In 1998, Mark Nason was a recent graduate from Husson University, and had just started a job as station manager at WHSN 89.3FM, part of the New England School of Communications, where he still works 21 years later. After stumbling across his TV studio mailing address, Nason decided to write a letter to a person he had always looked up to: beloved children’s television personality Fred Rogers, aka Mister Rogers.
“It was the early days of the internet, and I happened to come across his mailing address, and I just thought I’d send him a letter and tell him what he meant to me as a kid, and how much I look up to him,” said Nason, now a 42-year-old married father of two.
He dropped his letter in the mail, and didn’t think about it much until two months later, when a heavy manila envelope landed at his doorstep.
“The return address was from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Nason said. “And it was a big envelope. I was a little in shock.”
Inside was a letter personally written to Nason from Rogers, thanking him for his letter and commenting specifically on Nason’s interest in teaching his students how to be effective communicators. Rogers included copies of several studies done over the years about broadcasting as an educational tool for children.
“I tell people that there’s no crease, because it came in a big envelope, because he went out of his way to make sure I had that information,” Nason said. “It really speaks to the kind of person he was.”
Nason had the letter framed, and it has hung on his office wall at NESCOM ever since. Although he has not made his career in television, nor does he work with very young children as Mister Rogers did, Nason said he tries to live by the television icon’s philosophy as much as he can in his professional life — particularly when he works with first-year students who are struggling to adjust to life as young adults.
“I think Mister Rogers really led by example, and I think that’s what I try to do,” Nason said. “I try to be nice to everybody. I never want to make anybody feel stupid. I tell students all the time, ‘It’s OK if you don’t know something.’ I want people to feel like they can come talk to me whenever they want.”
Though “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” has not regularly been broadcast on PBS for some time, Mister Rogers has never really left the public’s imagination, even after his death in 2003. With recent movies such as the documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and the new Tom Hanks-starring biopic, “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood,” in movie theaters this weekend, Mister Rogers is as popular as he’s ever been.
“It just goes to show that the things he taught are really timeless,” Nason said. “We’re all in the same neighborhood.”
