MIAMI – After 27 years as a news reporter, the single most memorable person I have met was not a president, a deposed leader or a movie star.

Kim Peek, the man who inspired the title character in the Oscar-winning movie "Rain Man," remains the most interesting and confounding individual I ever reported on.

When I heard he passed away earlier this week, I was both sad and relieved. Mostly, I was relieved for his aging father, Fran Peek.  

Kim, was a "mega-savant" who was considered a genius in 15 different subjects, from history and literatures to music and dates. But, even though he knew so much, he could not take care of himself.

His father, a single care-giver, worried nine years ago when we profiled Kim for the Today Show, who would be there after he was gone? Who would take care of Kim?

Kim's passing answers a father's fears.

I can still hear Kim saying "I just did it Kerry!" And the larger than life, gentle soul, telling me he thought I was special. But clearly, he was the one who was special beyond words.

When I occasionally give speeches about being a reporter, I still show this report.

It is the single most captivating and memorable story I'v eever worked on because we still don't have the answers.

Do we all have Kim's abilities? If so, why can't we tap them?

Watch this story and share it with your relatives and friends and, like me, I think you will be touched by one of the most unique souls who ever lived among us.

Click below to watch the Today Show story that originally aired on Dec. 26, 2000.

VIDEO: Inside the mind of the real 'Rain Man'-Kim Peek

One day in early 2000, my wife returned from her job at Palmetto High School in Miami raving about an appearance earlier that day in the school library. A man named Kim Peek had demonstrated his astonishing memory for a group of students. 

My wife's message that day was simple: "You have got to see this to believe it. You should do a story on this guy!" Correspondent Kerry Sanders and I pitched the story (I was Kerry's producer at the time). We did the story and it remains the most memorable profile either of us ever reported and produced.

VIDEO: Inside the mind of  Kim Peek

Kim's appearance in Miami was one of  hundreds that he made, all in the company of  and arranged by his father Fran Peek (at no charge, except to cover expenses). They crisscrossed the country to celebrate Fran's message that was personified by his son: "We are all unique."

His son Kim could not tie his own shoes or shave. But if you threw a date at Kim – say May 17, 1951 – he could tell you it was a Thursday (I had to look it up). He could also tell you something about what happened that day, because he read almanacs – and he remembered almost every word.

He was called an "autistic savant" by many; but the riddle of his amazing memory was never really solved. Was his stupefying recall tied to any of his disabilities? We all have memories, but how was he able to plow through a mountain of data – and then retain virtually all of it?

Kim's passing is bittersweet. His father, now in his 80s, worried over who would  take care of Kim when Fran was no longer there. While mourning Kim, Fran can take some comfort knowing Kim will not be alone. I suspect his spirit, having devoured every scrap of knowledge he could find on earth, is already streaking through space. Must be lots more to learn out there.

CHICAGO -- It's not easy to imagine a better messenger of compassion than a pup named Rudolph. Especially when the recipients of the message are elementary-age children. They're young enough to respond to floppy ears and a soft coat, and old enough to understand the life lessons they are receiving.

Rudolph is not an ordinary dog, and Marcia Fishman knew this when she decided to take him in. She already had one dachshund, named Gunther, and wanted another one. That's when an online search led Marcia to a small fawn-colored dachshund she would call Rudolph.

VIDEO: Rudolph the dog leads way to learning

Not only was his coloring a result of over-breeding, so too were his inability to see or hear. Marcia's favorite hobby is training dogs, but this would present a unique challenge -- how to care for a dog that is blind and deaf? She decided to find out.

He was skittish at first. No wonder. In addition to his sensory challenges, Rudolph had spent the first year of his life in a cage at a puppy mill, then in four different homes. Now in a permanent and nurturing home with Marcia and his canine brother Gunther, Rudolph burrows and hides under blankets, as dachshunds like to do. When Marcia comes home, she can call out to Gunther.

But not Rudolph. Marcia jokes: "People ask, do you call him Rudy? I say, I don't call him!" He wouldn't hear her if she did.

