Knox in the News

From: The Washington Post (Washington, DC)

Knox College got a triple “Colbert Bump” in a March 7 Washington Post article, and in a linked photo gallery, on commencement speakers: “Who is speaking where at 2013 commencement ceremonies? Here’s some of the big names and the places they will appear… The University of Virginia has Steven Colbert speaking May 18…

Colbert’s 2006 commencement speech at Knox College was hysterical: ‘When you enter the workforce, you will find competition from those crossing our all-too-porous borders. Now I know you’re all going to say, Stephen, Stephen, immigrants built America. Yes, but here’s the thing — it’s built now. I think it was finished in the mid-70s sometime. At this point it’s a touch-up and repair job..’… The article also boosted Colbert’s address at Knox in 2006 as one of the “funniest commencement speeches.”… Read more…  and more and more

From: Columbus Republic (Columbus, IN)

Television star Ed Helms of “The Office” comedy series will deliver the commencement address June 8 at Knox College in Galesburg. Helms will receive an honorary degree that day along with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Lawrence Breitborde. Breitborde is vice president for academic affairs and dean at Knox… Read more…

From: msn-NOW

msnNow (formerly MSNBC) notes Ed Helms, who will give the 2013 Commencement Address at Knox College, as one of “15 commencement speakers that will make everybody jealous.” While the students at these schools will still be forced, like every other graduating senior, to sit through an hours-long ceremony in the hot sun as they wait for some dean to pronounce their name wrong, at least they’ll have some good company. Check out our list of the best commencement speakers that’ll be taking the podium this spring… Read more…

From: WQAD TV-8 (Moline, IL)

Contemporary politicians could learn something by revisiting the style of our 16th president, [according to Lincoln scholars Douglas Wilson and Rodney Davis,] retired Knox College professors, authors of four books about Honest Abe, and colleagues at the Lincoln Studies Center. “He learned that you don’t demonize your opponents,” Dr. Wilson said. “They’re people just like you.” Old Main is the last standing building from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates. While Lincoln actually lost that election, it set the stage for his successful presidential bid just two years later. And it forged a Knox-Lincoln connection for the ages… Read more…

From: Peoria Journal Star (Peoria, IL)

Knox College announced that actor and comedian Ed Helms will be the speaker at the 2013 Commencement exercises to be held in June. Helms is best known his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, his character Andy Bernard in the U.S. version of the hit television sitcom The Office, and his role as Dr. Stu Price in The Hangover films. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college founded, like Knox, by missionaries and social reformers… Read more…

From: Huffington Post

It is surprisingly difficult to write speeches for President Barack Obama, one of the most gifted orators in recent political history… In his first interview since helping write the president’s second inaugural address, Jon Favreau, director of speechwriting for the White House… gathered a dozen or so of Obama’s best addresses -– “a binder full of speeches” –- and mined them for inspiration, memorable turns of phrase and compelling themes.

At the top of the list was the commencement speech Obama delivered at Knox College as a senator in 2005, when he spoke generally about the need for collective action in a global society. “We always go back” to that speech, Favreau said. Read more…