System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers
March 20, 1928 - February 27, 2003
Fred Rogers at the age of 74 years, host of the public television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" for more than 30 years, died of cancer early Thursday at his Pittsburgh home. He had been diagnosed with stomach cancer sometime after the holidays.
He was born Fred McFeely Rogers in 1928 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He 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. He 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, he moved back to Pennsylvania. The station was not yet on the air, and he 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. He served as puppeteer, composer, and organist.
During off-duty hours, he 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, he was invited to create a program for the CBC in Canada, which the head of children's programming there dubbed MISTER ROGERS. It was on this series that he made his on-camera debut as the program's host. When he, his wife, and two sons returned to Pittsburgh in 1966, he incorporated segments of the CBC into a new series that was distributed by the Eastern Educational Network. This series was called MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD. In 1968 it was made available for national distribution through the National Educational Television (NET) which later became Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
He 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."
He 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.
He 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.
He is survived by his wife Joanne Rogers, their two sons and two grandsons.
