List of people from Terre Haute, Indiana

This is a list of the people born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with the city of Terre Haute, Indiana, and its surrounding metropolitan area.

Actors and actresses

Wally Bruner – actor, television personality
Jose Pablo Cantillo – movies, television
Benjamin Scatman Crothers – musician, movies, television
Dorothy Dalton – theatre, movies
Johnnie "Scat" Davis – musician, bandleader, movies
Ross Ford – theater, movies
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher – vaudeville, theatre, movies
Jess Hahn – French movies
Chubby Johnson – movies, television
Grover Jones – screenwriter, producer, director, author
Joe Keaton – vaudeville, movies; father of actor Buster Keaton
Billy Lee – child film star
Dave Madden – movies, television; The Partridge Family
Rose Melville – actor, vaudeville, movies
Alvy Moore – movies, television – Green Acres
Maurice Ransford – motion pictures art director
Edward Roseman – vaudeville, movies
Valeska Suratt – theater, silent movies, vaudeville
Bill Thompson – voice actor, Fibber McGee and Molly
Jerry Van Dyke – television, movies
Stuart Vaughn – actor, award-winning director, Obie Award, Drama Desk Award
Hunter von Leer – movies

Artists

Mick Mars - Motley Crew
Amalia Küssner Coudert – miniaturist
John Rogers Cox – painter
Ray H. French – printmaker
John "Dok" Hager – cartoonist
Harriet Goodhue Hosmer – sculptor
Bryan Hunt – sculptor
Edith Pfau – painter, sculptor, art educator
Janet Scudder – sculptor
D. Omer Seamon – painter
Gilbert Brown Wilson – artist, muralist, motion pictures

Athletes

Vic Aldridge – baseball
Ray Arcel – boxing trainer, International Boxing Hall of Fame
Clint Barmes – baseball
Armon Bassett – basketball player with Ironi Ramat Gan of Israel
Bruce Baumgartner – wrestling, James E. Sullivan Award winner, U.S. Olympic gold medalist
Greg Bell – track and field; U.S. Olympic gold medalist
Shakir Bell – college and CFL football
Junius Bibbs – African-American college football and baseball player; professional baseball player in the Negro leagues
Larry Bird – basketball player, coach, NBA executive
Mordecai Brown – baseball, National Baseball Hall of Fame
Cheryl Bridges – cross country and track; held the World Record in the marathon and US records in 3 mile and 5,000 meter
Bill Butland – baseball
Cam Cameron – football, college and NFL football coach
Max Carey – baseball, National Baseball Hall of Fame
Barry Collier – basketball coach, athletic administrator
Bruce Connatser – professional baseball
Roger Counsil – swimmer, gymnastics coach
Glenn M. Curtis – high school, college and pro basketball coach
Josh Devore – baseball
Terry Dischinger – basketball, U.S. Olympic gold medalist
Brian Dorsett – baseball
Jim Jumbo Elliott – baseball
Danny Etling – football
Brian Evans – basketball
Bud Fowler – baseball
Tiger Jack Fox – boxing
Rufus Gilbert – baseball, coach
Vencie Glenn – football
Alex Graman – baseball
Scott Haffner – basketball
Frank Hamblen – basketball, NBA coach
Russ Hathaway – football
John Hazen – basketball
Rick Heller – college baseball coach
Aubrey Herring – track, hurdles, NCAA champion
Eddie Hickey – basketball coach, Basketball Hall of Fame
Bill Hodges – basketball coach
Paul Humphrey – football
Tunch Ilkin – college and NFL football
Mark Jackson – football
Tommy John – baseball
Neil Johnston – baseball, basketball, Basketball Hall of Fame
Doug Kay – football coach
Bob King – basketball coach, administrator
Duane Klueh – basketball, tennis, player, coach
Greg Lansing – basketball coach
Don Lash – Olympic track, Sullivan Award winner
Danny Lazar – baseball
Bob Slick Leonard – basketball, ABA and NBA coach, Basketball Hall of Fame
Bryan Leturgez – track and field, Olympic bobsled
Clyde Lovellette – basketball, U.S. Olympic gold medalist, Basketball Hall of Fame
Curt Mallory – football, college coach
Johnny Mann – baseball
Wally Marks – athlete, athletic administrator Indiana State University
Thad Matta – college basketball coach
Tony McGee – football tight end
Dave McGinnis – football, college and NFL coach
Kevin McKenna – basketball, player, coach
Trent Miles – football coach
Rick Minter – football coach
Erica Moore – track & field
Paul Moss – two-time college All-American, NFL
Albert "Cod" Myers – baseball
Nancy Hanks – harness racing
Art Nehf – baseball, pitched in four World Series
Bill Nelson – baseball
Steve Newton – basketball, player, coach
Carl Nicks – basketball
Greg Oden – basketball
Jake Odum – basketball
Brian Omogrosso – baseball
Jake Petricka – baseball
Jamie Petrowski – football
Josh Phegley – baseball
Dennis Raetz – football, player, coach
Kurt Rambis – basketball, player, coach
Rick Ray (basketball) – coach
Colin Rea – baseball
A. J. Reed – baseball player
Cheryl Reeve – basketball coach, WNBA
Mike Sanford – college football coach
Dave Schellhase – basketball, player, coach
Ed Seward – "Kid" Seward, baseball
Dexter Shouse – basketball
Zane Smith – baseball
Gordon B. Stauffer – basketball coach
Mitch Stetter – baseball
Ace Stewart – baseball
Ryan Strausborger – baseball
Jerry Sturm – football
Charles Bernard Bud Taylor – boxer, bantamweight champion, International Boxing Hall of Fame
Harry Taylor – baseball
Joe Thatcher – baseball
Debi Thomas – world champion figure skater
Kurt Thomas – gymnast, James E. Sullivan Award winner
Anthony Thompson – football player
Lyle Bud Tinning – baseball
Paul Dizzy Trout – baseball
Robert Bobby Turner – college and NFL player and coach
Royce Waltman – college basketball coach
Bob Warn – college baseball coach
Steve Weatherford – football
Mike Westhoff – college and NFL football coach
John Wooden – basketball, Basketball Hall of Fame

