Learn about Fred Rogers and his successful PBS children's television program. In case you can't tell, my page is under construction -- I hope to add more to make it comprehensive. Thanks for visiting and come back soon for updates!
During the summer of 1999, I was fortunate enough to spend six weeks in Pittsburgh, PA as a full-time intern for Family Communications, the non-profit organization started by Fred Rogers which also oversees production of new episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. So I'll try hard to maybe get access to a scanner and put some of my pictures up here as well as writing some of the coolest things. If you have any burning questions before then, you're welcome to e-mail me. But the experience was more than I had ever expected and Mister Rogers is a wonderful person and role model for today's youth! Please check out the rest of this page which includes some of my favorite quotations from Fred Rogers, many of which I only ran across or heard during the summer while I was in Pittsburgh, and a link to an article about Mister Rogers.
MR. ROGERS LINKS
FACTS ABOUT MR. ROGERS:
- The PBS television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is the longest-running children's television program to date. In February, 2001 Mister Rogers retired and continued work with his nonprofit organization.
- Fred Rogers was born on March 20, 1928 -- unfortunately, he died of stomach cancer a few weeks before what would have been his 75th birthday
- Mister Rogers started each day by waking up very early and swimming at the YMCA and doing quiet reading
- Fred Rogers enjoyed the movies Being There (which he actually makes a brief appearance in) and Dead Poets Society
- Fred Rogers' favorite book was a children's book...The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery -- check it out if you haven't already. He liked books about relationships and also liked The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Fred Rogers was a strict vegetarian
- Fred Rogers wrote scripts for the television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
- Fred Rogers is an accomplished piano player and wrote many of his own songs for programs -- he liked jazz music
- Fred Rogers was an ordained minister for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with a calling to serve young people through public television and was in favor of diversity and found peace and social justice issues very important
- Mister Rogers' favorite Bible passage was “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God’s Weakness is stronger than human strength.” – I Cor. 1:25
- Sometimes Mister Rogers' grandson came to visit while episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood or The Neighborhood of Make-Believe were being filmed
- Fred Rogers has a non-profit organization, Family Communications, Inc, which helps day care providers and at-risk families and still continues to do this work
- One program Mister Rogers enjoyed is Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman (where he played a guest role as a Presbyterian minister on one episode)
- Mister Rogers' favorite Crayola crayon color was lemon yellow and his favorite color is yellow – he’s color blind and can’t see too many other colors
- Mister Rogers' mother knitted the sweaters he first wore on the television program
- If you have been positively affected by Mister Rogers, take a moment to express the good that he has shared with you! His staff and family would be happy to hear about it!
more to come...
MISTER ROGERS QUOTES AND SAYINGS:
- "If only you could sense how important you are to the lives
of those you meet; how important you can be to people you
may never even dream of. There is something of yourself
that you leave at every meeting with another person."
- “In the external scheme of things, this evening is as brief as the twinkling of an eye yet such twinklings is what eternity is made of.”
- "True wisdom is never separate from compassion.” -- lesson Fred Rogers learned from a mentor of his, Margaret McFarland
- "What really matters is whether the alphabet is used for the declaration of war or for the description of a sunrise.”
- "All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me.”
- "The first four years of life are more important in the developing of a functioning human being than the first four years of college.”
- "I think God is at the junction of every choice we make and is with us as our choices unfold.”
- “I love whimsy, don’t you? If you’re going to be working for children, you need to do your best not to lose your childlikeness…it’s wonderful to be able to just be yourself.”
- “Life is for service.” – simply framed saying in Fred Rogers’ office
- “There’s so much more to everyone you will ever meet than will ever meet your eye.”
- "There's only one in this wonderful world... You are special."
- When asked what the greatest event in American history was, Fred Rogers responded, “I can’t say, however I suspect that like so many ‘great’ events, it was something very simple and very quiet with little or no fanfare (such as forgiving someone else for a deep hurt) which eventually changed the course of history. The really important “great” things
are never the center stage of life’s drama. They’re always “in the wings.” That’s why it’s so essential for us to be mindful of the humble and the deep rather than the flashy and the superficial.”
- When asked whom he admired, Mister Rogers responded in this way: “Jesus of Nazareth. Even though people wanted to make him a powerful ruler, he chose to be faithful to God as he knew God to be. He longed for society to know the kind of peace which comes from taking care of each one as a loving neighbor.”
- story I found in my Mister Rogers clippings (from an interview in 2002):
“I’m so convinced that the Holy Spirit will guide us when we are asking for that. I wouldn’t have ever dreamed that I would have become Mister Rogers.
I’ll tell you a little story. I took this seminary course when I was younger. I used to go on my lunch hour. After the semester I went to Nantucket, which is the usual place we go in the summer. And I had heard that this very famous preacher was going to come to the chapel there. I could hardly wait to hear him. Well, I got there and he had cancelled because of sickness. This man was filling in for him.
My wife and I were there with some friends sitting beside us. And I sat there thinking, as this man was preaching, “This is the worst sermon I have ever heard in my life!”
Thank God I didn’t say anything, because when it was over, I turned to one of our friends and I was astounded. She had tears in her eyes. She said to me, ‘He said exactly what I needed to hear.’ She had come in need, and I had come in judgement.
So I am convinced that someone doing his or her best, whether it’s television or writing or whatever, that message is taken and translated in the space that goes to the person in need and meets that need. That was a seminal experience for me.”
REMEMBERING MISTER ROGERS
I hope to add more to this page soon. There's a livejournal community called bemyneighbor, which was just started, and a guestbook-like thing for the most major Pittsburgh newspaper (The Post? I should know this...I'll check back in and update this).
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