Question: The Nickel City’s most famous son is now on a U.S. Postal Service stamp.
Answer: Who is Alex Trebek?
That’s right, this week the U.S. Postal Service unveiled its latest Forever stamp featuring the Canadian game show host from Sudbury.
Trebek, who was born in Sudbury on July 22, 1940, to a Franco-Ontarian mother and a Ukrainian immigrant father, hosted Jeopardy! for 37 seasons, starting in 1984. The hosting duty turned him into a household name across North America.
He passed away Nov. 8, 2020, from pancreatic cancer.
“Millions of Americans invited Alex Trebek into their living rooms each weeknight,” said Michael Elston, secretary of the USPS board of governors. “After thousands of shows over 37 seasons, he was someone we trusted and felt like we knew. And with his intelligence and wit, he made it cool to be smart.”
Noted for his wit and enunciation, Trebek became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1998.
The Sudburian was an American institution, current Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings said in a news release.
"It's so appropriate that the stamp illustration commemorates Alex with a Jeopardy! clue. He loved the game so much, and he always insisted the clues were the true star of the show,” Jennings said. “Alex Trebek was an American institution and so it makes perfect sense to honour him on a postage stamp. And of course, I had to geek out when I saw that the full sheet of stamps looks like a Jeopardy! game board!"
Noted for his charity work, particularly on behalf of children and people who are homeless, Trebek worked with child welfare organization World Vision. His donation of 62 acres of land in the Hollywood Hills created the Trebek Open Space, which protects natural habitats and provides trails for hiking, riding and biking.
He and his family also helped transform a shuttered roller rink into the Trebek Centre in North Hollywood, a space that serves people experiencing homelessness.
Over his career, Trebek was awarded a lifetime achievement Emmy Award and eight Daytime Emmys for outstanding game show host. Sony Pictures Stage 10, where Jeopardy! is still taped, has been renamed the Alex Trebek Stage.
“My family and I were completely surprised about Alex being honoured by the U.S. Postal Service. It is a such an extraordinary honour and a wonderful way to recognize what Alex meant to so many people,” said Trebek’s wife, Jean Trebek.
The Alex Trebek Forever stamp is sold in a grid of 20 stamps that “evokes the bank of video monitors that forms the Jeopardy! game board, the USPS said in the news release.
Each stamp reads “THIS NATURALIZED U.S. CITIZEN HOSTED THE QUIZ SHOW JEOPARDY! FOR 37 SEASONS.” Underneath, upside down, is the correct response: “Who is Alex Trebek?”