It's no coincidence that this dog that lives in darkness shares a name with an unlikely reindeer hero who was able to navigate through darkness too. Canine Rudolph's nose is also his guide.

That gave Marcia an idea, and she decided to write a short story coloring book with a lesson. The title: Rudolph's Nose Knows, starring a certain dachshund who was teased by other dogs. When a little chick that is too young to fly falls into a deep dark hole, it is only the dachshund named Rudolph who can save it. He is then received by the other dogs with kindness rather than taunts.

Marcia Fishman introduces her dog Rudolph to children in a Michigan classroom.

The message is tolerance and acceptance of differences. It's a message Marcia delivers compassionately to young children. And she decided to do this with Rudolph's help.

"The kids think he's darling. They just seem to want to embrace him," she said.

To date, she has already spoken to more than 2,000 young students throughout schools in southeast Michigan. Using the book as a springboard for discussion, Marcia explains that Rudolph is a happy dog, and they should not feel sorry for him. They need not treat him differently because he is blind or deaf.  The real message: Give people a chance. You could be missing out on a beautiful friendship.

Recently, Marcia and Rudolph visited Conant Elementary in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In teacher Marnie Diem's 4th grade classroom, there is already a strong theme of "Attitude is Everything." Signs circle the room with words like "Commitment," "Tolerance," "Respect," and "Curiosity."

A student takes a close look at Rudolph's eyes

After introducing the children to Rudolph and reading her story, Marcia talked with them about the need to reach out to people who may not be like us. Equally important: don't underestimate someone else's potential.

She explained that when you don't give people a chance, they'll be left to think they are unable to achieve. Marcia told the class how Rudolph is just as much fun as her other dog, how he's learning to play with toys, and that he's got a lot of love to give.

And then she translates that into an applicable life question for them: "Why am I not reaching out to people with differences? I think I'm missing out on adventures with potential new friends."

Rudolph surrounded by children in a Michigan classroom

The students were inquisitive, thinking and asking questions about Rudolph, and ultimately reflecting on what they learned from Marcia's and Rudolph's visit. Their teacher Ms. Diem asked them to write about the experience and their observations. Among them:

1. Rudolph taught me that you don't have to be like everyone else. You can just be yourself.

2. Just because someone's different, you don't have to treat them differently.

3. Rudolph just learns in a different way.

4. Count  people  in even though they're different. Let them play with you. Make them fit in.

5. Rudolph  is different, but I wish I could have a dog like that.

VIDEO: A can-do canine named Rudolph

In the words of Ms. Diem, "It gives the children an amazing experience of actually seeing a unique way of looking at tolerance and diversity. You're looking at people for who they are and what they can do, not for what they can't do."

For Marcia Fishman, these visits are not work. This is all voluntary, and she makes time for it on top of her very full-time job as Executive Director of the Screen Actors Guild for the Detroit/Philadelphia branch. Her belief in the importance of volunteerism runs deep.

"I think that the world has a lot of broken pieces to it, and I don't think it's all that difficult to fix little pieces of it. And if everyone took a little crack and fixed it, I think our world would certainly be a better place. I believe that somehow we can find the time for that."

For more information about Rudolph, please visit http://www.rudolphsnoseknows.com.

All photos by Stephanie Himango

I'm a golfer, and I can't tell you how many times in the last dozen years or so I've thought or said – after another Sunday display of otherworldly golfing genius by the guy in the red shirt – "Man oh man, what I wouldn't give to be Tiger Woods for a week…"

Well, not this week. Not any week. Not anymore.

I'm old enough to have had an AARP card for awhile and as far back as my teenage years I've been a reporter. That means I'm cynical, in the way of the old Chicago City News Service axiom, "if your mother says she loves you – check it out."

VIDEO: Alleged Woods' voicemail released

But I was never cynical about Woods, not from the first articles I read and fist pumps I saw as he burned his way through six junior and amateur championships; not through his "Are you ready, world?" explosion onto the professional golf tour; not through his temper tantrums and his other displays of alpha dog arrogance.

