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Fred Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) was the host of the internationally acclaimed children's television show , as he became known to millions of viewers, was an ordained Presbyterian minister who lived and worked in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area for most of his life.

Rogers' show won four Emmy awards, including one for lifetime achievement. He also received a Pea Award in 1983, "in recognition of 25 beautiful years in the neighborhood." On July 9, 2002, Fred Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions to children's education. "Fred Rogers has proven that television can soothe the soul and nurture the spirit and teach the very young," said President George W. Bush at the presentation.

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Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Pittsburgh. Following secondary school, he studied at Dartmouth College in Hanover between 1946 and 1948 before transfering to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He received a BA in music composition there in 1951. In 1954, he began working at WQED Pittsburgh as a puppeteer on a local children's television series, ed live TV, and developed many of the puppets, characters and music used in his later work, such as King Friday the XIII, and Curious X the Owl.

During this period, for eight years he gave up lunch breaks to study theology at nearby Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He had planned to enter seminary after college, but had been diverted into television. Rogers, however, was not interested in preaching, and after his ordination as a Presbyterian minister in 1962, he was specifically charged to continue his work with children's TV. He had also done work at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development.

In 1963, moved to Toronto where he was contracted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to develop a 15 minute children's television program: 'MisteRogers', which would be Fred's debut in front of the camera. The show was a hit with kids, but only lasted for three seasons on the network. Many of his famous set pieces such as the Trolly, Eiffel Tower, the 'tree', 'castle' were all created by designers at the CBC.

While on production in Canada, Fred brought with him his friend and understudy Ernie Coombs - who would go on to create "Mr. Dressup" a very successful and long running children's show in Canada which in many ways was similar to the Mr. Rogers program.

In 1966 he acquired the rights for his program and moved the show to WQED in Pittsburgh, incorporating parts of the CBC program into the new show he developed for the Eastern Educational Network to cities including Boston, Massachusetts, Washington, DC and New York City.

In 1972 Rogers was the commencement speaker for the graduation ceremony at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

In 2002 Rogers gave the Commencement Address at Dartmouth College.

Rogers was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity.

In 2003, a month before his death, Rogers was a Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, serving with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby.

Distribution of began on National Educational Television on February 19, 1968. The following year the show moved to the PBS network, where it continues to be broadcast today. The last set of new episodes was taped in December 2000 and began airing on August 2001.

After returning to Pittsburgh, he was an active congregational member in the Sixth Presbyterian church of Pittsburgh until his death.

Each show began the same way, with Mister Rogers coming home and singing his theme song, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and changing into comfortable shoes and a zippered cardigan sweater. One of these sweaters is on display at the Smithsonian Institution, a nod to Rogers' influence in American culture.

The show's target audience was chiefly pre-school children and featured none of the animation or fast pace of . Rogers composed all the music for his show. A typical episode might see him have an earnest conversation with his television audience, interact with live guests, take a field trip to a nearby place like a bakery or music store, and a session with the puppets of his "Neighborhood of Make-Believe". The neighborhood featured a trolley (with its own chiming theme song), a castle and various citizens of the kingdom, including King Friday the XIII.

Mister Rogers was concerned with teaching children to love themselves and others. He also tried to address common childhood fears with comforting songs and skits. For example, one of his famous songs explains how you can't be pulled down the bathtub drain—because you won't fit. He even once took a trip to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to show children that a hospital is not a place to be afraid of.

During the Gulf War, he assured children that all children in the neighborhood would be well cared-for, and asked parents to promise to take care of their children. The still timely and reassuring message was aired again by PBS during the media storm that preceded the military action against Iraq in 2003.

Guest stars were often surprised to find that he was a perfectionist, unwilling to let half-baked ad-libbing go on the air. He thought children were people and deserved shows as good as anything else on TV. Guests on the show ranged from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to actor and .

Rogers is quoted as saying, "I got into television because I hated it so. And I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen."

His gentle manner has been lampooned by some comedians, notably a parody called "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood," on by Eddie Murphy in the 1980s. Rogers found the routine funny and affectionate. [1] When Murphy met Rogers, he embraced him and respectfully pronounced him "the real Mister Rogers". Garrison Keillor's interviewed Rogers and led the story with an anecdote. Apparently Rogers had been driving the same car for years, an old second-hand Impala. Then it was stolen from its parking spot near the WQED studio. Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by local news outlets, and general shock swept across town. Within 48 hours the car was back in the spot where he left it, along with a note saying "If we'd known it was yours, we never would have taken it!" [2]

He also appeared as a guest on some other shows, for example on the children's show , where he played himself (though he was an aardvark, like Arthur).

