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For those who knew and loved his television program for children, Mr. Rogers needs no introduction. For those new to him, the best first meeting I can offer to you is through his words, captured by www.pbskids.org about embracing everyone as his neighbor:

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“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem. Then there are those who see the need and respond. I call these people my heroes.”

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According to urbanlegens.about.com, It was Fred Rogers’ grandfather, Fred Brooks McFeely, who first said, “You’ve made this day a special day by just you being you, Freddy, and I like you just the way you are.”
(Click for Slide- picture of him as a child)
Born in 1928 and growing up a chubby, shy, and lonely boy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, young Fred cherished his acceptance from his grandfather, who helped give him confidence by allowing him to grow. An only child until the age of 11, Fred often expressed himself through his fingers- by making up stories with hand puppets and pounding out emotions on the piano.
(Click for Slide- picture of him in college age)
As a music major in his final year of college preparing to go into the ministry, he returned home for Easter vacation and encountered his first television set. He was disgusted that this amazing new invention was being wasted on the nationwide broadcasting of people putting pies in each other’s faces. Right then and there he changed his plans and decided to work with television instead to make something better of it. His family was against it but Fred was determined.
(Click for Slide- picture of him graduating)
In 1951, after graduating from Rollins College with a bachelor’s degree in music composition, Rogers went to New York to work for NBC. Climbing the ladder from as www.fredrogerscenter.org calls it “gopher” to floor manager, he began acquiring the tools he would need by working for such programs as

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“The Kate Smith Hour” and “The Gabby Hayes Show.” It was from Gabby that Fred learned to face the television cameras as though he were speaking to one person, or as he said “just one little buckaroo.”
(Click for Slide- picture of Mr. Rogers and Dr. McFarland)

Rogers now had many tools under his belt, but was still unsure where his life should go. Dr. McFarland, his mentor, recalled that he was more in touch with his own childhood than anyone she had ever met. In fact, working with children was the channel which took all of the varied aspects that made up Fred Rogers- music composer, creator of puppet characters, story teller, television manager and performer, and even his spiritual self- and transformed him into the man who would become Mister Rogers.
(Click for Slide- Picture of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood)

He wanted to create a place where children could be themselves, and so he made sure that each half- hour program included a 15- minute visit to “The Neighborhood of Make- Believe,” a world of the imagination where caring adult humans such as Lady Aberlin, Mr. McFeely the Speedy Delivery-man, and Mayor Maggie interact as equals with hand puppets such as Lady Elaine, King Friday the Thirteenth, The Own, and shy Daniel Striped Tiger, who could each sometimes be the “difficult person.” Unfailingly each was treated with honesty and respect, and never excluded or gave up on. The characters’ feelings were talked about, and they learned how to deal with their emotions in a healthy way. Mister Rogers himself voiced these and many other puppets, and wrote each script meticulously to demonstate that talking about difficult and awkward subjects actually helps make them easier to handle, and that each of us really is acceptable just the way we are.
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According to www.goodreads.com , Fred knew that he couldn’t produce a program about accepting others unconditionally if he didn’t live that way himself. His widow, Joan, recalls that he worked especially hard at being “other-oriented,” rather than egocentric. When she would come home and tell him she was angry with someone, he would wonder what was going on in that person’s day. He knew that if we could somehow see life through their eyes, it would be much more difficult to remain angry with them and that we could even learn to love them.
(Click for slide- Mr. Rogers)
Mister Rogers’ entire life became devoted to his neighborhood- that is whomever he happened to be with at the time. According to www.emmytvlegends.com , although he was friends with celebrities, he cherished everyday with ordinary people just as much, he saw no difference between them both. Children who visited his set were given his complete attention, and from early on he committed to personally answering every single letter he received!
And so this man who had the vision of changing television, really ended up doing it. At the close of nearly each program, we hear him repeat the message that he once learned from his grandfather “You always make each day a special day. You know how- by just your being you. There’s only one person in the whole world like you, and that’s yourself. And people can like you- and your neighbor- exactly the way you are.” We know these words are true because he lived them. Although he went to heaven in 2003- that’s how he would put- I would like to give my lifetime achievement award speech to someone who actually has already won one, in 1997.
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I would like to conclude my speech with a video off of www.youtube.com of him receiving his lifetime achievement award at the Emmy’s