Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) was a television personality. He was a 1946 graduate of Greater Latrobe High School, in Latrobe, PA, where he was student council president as well as a member of Quill and Scroll and the National Honor Society. Rogers started working in television in 1951, when he took a job with NBC. In 1954, he moved to WQED, a public TV station in Pittsburgh, becoming a puppeteer for a local children’s show. (It was here that he developed some of the puppets that he’d later use in his own program.) He then spent a few years in Toronto, where he developed his first show (called Misterogers). After acquiring the rights to Misterogers from CBC, he returned to WQED. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood debuted in 1968, moving to PBS the following year. That same year, Rogers spoke up in support of funding for PBS, appearing before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications. Not only did he save the non-profit from budget cuts; he also enabled it to get increased funding. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which Rogers both created and hosted (and for which he composed most of the music), made him a children’s television icon and ran until 2001. An asteroid (26858 Misterrogers) was named after him in 2003, shortly after he passed away. The Smithsonian has one of his trademark sweaters (all of which were knitted by his mother) on display as a “Treasure of American History.”
Awards (partial):
- Peabody Award. 1992
- Television Hall of Fame. 1999
- Presidential Medal of Freedom. 2002
Source: Wikipedia