Celebrating the wisdom of 150 Omnibus series speakers

When it was announced 30 years ago that the university was going to start a signature lecture series for not only the campus but the entire community, Gerald McBride, chair of the Omnibus Lecture Series Committee, said, “We want to showcase the university through this series by bringing nationally – if not internationally – known speakers here.”

For three decades, what’s now called the Omnibus Speaker Series has been a gift from Purdue University Fort Wayne to northeast Indiana. Thanks in part to the original and continued support from the English-Bonter-Mitchell Foundation, tickets are still free and open to the public. Speaker No. 150 in the series is award-winning marketer and University of Michigan professor Marcus Collins. His public presentation will take place Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Auer Performance Hall.

The following are just a few of the quotes that help tell the Omnibus story.

''If we give more power to corporations, then there will be a serious erosion of political economy, and we'll become indentured servants… to corporations who hold no allegiance to anybody."

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, the first Omnibus speaker, Sept. 18, 1995

“The greatest obstacle of progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. To admit our ignorance is the first step to the progress of new knowledge.''

Former director of the Library of Congress Daniel Boorstin, March 27, 1996

“I am reliably informed that every liberal in Fort Wayne is here tonight, and, being a liberal in Fort Wayne is not one of life's easier paths.''

Columnist Molly Ivins, Sept. 17, 1997

“The Bible describes Jesus as having `woolen hair' and `bronze skin,' and yet in every depiction that exists of him, he is white. Can you imagine what would happen to the self-esteem of children of color if Jesus were depicted as a person of color?''

Actor James Edward Olmos, Oct. 3, 1997

“My son is viewed as cute now, but he will later be viewed as the most feared creature on American streets – the black male. The perception is that young black males are more criminal than what they are and they can't make it without extra help when they can.''

Columnist Clarence Page, Sept. 9, 1998

“Let us endeavor to live our lives so well that when it comes our time to die, even the undertaker will be unhappy.''

Principal Joe Clark, Nov. 10, 1998

"We the people largely have been stripped of any real participation in power today in a cabal of ignorance and arrogance between Washington and Wall Street. You can make your own choice about which is ignorance and which is arrogance.”

Self-proclaimed populist agitator Jim Hightower, Jan. 19, 2000

"People want to know where you get your ideas. You get them by living them."

Author John Updike, Nov. 28, 2001

“I’d never stoop that low.”

Satirist P.J. O’Rourke asked if he’d ever run for political office, Sept. 8, 2003

"Reading gave me the ability to be my own companion. With the help of books, I found my own proper place to stand.”

Actor James Earl Jones, Nov. 9, 2004

"For me, morality is a mask for hypocrisy. So I leave morality to the hypocrites. The most self-righteous people have the darkest shadows."

Deepak Chopra, Dec. 10, 2004

"It's almost like the two parties are too strong. There's much more polarization and partisanship, much more hatred across party lines. It's a level of hatred that we don't have in normal life.”

New York Times columnist David Brooks, March 17, 2005

"You go on after you're gone, but you must have that relationship with other people while you're here. One life touches another, touches another, touches the world."

“Tuesdays with Morrie” author Mitch Albom, Sept. 19, 2005

"The eyes of the future are looking back at us and praying that we will find the courage and the commitment to see beyond our own time."

Talk show host Tavis Smiley, Feb. 17, 2006

"If you help others you are helped in return."

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. co-founder Jerry Greenfield, March 5, 2008

"You have to sit down, because this is long."

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on an opening standing ovation, April 23, 2009

"Everybody in this room has greatness in them. Your job is to figure out what it is, dig it out and show it to the world."

Actor Henry Winkler, Sept. 17, 2009

"Most actors want to be heard, and I think people want to hear from actors much more than they think they do, even if it's for the process of dismissing what they just heard."

Actor Sean Astin, Sept. 14, 2010

"I really believe that the best souvenir you can take home is a broader perspective."

Travel writer Rick Steves, Feb. 16, 2011

"I think I'm the luckiest human being ever. With that said, there is no amount of money that would make me want to relive it."

Jeannette Walls, author of the biographical “The Glass Castle,” Oct. 23, 2013

"Without science, we may as well go back into a cave, and we'll end up in a cave unless we move forward."

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Oct. 21, 2014

"We're actually more normal than you think we are," he said.

"No, we're not," she said.

Rival political pundits and spouses James Carville and Mary Matalin, March 24, 2016

“We have allowed our anger and frustrations to be exploited to the point that we no longer recognize the face of this country.”

Political commentator Michael Steele, Oct. 24, 2022

“The Onion is just this tiny voice in the darkness, trying to say, ‘Hey, be skeptical, think a little bit, and don’t take it all at face value.’”

The Onion co-founder Scott Dikkers, Feb. 16, 2023

“There are many issues that can be helped, but we have to live and work in our times to make a better world. We are the ones to make it happen, all of us in concert as engaged American citizens. It’s the context of the time that makes it possible for a person to make change, even something you might now think is impossible.”

Actor George Takei, April 25, 2023