A champion worthy of adoration
It was a champion's arrogance, as I saw it, and he was a champion without peer in a sport that thrills me even as it presents its endless, maddening challenges. And it wasn't just his physical prowess that I found mesmerizing: he was, as his father Earl was always eager to point out, the "mentally toughest" competitor anyone could imagine. And that toughness – coupled with his abundant imagination and boundless calculation – propelled him and millions of fans around the world on his journey to unthinkable levels of excellence and attainment.

Who would begrudge him his outsized success, as he became history's first billion dollar athlete? He had discipline to match his matchless talent, we heard in the evolving biography from the Woods camp; there was no limit to what he might accomplish inside the ropes and beyond. And all our admiration and belief? My belief in him? He earned it.

So I followed him: I watched golf when he was in contention, and rarely at other times. I read or listened to his bland post-match comments, looking for clues to his genius. I saw with satisfaction that marriage and fatherhood did no more to dull his competitive fires than did injuries or slumps. And I saw him cry in the embrace of his caddy when he took his first major after his father's death, the British Open at Hoylake. Tiger was Tiger, so mentally tough, he'd always find a way. Ruthlessly if necessary, expending passion only for the game, and then he'd go back to the rarefied air where he lived and breathed.

SLIDESHOW: Tiger Woods in cartoons

And it was clear to me too that he knew that even for him the clock was ticking, his days in the sun would be limited. "I'm not getting any younger," he said once, in what played as a brilliantly self-aware commercial a few years ago. I felt privileged to be around during Tiger's run, however long it lasted. I admired his consummate skill, but also the way he lost with grace, doffing his cap, the way he respected his elders and the game's history.

I was sure there would be more to his story when competitive golf ended for him, something more than just ceremonial golf or playing from the forward tees on the senior tour. He was disciplined, intelligent, so mentally tough (those words again) that he'd control his story right to the end. Sure, there would be some stumbles along the way, but no big mistakes, and in the end we'd love the story he wrote.

It didn't even matter that parts of his mythology had already begun to chip away. When Y.E. Yang reeled him in at the PGA Championship in August, there went that whole red-shirt-on-Sunday-never-losing-when-tied-or-in-the-lead-at-a-major thing. And he couldn't pull it off in two other major championship Sundays in 2009, when he was right there – and even missed the cut at the British!

It was disappointing, but OK in my book. After all he was coming back from major knee surgery, he still won six other tournaments during the year, he was still Tiger. The best golfer. The best story, beautiful to watch, his future guaranteed to keep dazzling us.

Until now.

I got conned!
At first, when my wife heard about that initial story in a supermarket tabloid, I told her it couldn't be true. Tiger was just too smart to be unaware of how much he might lose by having a tawdry affair. I told her how "mentally tough" he was, how his father had taught him from his toddler years to ignore every distraction so he could just "let the legend grow." Tiger? With that woman? It didn't compute.

Then, a couple of days later, that weird accident and the first reports I got as an alert on my Blackberry that he'd suffered "serious injuries." I saw the words "unconscious… for several minutes." I must admit, beyond my instant fear that he might truly be terribly injured and, at the least, might never play golf again, my initial thoughts included a guess that the accident was in some way connected to what were surely false charges published in that supermarket tabloid.

Then came the rest. Day after day of it, and it's nowhere near over. I've seen enough. I get it.

VIDEO: Tiger Woods' mother in law rushed to hospital

My wife and my female friends couldn't believe it when I said that the scandal pained me personally. Their reactions, collectively, added up to "C'mon, he's a guy!" I knew what they were saying, and knew they accepted that not all guys cheat – or all women, for that matter. Just a lot of them. But I said what pained me is that I believed that Tiger…so disciplined and so brilliant… just couldn't be that undisciplined. That stupid.

Leaving hundreds of texts and instant messages to the cocktail waitresses and other playmates he was committing "personal sins" and "transgressions" with. Leaving that pathetic voicemail, "Hi…it's Tiger…I need you to do me a huge favor. Could you, uh, please take your name off your phone…?" When I heard the tape of that call, so much for self-awareness, whatever faith I had in Tiger Woods was gone.

