In the spring of 2006, we were very fortunate to have Stephen Colbert as our commencement speaker at Knox College.  I was personally even more fortunate in that I served as his host during his visit and I was the person who introduced him before his commencement speech.  The best part of our short time together was a one-on-one meeting before the ceremony in which Stephen discussed his planned jokes with me in an attempt to discover which ones would work well with the Knox audience and which might fall flat. 

 

The picture above was taken as we were marching off the stage after the commencement ceremony.  For those of you who may not know who he is, Stephen Colbert is the guy immediately behind my right shoulder.  For those of you who do not know who I am, I am the guy walking immediately ahead of Stephen Colbert and a bit to his left.  For those of you who have no idea who either one of us is, this must be a very uninteresting page.  

 

In the picture below, be sure to note how happy Stephen appears to be as he spends time with me at Knox College. 

 

This was Colbert's first honorary degree from any college or university, and to this day his commencement speech at Knox is regarded as one of the funniest commencement speeches of all time by the Washington Post.  Click HERE to see his hilarious commencement address.