This was a very nice tribute to a man who was arguably a national treasure. And it was superbly well-written.

And I have to admit, I wasn't expecting it to be, due to the title.

Can we please retire the expression "self-confessed"? It's redundant. If it's a confession, of course it's self-confessed. No one else can confess for you, because it's no longer a confession if someone else does it. It's an exposure.

Samuel Little was a confessed serial killer, because he confessed to killing 93 people. Why would we call him "self-confessed"? Of course, it's self-confessed; no one else could do it for him!