Cool that he took some time out to do this:




"We Didn't Know He Was Clarence Thomas"High school students share a plane ride, invite him to graduation

By CARISSA DIMARGO and CHRIS GORDON

Updated 3:33 PM EDT, Tue, Jun 2, 2009

Justice Thomas -- who otherwise never misses court -- skipped a SCOTUS session to speak at the graduation of his travel companions.

High school seniors Terrence Stephens and Jason Ankrah, star football players at Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Md., were sitting on a plane returning from a recruitment session at the University of Nebraska when they struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to them.



Their seat-mate just happened to be a major Cornhuskers fan.

When they started chatting, Stephens and Ankrah didn't have a clue they were holding court with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

"I was amazed this guy knew so much about us as football players and as people," said Stephens. "That was shocking. I felt honored to be known by someone of his caliber. He was just a regular old guy, sitting in coach, which really shocked me."

By the time the plane landed, the students had figured out who Thomas was, and they promptly told their principal they wanted to invite Thomas to give the keynote speech at their high school graduation. Of course, Principal Carole Working didn't exactly think Thomas would take them up on it. But he showed up at the high school on Monday.

"These young men had no idea who I was as I formed my first impression. I was just another stranger to them. They were wonderful ambassadors for your school and for their fellow students," said Thomas at the Quince Orchard graduation ceremony.

When Stephens and Ankrah arrived on-stage to receive their diplomas, they were both embraced by Justice Thomas.

Ankrah will be playing football for Nebraska next year, but Stephens will be attending Stanford. The justice said he doesn't have any hard feelings over that.





Find this article at:
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/loc ... larence-Thomas.html?yhp=1

That is awesome!

I saw that online - neat story.

Matthew

Excellent!

That was a cool story

Jim

Interesting... very interesting...

His son went to high school with me. Extremely nice guy.

He still has his ZR-1.

I liked the story because I didn't see how it could be in any way a photo-op or publicity event. I mean, he really doesn't have much to gain politically from doing stuff like that.

If it were Sarah Palin, I'd question how genuine of a gesture it was though.

I'm not going to pass judgement on this at this time.