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Past Honorees
Fred Rogers
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Past Honorees
Fred Rogers
Founder
Family Communications Inc.
2003
Comments made by Robert Miller,
President of Hyperion, at the induction of Fred Rogers into the
Hall of Fame.
Fred McFeely Rogers was born in 1928 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania,
40 miles east of Pittsburgh. Rogers earned his bachelor's degree
in music composition at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida
in 1951. Immediately upon graduation, he was hired by NBC television
in New York as an assistant producer for The Voice of Firestone
and later as floor director for The Lucky Strike Hit Parade, The
Kate Smith Hour, and the NBC Opera Theatre. Rogers was married in
1952 to Joanne Byrd, a concert pianist and fellow Rollins graduate.
In November, 1953, at the request of WQED Pittsburgh, the nation's
first community-sponsored educational television station, Rogers
moved back to Pennsylvania. The station was not yet on the air,
and Rogers was asked to develop the first program schedule. One
of the first programs he produced was THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. It
was a daily, live, hour-long visit with music and puppets and host
Josie Carey. Rogers served as puppeteer, composer, and organist.
In 1955, THE CHILDREN'S CORNER won the Sylvania Award for the best
locally produced children's program in the country. It was on THE
CHILDREN'S CORNER that several regulars of today's MISTER ROGERS'
NEIGHBORHOOD made their first appearances -- among them, Daniel
Striped Tiger. X the Owl, King Friday XIII, Henrietta Pussycat,
and Lady Elaine Fairchilde.
During off-duty hours, Rogers attended both the Pittsburgh Theological
Seminary and the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child
Development. He graduated from the Seminary and was ordained as
a Presbyterian minister in 1963 with a charge to continue his work
with children and families through the mass media. Later that year,
Rogers was invited to create a program for the CBC in Canada, which
the head of children's programming there dubbed MISTEROGERS. It
was on this series that Rogers made his on-camera debut as the program's
host. When he and his wife and two sons returned to Pittsburgh in
1966, he incorporated segments of the CBC into a new series which
was distributed by the Eastern Educational Network. This series
was called MISTEROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD. In 1968 it was made available
for national distribution through the National Educational Television
(NET) which later became Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
In 1968, Rogers was appointed Chairman of the Forum on Mass Media
and Child Development of the White House Conference on Youth. Besides
two George Foster Peabody Awards, Emmys, "Lifetime Achievement"
Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
and the TV Critics Association, Fred Rogers received every major
award in television for which he is eligible and many others from
special-interest groups in education, communications, and early
childhood. In 1999, he was inducted into the Television Hall of
Fame. His life and work have been the subject of feature articles
in national publications, including LIFE, Reader's Digest, Parents,
Esquire, Parade, and TV Guide. In 2002, President George W. Bush
presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian honor, recognizing his contribution to the well-being
of children and a career in public television that demonstrates
the importance of kindness, compassion and learning. On January
1, 2003, in his last public appearance, Fred Rogers served as a
Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, and tossed the
coin for the Rose Bowl Game.
Fred Rogers was the composer and lyricist of over 200 songs, the
author of numerous books for children, including the First Experience
series and the Let's Talk About It series, and the author of many
books for adults, including the Mister Rogers Playtime Book, You
Are Special, The Giving Box, Mister Rogers Talks with Parents, and
Dear Mister Rogers: Does It Ever Rain In Your Neighborhood?. His
most recent book, The Mister Rogers Parenting Book, was praised
by Publishers Weekly for the "qualities of warmth and attentiveness
that translate very well into this brief yet thorough parenting
guide."
Fred Rogers received more than 40 honorary degrees from colleges
and universities, including Yale University, Hobart and William
Smith, Carnegie Mellon University, Boston University, Saint Vincent
College, University of Pittsburgh, North Carolina State University,
University of Connecticut, Dartmouth College, Waynesburg College,
and his alma mater, Rollins College.
Rogers was chairman of Family
Communications, Inc. the nonprofit company that he formed in
1971 to produce MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD and that has since diversified
into non-broadcast materials that reflect the same philosophy and
purpose: to encourage the healthy emotional growth of children and
their families. Almost 900 episodes of MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD
comprise an evergreen library which is offered each year to PBS
stations. MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD is the longest- running program
on public television.
Fred Rogers died on February 27, 2003 at his home in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife Joanne Rogers, their two
sons and two grandsons.
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