Heartwarming / The Late Show with David Letterman

• Dave was a huge supporter of Conan O'Brien and, despite having acrimoniously left NBC, did everything he could to help Conan succeed as the host of Late Night. He would even send over the Late Show's reserve audience to fill the seats in the early days when Conan was trying to find his footing and was so unpopular that no one would even accept a free ticket.
• For Dave's final week on the show, he personally selected all of his guests—mostly old friends like Bill Murray who had appeared on the show many times. But for one show, he decided to have a particularly special person as the guest: Paul Shaffer himself, who left the orchestra and sat down for an interview with Dave. It's a perfect encapsulation of the men's friendship, and shows just how much Dave appreciated Paul for sticking with him for decades.
• Dave's annual Christmas tradition of having Darlene Love sing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." He always gushed about her whenever she came on, and though the song's key lowered over the years as Love aged, she never stopped appearing. Similarly, Stephen Colbert announced that he wouldn't have Love sing the song during his tenure out of respect for Dave's own legacy.
• David's tribute to Robin Williams following the latter's death in August 2014.
• Letterman was a proud alumnus of Ball State University, and established a scholarship for any student at the school with a telecommunications major or minor. What makes it heartwarming, though, is that Letterman only gave the money with the condition that grades would never have to do with who received it: instead, the applicants must come up with creative projects that can take on any form, from essays to websites to movies. Dave later explained that he wasn't a great student while at school and wanted to give other kids who were bright and creative, but not good at tests or academics, a chance to earn some much-needed funds. To this day, Ball State still offers the scholarship.
• While Letterman is a major liberal and showed absolutely no love for George W. Bush's presidency or politics, he also had immense respect for anyone serving in the United States Armed Forces and never made them the butt of jokes. There were several instances of active Armed Service members delivering the nightly Top Ten lists, and Letterman would always introduce each speaker by name and rank, then personally go over and thank them for their sacrifice. He also had video Christmas cards played from members who were serving abroad for the holidays play during his annual Christmas show.