ORONO – Best-selling author Stephen King counseled University of Maine graduates on Saturday to be voracious readers, donate a tenth of their earnings to worthy causes and carve out their careers in the Pine Tree State.

A member of the Class of 1970, King wound up delivering the commencement speech at his alma mater twice after rain forced officials to move the 203rd commencement to the Harold Alfond Arena.

It was the largest graduating class in the university’s history with 1,993 degrees awarded, according to UMaine officials.

King said he remembered speaking to the same class in the fall of 2001 when most of them were “freshpeople.” He told them then that he’d be back when it was time for them to graduate.

“I never thought you would make good on your word – I guess Kid Rock and Donald Rumsfeld were busy,” he joked.

King laced his advice with humor. He even threatened to track down members of the Class of 2005 if they quit using their brains once they’ve settled into adult lives and careers.

“I can find out where you live,” he said. “I have my resources. And if I show up at your house 10 years from now, and find nothing in your living room but Reader’s Digests, nothing in your bedroom but the latest Dan Brown novel, and nothing in your bathroom but ‘Jokes for the John,’ I will chase you down to the end of your driveway and back shouting, ‘Where are the damn books? … Why are you living the mental equivalent of a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese life?'”

He also urged graduates to give away a dime for every dollar they earn.

“If you don’t, the government is just going to take it from you,” King said. “Here’s a secret I learned six summers ago lying in a ditch beside the road, covered in my own blood, and convinced I was going to die – you go out broke. You’re not an owner. You’re just a steward. So pass something on.”

Through their foundation, King and his wife, Tabitha, have donated millions to the university, the city of Bangor and other communities throughout the state.

Their contributions have enabled many libraries, including the Bangor Public Library, to expand and make capital improvements they couldn’t have afforded on their own.

King, who owns two homes in Maine and one in Florida, also warned students that if they leave Maine for higher salaries, they would live to regret it.

“This can be home if you want it to be,” he said. “If you leave, you will miss it, so you might as well skip the going away part.

“If you move away to New York to take an entry-level legal or financial services position, you’ll bore everyone about how you hate spending two hours on the commute,” King added. “And when you tell them that you used to get lobstah for $5.99 a pound in Ellsworth, deah, they won’t believe you.”

Both Kings received honorary doctorates when Stephen King addressed Maine graduates in 1987.

This year, the university awarded honorary doctorates to journalist Douglas Kneeland, a Lincoln native and university graduate whose career included work at The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, and Andrew Shepard, president and CEO of the Maine Winter Sports Center.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Kneeland said at the morning session, “but Steve made me feel so guilty that I left Maine, I just had to say that I came back as soon as I could.”

Kneeland retired in the mid-1990s to Lincoln.

It was King’s insistence that graduates devote themselves to building careers in the place they earned their college degrees that drew the most applause from the packed hockey arena.

“Right now, you are standing on the ground floor of the greatest place on Earth and the elevator doors are wide open,” he said. “If you leave Maine, you will miss it. It slips into your mind, it becomes part of your being and inhabits your heart.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

King’s advice to graduates

. Hug and kiss whoever helped you get to this day.

. Do not live in this place (Orono) like you are still an undergraduate.

. Don’t forget you’re a physical being. Take care of your body and the planet.

. Don’t forget you’re a mental being with a humongous hard drive at your disposal.

. Give away a dime of every dollar you make.

. Stay in Maine.

. Stay in Maine.

. Stay in Maine.

. Stay in Maine.