(NECN: Ally Donnelly, Norton, Mass.) - By all accounts, Ann Curry's speech to the 2010 graduates of Wheaton College was going well. The Today show anchor told stories of heartache and triumph on her journey in network news. But then she reminded the more than 400 students of the famous graduates who had come before them.
Graduates like the Reverend Billy Graham, horror writer Wes Craven and Todd Beamer a passenger aboard flight 93 on 9/11.
Problem is the men are all graduates of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and Curry was headlining commencement at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.
The Wheaton in the Land of Lincoln is an Evangelical Christian college -- Wheaton in the Bay State is a former women's college that wouldn't even have admitted Reverend Graham at the time.
Wheaton posted the Curry commencement, but edited out the journalist's mistakes -- saying they wouldn't want to broadcast misinformation. NECN got the video from a graduate's family.
Local
College spokesperson Michael Graca kept his answers short and sweet and would not say whether or not he thought the seasoned NBC reporter had hastily Googled her speech together.
Curry's gaffe hit the Associated Press wire then zoomed round the globe. After all, we seem to get some amount of pleasure from watching high-profile figures stumble on the world stage.
Back to Wheaton -- in Norton -- Curry posted an open apology to the college community writing, "I am mortified by the mistake and can only hope the purity of my motive...will allow you to forgive me."
She also gave some shout outs to actual Wheaton Massachusetts grads this time like former NJ Governor and EPA director Christie Todd Whitman and actress Catherine Keener.
