

Despite heavy rain, University officials held Class Day outside, so it was a sea of plastic orange ponchos and black umbrellas on Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall. Students and parents alike wiped down their plastic seats with paper towels before the ceremony began.

Carell was once on track to attend law school. But the 1984 Denison University graduate became stumped while filling out Stanford Law School’s application when the essay question read, ‘Why do you want to be an attorney?”

“I really had no idea,” Carell told Princeton’s graduating seniors. “It sounded good. My parents had worked extraordinarily hard to give me a great education, and I felt that I owed them some sort of valid career choice. So I sat down with my folks, and asked them what they thought, and they proceeded to give me the best advice that I had ever received, or would ever receive. Their words were profound, wise, and they completely altered the rest of my life.

“They said something like ‘blah, blah, blah, follow your dreams, blah, blah, blah.’ I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I didn’t go to law school.”