Rogers succumbed to stomach cancer a short time after his retirement at the age of 74. His remains are entombed in a family crypt in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

On March 4, 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 111 by a vote of 412-0 honoring Rogers "for his legendary service to the improvement of the lives of children, his steadfast commitment to demonstrating the power of compassion, and his dedication to spreading kindness through example."

dlOn March 5, The U.S. Senate unanimously passed S.Con. Resolution 16 to commemorate the life of Fred Rogers.Although the U.S. Senate chose to honor Rogers for his work in children's television, the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, {said} they will protest his activities by also picketing the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, PBS, and WQED TV Pittsburgh on April 13 and 14.Shirley Phelps-Roper, the attorney for the Westboro Baptist Church, explained that Rogers, as a Presbyterian minister with a television program, had a responsibility to comment on the issue [of homosexuality]. By not doing so, she explained that he was helping to perpetuate homosexuality, which the group says falls into the category of "whoremongery and adultery, which will damn the soul forever in hell." She added that the support some Americans have given to homosexuals has been the reason behind horrible tragedies including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the crash of the NASA Shuttle Colombia, and the nightclub fire in Rhode Island.

On May 3, 2003 Fred Phelps and his church protested outside the church during the funeral of Mister Rogers.

dlThey were met by about 150 counter-demonstrators, members of gay rights and peace groups, who marched along the sidewalks and sang songs from Rogers' program while holding signs calling for love and tolerance. While there were some heated exchanges, there were no arrests either there or at three other sites -- the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham College.The protesters were no match for the thankful sentiments, solemn and cheerful music and occasional bouts of hearty laughter inside Heinz Hall."Fred gave so many people similar gifts, and he did it merely by speaking to them in an open, honest, non-threatening way," Teresa Heinz said. "He never condescended, just invited us into his conversation. He spoke to us as the people we were, not as the people others wished we were."Pittsburgh bids farewell to Fred Rogers with moving public tribute, Sunday, May 04, 2003, By Barbara Vancheri and Rob Owen, Post-Gazette Staff Writers [4]

On May 2, 2003, the International Astronomical Union announced that an asteroid, known as No. 26858, had been named "Misterrogers." The announcement was made by the director of the Henry Buhl Jr. Planetarium Observatory at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The science center worked with Rogers' Family Communications, Inc. to produce a planetarium show for preschoolers called "The Sky Above Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", which plays at planetariums across the United States.

During the controversy surrounding the invention of the videocassette recorder, Rogers was involved in supporting the manufacturers of VCRs in court. His 1979 testimony at the trial level of the case that became known as noted that he did not object to home recording of his television programs, as, for instance, by families in order to watch together at a later time. This testimony contrasted with the views of others in the television industry who objected to home recording or believed that devices to facilitate it should be taxed or regulated.

The Supreme Court considered the testimony of Rogers in its decision that held that the Betamax video recorder did not infringe copyright. The Court stated that his views were a notable piece of evidence "that many [television] producers are willing to allow private time-shifting to continue"; it even quoted his testimony in a footnote:

dl"Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the 'Neighborhood' at hours when some children cannot use it ... I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the 'Neighborhood' off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the 'Neighborhood' because that's what I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been 'You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.' Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important."

The Home Recording Rights Coalition later stated that Rogers was "one of the most prominent witnesses on this issue."

In 1969 Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications, which was a subcommittee of the Committee of Commerce. His goal was to support funding for PBS, in response to significant proposed cuts. In about fifteen minutes of testimony, Rogers eloquently spoke of the need for social and emotional education, such as that provided by public television. He passionately argued that alternative television programming like his helped encourage children to become happy and productive citizens, sometimes opposing less positive messages in media and in popular culture. He even recited the lyrics to one of his songs.

The chairman of the subcommittee, John O. Pastore, was not previously familiar with Rogers' work, and was sometimes described as gruff and impatient. However, he reported that the testimony had given him goosebumps, and declared, "Looks like you just won the twenty million dollars." The following congressional appropriation, for 1971, increased PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.

Fred Rogers is survived by his wife Joanne Rogers, their two sons and two grandsons, according to his Web site.

In the Internet meme, The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, Mr. Rogers is the ultimate winner of the showdown.Pittsburgh bids farewell to Fred Rogers with moving public tribute Barbara Vancheri and Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 4, 2003