Fred Rogers AKA Mr. Rodgers.
1928 - 2003
I had never watched his show unfortunately seeing how It ran from 1966 to 2001 (Technically it ran since 1962 and even had its origins back in 1953, but the show didn't have its famous title until 66). But watching the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? really put his legacy into perspective. His whole reason for creating "Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood" was because "Kid's deserved better" when it came to children's programming. Instead of acting out a character, he sought out to be as honest as possible with children and adults (including those who worked on the set) as he covered a wide range of topics such as dealing with emotions, competition, death, self worth, divorce, war, and even the September 11th attacks as well. Whether he wanted to comfort kids or just say hello, he would talk to them face to face as he brought out some of the puppets from the show as if an actual episode were being filmed. In short, Mr. Rodgers was there for us, and seeing how nowadays we keep forgetting about how special we really are despite beating ourselves up in an age of competition, I think we need him more than ever.
Obviously a paragraph isn't enough to do this man justice, so the least I would do is to watch the aforementioned documentary listed in bold
"You've made this day a special day, by just your being you. There's no person in the whole world like you; and I like you just the way you are." - Fred Rogers
