You would be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Fred McFeely Rogers is the man behind that show and the dream of bringing education to children and families through mass media.

Rogers began this dream at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music composition in 1951. After graduating Rogers launched his career in broadcast television with NBC as assistant producer for The Voice of Firestone and later as floor director for The Lucky Strike Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and the NBC Opera Theatre.

In 1953 Rogers moved back to Pennsylvania at the request of WQED, the nation’s first community-sponsored educational television station. One of the first programs he produced there was called The Children’s Corner where several of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood characters made their first appearances.