PITTSBURGH — Fred Rogers, popular host of the children’s TV program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and a minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), died Feb. 27. He was 74.
Rogers had recently been diagnosed with stomach cancer, the Associated Press reported.
He was a neighbor to the nation’s children on the show he produced from 1968 to 2000 at Pittsburgh public television station WQED. The final new episode was taped at the end of 2000 and aired the following August, but PBS affiliates continued to air old episodes.
“I have never really considered myself a TV star,” Rogers said in a 1995 interview. “I always thought I was a neighbor who just came in for a visit.”
Rogers, a native of Latrobe, Pa., was ordained in 1962 by the Pittsburgh Presbytery with a charge to continue to minister to children and families through his television work. Prior to his well-known show, he was an unseen puppeteer on a local WQED show.
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