The son of a steel executive, Roberts grew up in Long Beach, Ind., outside Chicago and attended La Lumiere, a Catholic boys’ boarding school nearby. By the time he arrived at Harvard in the fall of 1973, he had developed a passion for history.

“John loved history, and said he’d be a history professor,” Bush said. “But he also mentioned law.”

Bush, who has no relation to the president, said that he has not seen Roberts since graduation. But he said he has many fond memories of life with the future nominee, which include playing Nerf football in their room and hearing Roberts endlessly quote the eighteenth-century literary critic Samuel Johnson.

And, although a top student, Roberts complained about classes he did not like having to take—which in his case were science classes.

“John took ‘Physics for Poets’ and grumbled the whole time,” Bush said.

Bush remembers Roberts visiting professors frequently and attending church regularly.

And there was one thing Roberts could never do without—Pepto Bismol. “He was a great consumer of Pepto Bismol and always had a bottle or two on hand,” said Bush.

He also remembers Roberts as a stickler for formality.

“When he was considering law schools, John removed Stanford from his list because the Stanford interviewer was wearing sandals and didn’t have a tie,” Bush said.

Steven F. Hirsch ’77, a classmate from Leverett House who used to frequent Roberts’ and Bush’s room and who is still friendly with Roberts, said that the nominee has changed surprisingly little since his college days.

“His humor and down-to-earth style, amiability, drive, and intelligence were all a part of who he was in 1973,” Hirsch said.

William P. LaPiana ’74, a pre-law and history tutor in Leverett House when Roberts lived there, earlier this month recalled Roberts as a “hard working and happy undergraduate who loved studying history.”

But what LaPiana remembers most about Roberts are his self-deprecating jokes.

“He had gotten a wonderful grade and a glowing comment on a term paper in a course on American Intellectual History,” said LaPiana, who is now a professor a New York Law School. “Afterwards, he walked into my office and said ‘I think I can get my head through the door.’”

FROM HISTORIAN TO LAWYER