Fred Rogers

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Presbyterian minister
Years active1951–2003
Spouse
Joanne Byrd
(m. 1952)
Children2
AwardsPresidential Medal of Freedom (2002)
Official nameFred McFeely Rogers (1928–2003)
TypeRoadside
DesignatedJune 11, 2016
Signature

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister.[1] He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.

Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Rogers earned a bachelor's degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. He began his television career at NBC in New York, returning to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for children's programming at NET (later PBS) television station WQED. He graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a bachelor's degree in divinity in 1962 and became a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began his thirty-year collaboration with child psychologist Margaret McFarland. He also helped develop the children's shows The Children's Corner (1955) for WQED in Pittsburgh and Misterogers (1963) in Canada for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1968, he returned to Pittsburgh and adapted the format of his Canadian series to create Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It ran for 33 years and was critically acclaimed for focusing on children's emotional and physical concerns, such as death, sibling rivalry, school enrollment, and divorce.

Rogers died of stomach cancer in 2003, aged 74. His work in children's television has been widely lauded, and he received more than forty honorary degrees and several awards, including a

Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame
in 1999. Rogers influenced many writers and producers of children's television shows, and his broadcasts provided comfort during tragic events, even after his death.

Early life

Rogers was born in 1928, at 705 Main Street in

knitted sweaters for American soldiers from western Pennsylvania who were fighting in Europe and regularly volunteered at the Latrobe Hospital. Initially dreaming of becoming a doctor, she settled for a life of hospital volunteer work. Her father, Fred Brooks McFeely, after whom Rogers was named, was an entrepreneur.[4]

Rogers grew up in a large three-story brick house at 737 Weldon Street in Latrobe.[2][5] He had a sister, Elaine, whom the Rogerses adopted when he was eleven years old.[5] Rogers spent much of his childhood alone, playing with puppets, and also spent time with his grandfather. He began playing the piano when he was five.[6] Through an ancestor who immigrated from Germany to the U.S., Johannes Meffert (born 1732), Rogers is the sixth cousin of actor Tom Hanks, who portrays him in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019).[7]

Rogers had a difficult childhood. Shy, introverted, and overweight, he was frequently homebound after suffering bouts of

ventriloquist dummy, he had [stuffed] animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom".[8]

Rogers in Latrobe High School's 1946 yearbook.

Rogers attended

magna cum laude[4] in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music.[12]

He then attended

minister by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in 1963.[13][12][14] His work as an ordained minister, rather than to pastor a church, was to minister to children and their families through television. He regularly appeared before church officials to maintain his ordination.[15]

Career

Early work

Rogers wanted to enter

Gabby Hayes's children's show, and as an assistant producer of The Voice of Firestone.[21][22][23]

Josie Carey and Rogers filming an Attic scene in The Children's Corner. Over Carey's shoulder is Daniel S. (Striped) Tiger, and to the right of Rogers is King Friday XIII.

In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer at

public television station WQED. Josie Carey worked with him to develop the children's show The Children's Corner, which Carey hosted. Rogers worked off-camera to develop puppets, characters, and music for the show. He used many puppet characters developed during this time, such as Daniel the Striped Tiger (named after WQED's station manager, Dorothy Daniel, who gave Rogers a tiger puppet before the show's premiere),[24] King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday (named after Rogers' wife),[25] X the Owl, Henrietta, and Lady Elaine, in his later work.[26][27] Children's television entertainer Ernie Coombs was an assistant puppeteer.[28] The Children's Corner won a Sylvania Award for best locally produced children's programming in 1955 and was broadcast nationally on NBC.[29][30][31] While working on the show, Rogers attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development,[31][32] where he began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland—who, according to Rogers' biographer Maxwell King, became his "key advisor and collaborator" and "child-education guru".[33] Much of Rogers' "thinking about and appreciation for children was shaped and informed" by McFarland.[32] She was his consultant for most of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's scripts and songs for 30 years.[33]

In 1963, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto contracted Rogers to come to Toronto to develop and host the 15-minute black-and-white children's program Misterogers; it lasted from 1963 to 1967.[28][34] It was the first time Rogers appeared on camera. CBC's children's programming head Fred Rainsberry insisted on it, telling Rogers, "Fred, I've seen you talk with kids. Let's put you yourself on the air".[35] Coombs joined Rogers in Toronto as an assistant puppeteer.[28] Rogers also worked with Coombs on the children's show Butternut Square from 1964 to 1967. Rogers acquired the rights to Misterogers in 1967 and returned to Pittsburgh with his wife, two young sons, and the sets he developed, despite a potentially promising career with CBC and no job prospects in Pittsburgh.[36][37] On Rogers' recommendation, Coombs remained in Toronto and became Rogers' Canadian equivalent of an iconic television personality, creating the children's program Mr. Dressup, which ran from 1967 to 1996.[38] Rogers' work for CBC "helped shape and develop the concept and style of his later program for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the U.S."[39]

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Rogers and François Clemmons having a foot bath in 1969, breaking a well-known color barrier[40]
Rogers changing shoes