He is deaf in his right ear.

He is a huge Lord of the Rings fan and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the series.

His father and two of his brothers died in a plane crash when he was ten years old. On September 11, 1974, they were on an Eastern Airlines DC-9 that crashed in dense fog during its approach to Charlotte, N.C. Of the 82 people on board, 72 were killed. In its report, the NTSB concluded that "the probable cause of the accident was the flight crew's lack of altitude awareness at critical points during the approach due to poor cockpit discipline in that the crew did not follow prescribed procedures.".

He was briefly a correspondent on "Good Morning America" (1975).

"Truthiness," a word he coined, was declared the Word of the Year 2005 by the American Dialect Society.

Teaches Sunday School every weekend at his church and teaches his own specific story of salvation and has the children learn spiritual songs.

As a result of the plane crash that killed his father and two of his brothers, the Federal Aviation Administration established the "sterile cockpit" rule, which prohibits flight crews from engaging in any conversation or activities apart from their flying duties while the aircraft is below 10,000 feet.

As a result of an operation he had when he was young, he can fold his right ear inside out and can pop it out when he squints his eye.

Received an honorary doctorate in fine arts by Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, in 2006.

His siblings from oldest to youngest are: Jimmy, Eddie, Mary, Billy, Margo, Tommy, Jay, Lulu, Paul, and Peter. Stephen is the youngest of the eleven.

⇐ back