The University of Maryland says this year's commencement speaker is an environmental advocate, best-selling author, and Peabody Award winner. He's also green. The university says Kermit the Frog will deliver the May 21 address to graduates, a choice that it says "honors the long history" between the university and Muppets creator Jim Henson, the Hill reports. Henson, a home economics major who graduated from the university in 1960, created the first version of Kermit in 1955 from a halved ping-pong ball and one of his mother's coats.
"Nothing could make these feet happier than to speak at the University of Maryland," Kermit said in a news release from the university. "I just know the class of 2025 is going to leap into the world and make it a better place, so if a few encouraging words from a frog can help, then I'll be there." Henson died in 1990 and Kermit has been performed by puppeteer Matt Vogel since 2017, the Diamondback student paper reports. A statue of Henson and his creation stands outside the university's student union.
Previous University of Maryland commencement speakers have included Al Gore, Michael Bloomberg, and, last year, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. Kermit was the commencement speaker in 1996 at Southampton College of Long Island University, where he was awarded an honorary "doctorate of amphibious letters," the Washington Post reports. "As we say in the wetlands, 'Ribbit-ribbit-knee-deep-ribbit,' which means 'May success and a smile always be yours, even when you're knee-deep in the sticky muck of life,'" he told graduates. (More Kermit the Frog stories.)
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