Mr. Rogers Walking Tour

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jo Marie Hebeler jhebeler@rollins.edu (407) 646-1548 ROLLINS COLLEGE WALKING TOUR CELEBRATES MISTER ROGERS Winter Park, Fla. (February 16, 2018) - In celebration of the debut of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood 50 years ago, Rollins College will honor its most famous alumnus with a self-guided campus walking tour of memorabilia. Fred McFeely Rogers majored in music composition and graduated with distinction from Rollins College in 1951. He met his wife, fellow music student Sara Joanne Byrd, at Rollins as well. He was active at the College, serving on the chapel staff and as a member of the Community Service Club, the Student Music Guild, the French Club, the Welcoming Committee, the After Chapel Club, and the Alpha Phi Lambda fraternity. He also sang in the chapel and Bach choirs. After graduating, Rogers visited Rollins College frequently over the years and spent winter vacations in Winter Park. In 1996 the McFeely-Rogers Foundation established a music scholarship at Rollins College for aspiring musicians. “The walking tour is our way of honoring the time that Fred Rogers spent on our campus as a student and the many ways he continues to influence the Rollins College community,” said Rollins President Grant Cornwell. “His messages of self-esteem, inclusiveness, and respect still resonate clearly in our community engagement endeavors and beyond.” Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered on PBS on February 19, 1968, and continues to air across the country. In 1969 Rogers spoke at a hearing before the U.S. Senate and successfully secured funding for public television. Events are planned across the country to celebrate 50 years of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, including the unveiling of a U.S. postage stamp on March 23 and a documentary starring Tom Hanks. Fred Rogers passed away from cancer in 2003. The tour begins at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, where Mister Rogers’ sweater and sneakers, which he gave to the college in 1991, will be on display. Other stops on the tour include Tiedtke Concert Hall where a large portrait of Fred Rogers, painted by local artist Don Sondag, hangs proudly; the stone from his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which was placed on the Rollins Walk of Fame in front of his old dormitory Lyman Hall; a marble plaque by Strong Hall engraved with the words that inspired him (“Life is for Service”); and Olin Library, where a collection of books, his yearbook, personal letters, and photos from the Rollins College Archives are on view. The free self-guided tour will be available from February 20 through March 20 during Cornell Fine Arts Museum hours: Tuesday 10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Wednesday-Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday Noon to 5 p.m. Please note that the museum is closed on Mondays. Parking is available in the SunTrust parking garage on Lyman Avenue (fees apply) or in available public parking areas. Questions can be directed to the Rollins College Office of Community Relations at 407-646-1520. About Rollins College: Founded in 1885, Rollins College is Florida's oldest college. Located in Winter Park, near Orlando, Rollins is consistently ranked as one of the top regional universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to full-time undergraduate programs in the College of Liberal Arts, Rollins offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs for working adults through its evening program at the Hamilton Holt School and graduate business degree programs through its Crummer Graduate School of Business, which has been ranked a top MBA program by Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek. Rollins serves approximately 3,200 degree-seeking students annually. For more information, visit www.rollins.edu. "Like" Rollins on Facebook and follow on Twitter@RollinsCollege.