlike many high school experiences, we mostly all got along as there weren’t really established groups and cliques —we were all newcomers and transients. I remember always being eager to go to school”.