![Carroll alum and husband of 50 years at dinner]()
Bill and Cindee (Perez) Jacobs "all grown up."
When Carroll University asked alumni to share their Valentine’s Day love stories, one couple realized the photo used to introduce the request was a snapshot of their own beginning. The image—two students stealing a kiss in the Carroll library—features a Carroll student and the young man who would later become her husband.
Cindee (Perez) Jacobs ’76 attended Carroll University from 1972 to 1976. At the time, her boyfriend, now husband, Bill Jacobs, was a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Determined to spend as much time together as possible, he regularly hitchhiked from Madison to Waukesha to visit.
One of his favorite visits was on Saturdays when the campus dining service hosted a special treat. Saga Foods would set up outdoor grills near the dining hall and students could “grill your own steak.” The evening also included an ice cream sundae bar with every topping imaginable—something the couple and their friends eagerly looked forward to enjoying.
Much of their time together was spent studying and talking in the Carroll library. When they were apart, they stayed connected the old-fashioned way: letters. The two wrote to each other every single day.
They also had a weekly ritual that required careful timing. Every Thursday night, Cindee went to the basement of North Bergstrom Hall, where a row of old-fashioned phone booths stood. She had given Bill the number to one specific booth. Because long-distance rates dropped late at night, the phone would ring at precisely 11:01 p.m. each Thursday night—right after the rates changed.
That call, arriving in the same booth every week, became their dependable moment to reconnect. The college romance that began in the Carroll library has lasted a lifetime. This June, the couple will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Looking back, they say they both still cherish “our Carroll years.”