When Jonny Clothier walked into his flat in 1983 and saw it had been destroyed by a parrot, he couldn’t have known that this would lead him to graduate on the same day as his son.
But that moment set in motion an odd series of events which finally came to an end last Thursday in the Great Hall of the University of Bristol’s Wills Memorial Building.
It started with Jonny as an architecture student at the university in the early eighties.
He and his friends ‘worked really hard but we also played hard’ across his three years studying there, he said, adding: ‘We danced, we partied and then we went back to work.
‘It was amazing but also really good training for real life. It’s sort of what I’ve been doing ever since.’
But this Bohemian approach to higher education came to a head just before graduation in 1983, when his housemate’s parrot was left unsupervised in university accommodation.
Concluding that the bird had left the place in an uninhabitable condition, Jonny and his friends found somewhere new to live.
But staff at Bristol demanded he pay the final term rent of £64.80 (about £213 today) or else he would not be allowed to graduate, due to the need for all students to settle their housing bills first.
Appalled by this rule – which has since been abolished – Jonny stubbornly refused to shell out, and took his degree without graduating alongside his peers.
In the years that followed, he married his girlfriend Helen Hill, whom he had met at the university in 1981. She graduated in Russian and French and was approached by MI6, but went on to become a TV documentary maker.
The couple had three children: Quito, now an operatic tenor and art dealer specialising in Banksy; Tiger, who once taught skiing in Japan and is now going into marketing; and Carter, their youngest.
All three studied at the University of Bristol, like their parents, and it was Carter who was set to graduate on Thursday when his dad received a special offer.
After more than four decades, the accommodation bill would be voided and Jonny – now 62 years old – would finally be able to graduate.
He said the long-awaited ceremony was ‘enormous fun’, and added: ‘It’s not really about me, it’s about them, and signing off on the 20-year project to get the kids through the whole cycle of education.
‘We are so proud of them because they’ve all done so well – I literally take my strange, new, flat hat off to them.’
Carter, who recently represented England at lacrosse in Portugal, said: ‘It’s definitely a unique experience graduating with your dad, but it was an amazing day and a beautiful ceremony.
‘It was the perfect way to close off an incredible three years at Bristol.’
In the time since he first got his degree, Jonny had abandoned architecture, enjoyed a career as a director and executive producer in television, and rediscovered architecture.
He is now working on a contemporary net-zero treehouse in the Forest of Dean.
Professor Evelyn Welch, Bristol University’s vice-chancellor and president, said: ‘After 41 years, we thought it was finally time to waive the bill and it was great to see Jonny officially graduate.
‘We are so pleased that Jonny, Carter and the rest of the family had such a great day, and we wish them all the best of luck in the future.’
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