The annual Helen Keller Lecture Series at Troy University honors one of the most remarkable women of this century or any century.

Helen Keller was able to cross political and national barriers with her message of hope and to turn the impossible into possible.

American jazz pianist, Marcus Roberts, was the lecturer for the 21st Annual Helen Keller Lecturer Series at Troy University Tuesday.

Troy University Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr. said the Helen Keller Lecture Series celebrates the spirit of the most influential champions with special needs.

“Marcus Roberts lost his sight but he never lost his vision,” Hawkins said in his introduction of the world-class pianist.

Roberts is also a composer, arranger, bandleader and teacher. In 2014, his life and work were featured on a segment of the CBS News television show, “60 Minutes.” The show titled, “The Virtuoso,” traced Roberts’ life to date from his early roots in Jacksonville at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind to his remarkable career as a modern jazz musician.

Roberts became blind at the age of five. Looking back, he doesn’t remember much about the world of sight. But the transition to a dark world was difficult.

“My mother lost her sight at age 16 so she knew what I was going through,” Roberts said. “She wouldn’t let me feel sorry for myself. She didn’t permit self-pity. She was not going for it.”

At age 10, Roberts went to boarding school at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind and his power of familiarity was gone. There, he learned to skate by following the sound of other skaters and listened to baseball games on the radio. He learned Braille; he played the piano at the church. He learned that everybody has a need to laugh, a need to cry and challenges to navigate. He learned to laugh, to cry and to navigate the challenges of his life.

Roberts also came to know that it’s possible that there is a world of people “who are not living through what you living through.”

He are also realized that whoever is moved by music could be a performer. Roberts was moved by music. He was a performer.

As Roberts began to perfect his craft, his music was a way to navigate the challenges of his life and a message of hope to others.

“I discovered the importance of communicating with an audience – to have an empathetic relationship with the audience,” he said. “The audience should feel what you feel.”

Roberts went on to study classical piano at Florida State University. His critically acclaimed legacy of recorded music reflects his tremendous versatility as an artist. Over the years Roberts has won many awards. But, he said, the one that is most personally meaningful to him is the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement.