Patricia Nelson Limerick, the renowned University of Colorado at Boulder history professor who also serves as the official self-appointed "University Fool," will put on white face paint and make her annual tour of campus on April 1.
Limerick will begin her tour at noon in the office of CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard L. Byyny in Regent Hall room 301. The entire tour is expected to last about an hour, with Byyny accompanying Limerick for a portion of it.
Limerick was named CU-Boulder's official "University Fool" in 1988 by former CU President Gordon Gee, and held similar positions at Harvard and Yale, where she taught previously. She takes a tour of campus each April 1 to remind people to lighten up and not take themselves too seriously.
"This is the Fool's job description: to point out folly wherever she sees it and to speak frankly when no one else in the kingdom dares to speak at all," she said.
Limerick is a leading scholar of Western American history. She is a 1995 MacArthur Fellow and author of the landmark book, "The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West."