CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Bill Geist, noted columnist, author, correspondent and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign alumnus, will serve as grand marshal of this year’s Homecoming Parade.
Geist grew up in Champaign. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army as a combat photographer in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions.
He graduated from the U. of I. in 1968 from what is now known as the College of Media, and earned a master’s degree in communication at the University of Missouri in 1971 before beginning his career at the Chicago Tribune. He went on to become a popular columnist at The New York Times and a correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, where he continues to entertain and inform millions of viewers with his trademark, off-beat humor.
Geist also has written several books and contributed articles to dozens of magazines, including Chicago, Esquire, Forbes, New York, Rolling Stone and Vogue.
He has four Emmys and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but says he is more proud of winning third place in the Illinois State Fair bake-off competition for his apricot sour cream coffee cake and for his honorary membership in the student fan section Orange Krush, which embraced him during the 2004-05 Fighting Illini basketball team’s run to the NCAA national title game.
The parade takes place Friday, Oct. 23, from 6 to 7 p.m. The route begins at Sixth Street and Taft Drive in Champaign, traveling through Campustown and turning south on Mathews Avenue in Urbana to end at the Quad.
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