Rush Rhees Library (University of Rochester)

The Rush Rhees legend, as told by the University of Rochester's own news center, holds that Pete Nicosia — a mason's helper and recent Sicilian immigrant — slipped and fell to his death from the library tower during construction in the late 1920s. His foreman, James Conroy, supposedly signed the death certificate and arranged the burial.

The sightings begin in October 1932, when student George Maloney '34 said he met a stranger in tattered overalls near the library who asked where he could find James Conroy because Conroy still owed him pay. The librarian wrote to Conroy describing the man; Conroy's reply, per the legend, identified the description as Pete Nicosia — a dead man. Reports of Nicosia sightings in the stacks, basement, and tower then appeared in the campus newspaper through 1948.

Skepticism about whether Pete Nicosia ever existed is documented in the Campus Times' archive review and in the University news center's article, both of which note that no records of him have been found in River Campus construction files or in Rochester city directories. At least one early witness later recanted, and the original 1932 account first appeared in The Soap-Box, a campus literary magazine. The University's own framing treats the story as folklore rather than confirmed history.