Fred Rogers
In 2002, Fred McFeely Rogers was named a Library of Congress Living Legend — a recognition that gathered into a single designation the many roles he had occupied across more than three decades of public life: television presenter, puppeteer, composer, songwriter, singer, screenwriter, educator, Christian minister, and author.
Rogers was born on March 20, 1928, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. His education took him through several institutions, among them Rollins College, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Thiel College, Dartmouth College, and the University of Pittsburgh. That breadth of formation — musical, theological, academic — shaped the range of work he would go on to pursue. Ordained as a Christian minister, he carried that vocation alongside his other roles rather than in place of them. Known professionally as Mister Rogers, he created, produced, and hosted the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001 and for which he served as showrunner throughout its run.
The honors that accumulated over the course of his career reflected the span of what he did. A Daytime Emmy Award and a Peabody Award acknowledged his work in television. The Presidential Medal of Freedom recognized his contributions as a citizen of the United States. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame placed him among figures drawn from across the entertainment world — a notable position for someone whose primary audience had always been very young children.
Rogers died on February 27, 2003, in Pittsburgh. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, received during his lifetime, remains one of the most concrete measures of the regard in which his work as an educator, minister, and television producer was held by the time of his death.
Quotes by Fred Rogers
Fred Rogers's insights on:
Shyness isn't something that just children feel. Anybody can feel shy. And one reason we feel that way is that we're not sure other people will like us just the way we are.
The roots of a child's ability to cope and thrive, regardless of circumstance, lie in that child's having had at least a small, safe place in which, in the companionship of a loving person, that child could discover that he or she was lovable and capable of loving in return.
We need to help people discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.
The bond between baby or toddler and its mother is potentially very strong. It can stand a great deal of competition.
When I see a baby quietly staring at his or her own hands... or a toddler off in a corner putting something into a cup and then taking it out, over and over again... or a preschooler lying in the grass daydreaming, I like to think that they, in their own ways, are "alone in the best room" of their houses, using the solitude they need to find the courage to grow.
The way you would draw a tree is different from the way anyone else would draw a tree-- and that's the way it's supposed to be.
What seems to help parents most is trying to distinguish what is possible for their children and what isn't.
To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now--and to go on caring even through times that may bring us pain.