He didn’t have the fancy wheels you see motoring down Green Street these days but Theodore Boone’s ride in the ’80s did the trick just the same.
"On my orange 10-speed Schwinn Varsity, matched with blue handlebar tape to show proper orange and blue school spirit, I whizzed from class to class, from building to building, regardless of the weather" on the campus bike paths, says Ernst & Young's assistant general counsel (BA ’83).
"Armory to the Illini Union in seven minutes? No problem. And often, my destination when on those bike paths in the early evenings was the second floor reference room of the main library.
"To call it a room barely does that place justice. It is a wonderfully open space with a high trey ceiling and large windows. It is a space that stretches the length of the building. It seems to embody knowledge and it inspires a respect for that knowledge and a desire to become a part of it.
"The large wooden tables and heavy wooden chairs were perfect for me. I could spread out my books and notes and read and write and sometimes simply think. The time would often fly by in that room.
"I had so much to do. So much to learn. When I have gone back to the U of I with my wife and three children, the reference room is a place I have taken them. And while there, I told my children something that applies to both that room and my experience at the University of Illinois as a whole: 'Kids, this is the place where your Daddy began to live in the world of ideas.'"
