LATROBE -- Mister Rogers spent the last two years of his life planning a party, a get-together of 75 of the nation's most influential academics, filmmakers, TV producers and media mavens.

The children's TV legend wanted to start something new: a think tank for the child care providers, teachers and TV people who are, in essence, raising a generation of young Americans.

Fred McFeely Rogers died in February 2003, but he shared his dream with friends at St. Vincent College before stomach cancer ended his life at age 74.

Yesterday, officials at St. Vincent finally threw Rogers' hoped-for gathering at its Latrobe campus. They called it a symposium, but the people who took part, many of them friends and colleagues of the beloved "television neighbor," said it was a celebration of Rogers' legacy to educators, TV producers, children and parents.

The Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media, for two or three years only an idea, took its first baby steps yesterday, said Milton Chen, executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation and an advisory council member of the group.

"After a day of brainstorming ideas and talking over what Fred would have wanted, we're learning what this institution could become," Chen said. "Some of the people here really are the shepherds of Fred's legacy. He handpicked most of the people here, people informed by his work and his power as a person."

The room was full of people in charge of national foundations, graduate schools, endowments and production companies, publishing houses, broadcasting networks -- even a Benedictine abbey.

Their ideas included a possible fellowship for children's media professionals, a publication for early childhood professionals and an archive to document Rogers' life, career and philosophy.

"Pittsburgh is privileged, because Fred lived here with you, he was part of daily life. But the fact he grew up in Latrobe, that he was seminary trained ... that he viewed his show as a ministry to children, to millions of us that is a hidden history," Chen said.

St. Vincent President Jim Will said turning the day's ideas into public policy is probably years away, but the institution is well on its way to reality.

"All the ideas put forth today now go to a 16-member advisory board," he said, "and they'll come up with a plan of action. Fred saw this as an overarching, national group, meant to bring a new level of education and awareness of children age zero to eight. With families being what they are today, he was very concerned about the influence of less-than-educational day care and violent television. This center is aimed at picking up that cause and making change, making a difference."

The center is backed by a $1 million Heinz Foundation grant and another $500,000 raised from other charities, Will said.

"Fred intended to be here today. In 2000, he sat down with a few of us and started talking about what would happen to his legacy after he retired, and this was part of his plan."

Rogers didn't leave a written policy or manifesto, Will said. He wanted to bring in the experts, in case he missed something.

"He wanted consensus," Will said. "We'd made up the guest list. We were ready to go with this last year, when he died. It will take some time, but we'll carry on."