“I’d love to have guests and present a whole smorgasbord of ways for the children to choose,” he’d say later, recounting his early idea for a show. “Some child might choose painting; some child might choose playing the cello. There are so many ways of saying who we are and how we feel. Ways that don’t hurt anybody. And it seems to me that this is a

After an elegant wedding on June 9, 1952, and a honeymoon in Europe, the newlyweds made their home in New York, where Fred was quickly climbing the ladder at NBC. Higher-ups at the network were even considering him as a potential host of an upcoming variety show when another call from his parents changed the course of his life once again.

But as he took drink orders and ran errands, Fred was also watching the pioneers of modern television shape the future of the entertainment industry. His bosses included Sylvester “Pat” Weaver, creator of The Today Show, and Kirk Browning, whose many accolades included four Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.

Jim Rogers, on the other hand, gave Fred his full support. Even though he didn’t fully understand his son’s vision, he used his connections to help Fred land his first job after graduation: an entry-level position at NBC.

The cheap attempt at humor “astounded” Fred, who found the behavior degrading and inappropriate for young viewers. “This could be a wonderful tool for education. Why is it being used this way?” he wondered.

What may have seemed like aimless drifting to others was actually guided by the Holy Spirit and Fred’s longstanding commitment to living a life of service.

Fred was at a loss for how exactly he would serve God and others through his career.

But as he was about to discover, committing to his “why” came easily. Discerning his “how” would be much harder.

Each year, Nancy began Christmas shopping in June, buying around 1,500 gifts that she picked out—or knitted—herself. Her husband had his own methods of radical generosity. When he died, his personal ledger book held the records of thousands of loans he’d quietly given to employees with apparently no effort at collection.