Which of these things belong together? Which of these things are kind of the same? Cap and Bells … Yale Drama School … Cookie Monster … All three, actually, belong together in your remarkable life story. After Williams and Yale, you moved to New York to become, you had hoped, the next Marlon Brando. But a job producing the show Captain Kangaroo turned into an eight-year project and the beginning of a career in children’s educational television. When the Children’s Television Workshop formed in the 1960’s to give birth to Sesame Street, you joined as the first producer, director, and head writer of what has become one of the most influential programs in the history of television. Besides delivering public television’s first “hit,” (which creatively tickled the funny bones of both children and adults) you developed with your friend and colleague Jim Henson such characters as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, and Bert and Ernie—all of whom have become part of our global culture. And by creating the program’s format and setting you have contributed to the early education of countless children world wide. To your fifteen Emmy awards can be added the distinction of undoubtedly being Williams College’s best selling author, with one title alone—The Monster At The End Of This Book—having sold more than thirty million copies internationally … more copies, I point out, than the combined total of all the books ever written on the French Enlightenment. It is with great pride and a tinge of envy, then, that Williams acknowledges a list of accomplishments that could stir admiration in the heart of even Oscar the Grouch. In recognition of your distinguished achievement in early childhood education, Williams College is proud to present you with its Bicentennial Medal.