EVANSTON — Monday’s visit to campus for prospective student Adam Jarolds was highlighted by the merry musings of his father, Bill, a 1981 NU alumnus. The Grand Rapids, Michigan native spent hours regaling his son with stories of “his glory days” and his antics at “the good ole alma mater.”

Between bites of breakfast, Mr. Jarolds recounted several of his college escapades, most notably “the time we lit a piano on fire and pushed it into the lake.” While his wife, Christina, made repeated attempts to quiet her husband, Mr. Jarolds pushed past her objections to ensure that all nearby listeners should hear about “the toughest math professor in the entire department, that crotchety bastard, Greenworthy.”

The elder Jarolds found his top form, however, during the Wildcat Days campus tour. While in front of The Rock, he asked tour guide Rosa DeMarco, a junior Communications major, if groups were still required to guard The Rock before painting it. Upon being told this was still the case, he educated his fellow tour members on prior tradition, saying, “Back in ’79, you had to stay behind after you painted it, or else somebody else might try to sneak up and paint over it.” Mr. Jarolds also referred to nine separate buildings as “one of [his] old haunts,” or simply said, “Ah, many memories in there…”

According to independent estimates, Jarolds managed to inform nearly one-third of the visiting families of his status as an NU graduate. Many parents distinctly remembered him as “that guy all dressed up in a suit for no reason” or just “the jackass.”

Other sources indicated that, when sitting apart from his father at the dinner with current students, Adam told his Wildcat Day peers, “Yeah, I think my dad really wants me to go here, but I’m actually learning towards Vanderbilt.”