Bob Keeshan, best known to generations of kids as "Captain Kangaroo", has died at age 76.

Captain Kangaroo was a huge part of my early childhood. His show was sweet and kind and gentle and just let us kids be kids, without the pressures to be hip or cool or feeling like we had to run around like mini-adults.

It's kind of surprising that he was so young. It seems like he's been around forever. Given the state of our world today, I find it incredibly sad when we lose a man who was the very definition of kindness.