Mitch Albom:
Hi, I'm Mitch Albom, a graduate of Brandeis University, 1979. While I was there, I had a sociology professor named Morrie Schwartz. He was a fantastic teacher. He and I developed a fantastic relationship that spanned all four years and I spent a lot of time in his presence. Many years later I was reunited with him as he was dying from Lou Gehrig's disease and I got a chance to take one last class with him and that class was: What's Really Important in Life Once You Know You're Going to Die. I was able to turn the lessons of that class into a small book to pay for his medical bills that went on to become a much bigger book than any of us anticipated and it's called Tuesdays with Morrie. And it's sort of become a bit of an emblematic tale of finding a mentor at college or in life and I have many people over the course of my daily existence who come up and say here take a look at this photo in my wallet this is my Morrie, this is the person who influenced me and so the challenge goes out to all of my fellow alumni to answer the question Who's Your Morrie? Now it's your opportunity. It could be a faculty member like Morrie was for me, or a staff member, or a fellow alum, or a friend, but everybody has mentors in their lives and everybody has people who affect them and teach them things as Morrie affected and taught me and I know telling the story of my mentor certainly was a really worthwhile thing for me and I hope it is for you as well.