Not because he'd betrayed his wife: because he'd betrayed me. I bought his brand. By being one of millions of dedicated fans, in a way, I helped him earn those billion dollars. And I got conned. Turns out he's just a great golfer but a jerk like so many other men can be. Jeez!

Now what?
I don't know what happens with Tiger now. In a way he's a more interesting story, certainly more human – although not one who evokes any sympathy. My guess is that one of his major sponsors will drop him soon or announce a "mutual decision" to temporarily suspend a commercial relationship with Tiger, and other corporate partners will quickly follow suit.

Tiger was a billion dollar brand when he was a G-rated international superstar with the skills, the look and the limitless future. R-rated tabloid fixtures don't pose next to Roger Federer selling razor blades. The scandal will cost Tiger tens of millions, maybe more, though the real cost to his reputation is both bigger and more permanent. He's only turns 34 at the end of December, but he's already written a sentence no one anticipated that will probably be in the first paragraph of his obituary.

Beyond that hit to his place in the firmament, he'll still be a television ratings monster, maybe bigger than ever. Can you imagine following his every step, every swing, every facial expression (and the commentary of the tournament's announcers) the next time he tees it up in a televised event?

Will he still be Tiger on the course, an assassin with an artist's touch? Or will the cloud of disapproval and contempt that will forever follow him now rob him of the bulletproof confidence that was often all that separated him from other supremely talented competitors?

And what about his fellow pros? Many have long harbored resentments about Tiger but were loathe to voice them.

VIDEO: Golfer Jesper Parnevik reacts to the Tiger Woods story

But Jesper Parnevik, the Swedish golfer who introduced Woods to his au pair, Elin Nordegren, now the cuckolded wife, said in an interview last week he owed Elin an apology for that original introduction. Parnevik's quote about Woods was devastating, and spot on: "We probably thought he was a better guy than he is."

I thought so too. Dammit.

Click here for more on the Tiger Woods story
The Scoop: Legion of Woods' alleged ladies growing

MIAMI – Twenty years ago, when she was just 17, high school student Katie Christie formed a young people's musical theater group here to promote cultural and political harmony. 

Today the group, known as Voices United, still thrives. Its goal is still the same and Katie – now the mother of a teenage girl who's a current cast member – is still the organization's director.  More than 1,000 alumni of her troupe are scattered around the country.

"I think what you get in the program are the foundations for success for a full life," said Sal Richardson, an attorney, former Voices United cast member and vice chairman of its board of directors. "What you see immediately in kids is an increase in their confidence, an increase in their self-awareness, an increase in their self-respect and an increase in respect for others."

This year, another group of 90 children, ages six to 18, from 45 different South Florida schools worked together on weekends to write, rehearse and present their own stage production to enthusiastic audiences. Some of the students also recorded a CD of their own songs at a professional studio. For next year, there are plans to make a film. And they just launched a new Voices United Web site for the group. 

Raul Hernandez / NBC News
Katie Christie speaks with group members

Video: Troupe empowers teens on, off stage
Web-only video: Program works to give young people a 'voice'

Because Voices United is a non-profit group funded by donations and grants, raising money is always a challenge. Some of the students wanted to go to Japan to perform with children there. So they started collected pennies which attracted donors and eventually brought in $10,000, enough to finance the trip. "I love them, they're my kids," said Katie. "I really just believe this is what I'm meant to do."

Raul Hernandez / NBC News

Members of Voices United practice their dance moves.

Learning to understand herself
Voices United sprang from Katie's own upbringing and confusion over her identity, a feeling she would later discover she shared with many other young people. Of mixed-race heritage, Katie was adopted and raised in an all-white household with a Greek father and Jewish mother, whom Katie describes as unconditionally loving and always supportive of her. Still, Katie couldn't understand why her skin was darker than theirs and why she felt prejudice outside the home. "I grew up in an experience where everyone around me looked different that I did," she said.

