Bill Watterson (Class of 1980) Commencement Speech at his alma mater Kenyon College, 1990

We could use so much more Bill wisdom these days. But I understand him wanting to live in a reclusive manner. I only wish Bill the best; he’s given us so much joy!

Thank you, Bill Watterson! You are one of the best!

In the middle of my sophomore year at Kenyon, I decided to paint a copy of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” from the Sistine Chapel on the ceiling of my dorm room.

It ended up that I was allowed to paint the picture, so long as I painted over it and returned the ceiling to normal at the end of the year. And that’s what I did.

It’s funny to think that a random dorm room somewhere has a copy of the The Creation of Adam beneath a thin layer of white paint. And that generations of students could have stayed in the room without knowing it was there.

Such is American business, I guess, where the desire for obscene profit mutes any discussion of conscience.