Listen Here
By Victoria Hansen, HansenV@Findlay.edu
After writing over 150 books and producing the longest running animated children’s show of all time, Marc Brown will visit Findlay to send the Class of 2025 out into the world.
Marc Brown wrote the first Arthur book, Arthur’s Nose in 1976. He went on to write over 80 more books that made the New York Times Bestseller list, sold over 65 million copies, and read in over 80 countries.
Twenty years after Arthur’s Nose first published, the first episode of Arthur aired on PBS Kids. It ran for 25 years and 259 episodes, amking it the third longest-running American animated TV show, after South Park and The Simpsons. The show was nominated for 25 Emmy Awards and won six, along with receiving the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.
During its run, Arthur was lauded for its child-friendly yet honest handling of topics ranging from glasses, bullying, and classmates with special needs to sensitive issues like divorce, religious restrictions, and book banning. The show made international headlines in 2019 for an episode in which Arthur’s teacher, Mr. Ratburn, marries another man. The episode was highly celebrated but also controversial, with Alabama Public Television refusing to air it.
Along with giving the commencement speech for the graduating class of 2024, Brown plans to host a public event later that day in the TLB Auditorium in the Winebrenner Theological Seminary building with the Mazza Museum. The event, “An Evening With Marc Brown,” opens to educators, parents, and young readers, according to the University of Findlay website. Brown will discuss insights into creativity, storytelling, and illustration followed by a book signing.
The event is free and open to the public, but attendees should register at https://oilers.findlay.edu/marc-brown.
Brown recently donated over one thousand original works to the University’s Mazza Museum, set to be displayed in a future exhibit.