To try to address Katie's shyness, her mother put her in theater, but it wasn't until Katie's junior year in high school that the decision really paid off. In 1989, she joined Peace Child, a multicultural traveling theater company, where she found friends.  Together, they performed in the then-Soviet Union with Latvian children. During a performance there, while she was singing in English about peace, Katie noticed that members of the audience were crying, even though they didn't understand her words.

"For the first time I really felt like my singing mattered and it was making a difference and people were feeling what I was feeling," she said. "I came home and it was right before my senior year and I was, like, I'm going to start a program like this in Miami -- and everybody thought I was crazy."

Raul Hernandez / NBC News

Two young girls practice their lines for a Voices United musical performance

A safe place for cultural and personal awareness
With its primary goal of providing cross-cultural education through the arts, Voices United found a perfect fit in multi-cultural Miami. According to the latest U.S. Census data, Miami-Dade County's 2.3 million residents are 62 percent Hispanic or Latino, 18 percent non-Latin white, and nearly 20 percent black.

As important and inspiring as the group's work is on stage, the real aim of Voices United is to address cultural issues and youthful concerns off-stage, in workshops where everyone is allowed to speak and there is lots of support.

"I think what makes it work is that I'm really listening to the kids. They really do have a place where they feel safe and they can talk about anything through any experience and they're going to be accepted at the end of the day," said Katie. "We're using the art as an excuse to deal with all these issues."

One of the techniques she uses to help teenagers deal with important matters such as drug abuse, peer pressure, discrimination and domestic abuse is called "Step Across the Line." With all the kids lined up shoulder to shoulder, facing a white line of tape in front of them, Katie will ask them to step across the line if they have been involved in a particular issue.

"Step across the line if you've ever been offered drugs," Katie called out as a handful of students then walked forward. "Look at the people on your left and your right," she said. "Step across the line if you've ever discriminated against someone."

"They step across the line and it occurs to them that now I'm taking ownership of this thing that's just been inside my head or inside my heart," Katie explained, noting that in group sessions which follow the Step Across the Line exercise she and the students then talk openly about all the issues that bother them.

"The idea is to help, really, to get everybody to understand who is going through what and it shows them that a lot of people are going through similar experiences," she said. "We talk about it and I think they're like relieved to be able to have a place to talk about those things."

Mina Saja, one of the teenage cast members, says she loves waking up on Saturdays to join the other students for Voices United rehearsals. "We're just all best friends and we feel that we can talk to each other, thanks to the program," she said. "I know for me, Katie is like a second mom.  If I need something, I can call Katie or I can Facebook Katie, or whatever.  Like I know she's always there."

Powerful art
On a recent Saturday morning at the New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami, rehearsals were in full swing for a specially selected group of performers who make up the Voices United traveling company. Over and over, they choreographed dance steps and practiced singing. Then for about a half-hour, they broke up into small groups to write new material for an upcoming performance. The goal this day was to poke fun at silly commercials on television. It was much lighter fare than some of the other topics they have tackled, including environmental issues, drunk driving and the human cost of war.

"What I want them to do is talk about all the things that are important to them, the things they notice in the world that don't sit quite right with them," said Katie. "It's not about me creating shows about what I think is important to young people. It's really about their thoughts and feelings and what they think is important in the world."

An emotionally moving scene was being rehearsed on this day was about a young girl's fears for her father who's gone off to fight in war. As a dozen actors mime a battle scene behind her, a 13-year-old girl with a beautiful voice sings the song she wrote herself, called "Dear Dad."

The singer is Maya Hunter, Katie's daughter, who wrote the lyrics and music after the death of her own father, who passed away two years ago.

"Through Voices United she was able to let her own feelings and her thoughts out through writing this song," said Katie. "I was quietly thrilled to see the process really worked for my own child."

For the past two decades, thousands of South Florida youngsters have had the same chance to be heard and supported. "When I was a young person, I didn't feel like I had a voice. I didn't feel like people were listening to my thoughts and my feelings," said Katie, who makes sure that's no longer the case for others. 

"Kids need to be listened to," she said. "They need to be valued, because they're going to inherit the world from us and they should be allowed to put in their two cents. We should be listening."

Click here for more information about Voices United.