Spring/Summer 2009 Commencement Speaker

SAM VENABLE

Sam Venable is the speaker for the Spring/Summer 2009 College of Communication and Information Commencement Ceremony. Venable is a humor columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel. He assumed that position in 1985 after serving as the newspaper’s outdoors editor for 15 years.

Venable is a native of Knoxville. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a degree in journalism and minor studies in forestry and wildlife management. Prior to joining the News Sentinel’s staff, he worked as a police reporter and feature writer for the Knoxville Journal and the Chattanooga News Free Press.

Winner of more than three dozen writing awards, Venable has also been widely published outside the newspaper field. He sold his first magazine article as a senior in college and since has compiled more than 150 periodical credits to his record.

He is the author of ten books:

• An Island Unto Itself: The Story of Little Pecan
• A Handful of Thumbs and Two Left Feet: Sam Venable’s Best Outdoor Stories
• Two or Three Degrees Off Plumb: Sam Venable’s Unique Look at Life
• One Size Fits All and Other Holiday Myths: A Walk Through the Four Seasons
• I’d Rather Be Ugly Than Stuppid…and Other Deep Thoughts
• From Ridgetops To Riverbottoms: A Celebration of the Outdoor Life in Tennessee
• Mountain Hands: A Portrait of Southern Appalachia
• Rock-Elephant: A Story of Friendship and Fishing
• You Gotta Laugh to Keep from Cryin’: A Baby Boomer Contemplates Life Beyond Fifty
• Someday I May Find Honest Work

Venable has also been a contributing author for two other books, 150 Southern Fishing Hotspots and Fireside Waterfowler and wrote the new introduction for Carson Brewer’s classic collection about the Great Smokies, A Wonderment of Mountains.

In recent years, Venable has become increasingly popular on the after-dinner speaking circuit. He delivers his bizarre look at life on a wide variety of topics—everything from how to speak “hillbillyese,” to the insanity of ever-present warning labels, as well as the perils of growing older.

In his spare time, Venable enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking and swimming. His wife, Mary Ann, is also a native Knoxvillian and a graduate of UT. She is a computer training specialist. They have two grown children, Clay and Megan, as well as a son-in-law, Tommy Smith, and daughter-in-law, Kim Venable—all of whom are UT graduates. Kim and Clay are parents to Sam's grandchildren, Max and Lucy.