Parade Magazine names “Mister Rogers” among the top 25 graduation speakers.  Fred is featured in their mid-May issue along with such inspiring speakers as Winston Churchill, Randy Pausch, and J.K. Rowling. 

Here's a part of what Fred Rogers said at his 2002 Dartmouth commencement address:

…who are those who have helped you become the person that you are? Anyone who has ever graduated from a college, anyone who has ever been able to sustain a good work, has had at least one person and often many who have believed in him or her. We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others.

I'd like to give you all an invisible gift. A gift of a silent minute to think about those who have helped you become who you are today. Some of them may be here right now. Some may be far away. Some…may even be in Heaven. But wherever they are, if they've loved you and encouraged you and wanted what was best in life for you, they're right inside you. And I feel that you deserve quiet time on this special occasion to devote some thought to them.

Whomever you've been thinking about, imagine how grateful they must be that during your silent times you remember how important they are to you.

If you’d like to read the full text of the speech, read here.

In the Neighbors of All Ages section of our PBSKIDS site, you can see a clip from Fred Rogers' invocation at the 1992 Boston University Commencement.