The following is an e-mail that Ben received about his March 26, 2003 speech at Furman University from Larry Trzupek.

Ben,

I don't usually do this sort of thing, but I thought your appearance at
Furman warranted a special note of thanks.  You were a most gracious
guest, and your genuine respect for and interest in each individual
student you met was especially endearing.  If you're not careful, you're
going to single-handedly destroy the caricature of Hollywood-types as a
bunch of self-absorbed jerks with their heads up their keesters!

Of the many marvelous aspects of your talk, two stood out.  One was your emphasis on gratitude.  Gratitude is the focus of much of the serious
writing of my favorite essayist, G. K. Chesterton; your illustration of
gratitude in the personal context of your devotion to your late parents
made it especially effective.

And your heartfelt expression of your pro-life views at the conclusion of
your talk was especially gratifying.  I wish others (and that includes
myself) had similar courage and conviction.

It was especially satisfying to see so many solid messages transmitted to
an audience of college kids by someone most of them will consider really
cool.  (Hearing you speak so casually and knowingly about Dr. Dre, the
Simpsons, and a misspent youth spent smoking ganja in Santa Cruz, I'm
pretty sure you qualify as "cool" in their book).

As your parents enjoy their eternal reward, I suspect a good bit of their
happiness will be joy and pride in a son well-raised.

God bless you, Ben - you're the real deal.

Sincerely,

Larry Trzupek
Professor of Chemistry
Furman University  


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