Military

Charles G. Abrell – Medal of Honor, Korean War
George W. Biegler – Medal of Honor, Philippine–American War
Charles Cruft – teacher, newspaper publisher, lawyer, Union Civil War general
William Henry Harrison – Governor Indiana Territory, commander of Fort Harrison, President of the United States
Nick Popaditch – Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, Gulf War, Iraq War
Peter J. Ryan – Medal of Honor, Civil War
Josiah Snelling – military leader, commander of Fort Harrison
John T. Sterling – Medal of Honor, Civil War
William Maxwell Wood – naval surgeon, first Surgeon General

Musicians

Leo Baxter – musician, composer, band director
Steven Caldwell – musician, folk singer
Scatman Crothers – musician, actor
Johnnie "Scat" Davis – singer, bandleader
Paul Dresser – vaudeville actor, composer, "On The Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," "My Gal Sal"
Edwin Franko Goldman – bandleader, composer
Indiana Gregg – singer, songwriter
Mick Mars – born Robert Alan Deal; Mötley Crüe guitarist
Hank Roberts – jazz cellist, vocalist
Claude Thornhill – pianist, arranger, bandleader, composer

Politicians

Simon Bamberger – governor of Utah
Birch Bayh – U.S. Senator
Evan Bayh – governor of Indiana and U.S. Senator
Thomas H. Blake – U.S. Congressman, Commissioner of the U.S. Land Office, resident trustee of Wabash and Erie Canal
Newton Booth – governor of California, U.S. Senator
James Bopp – conservative attorney known for Citizens United v. FEC; Republican National Committeeman
Joseph Gurney Cannon – Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
P. Pete Chalos – four-term mayor of Terre Haute
John G. Davis – U.S. Congressman
John Wesley Davis – physician, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, governor of the Oregon Territory
Eugene Victor Debs (1855–1926) – Socialist candidate for president
Joseph V. Graff – U.S. Congressman
Abram A. Hammond – lieutenant governor of Indiana, governor of Indiana
Edward A. Hannegan – U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, diplomat
Russell Benjamin Harrison – son of President Benjamin Harrison
William H. Harrison – five-term U.S. Congressman^[1]
Nicholas Hood – Detroit City Council member and Congregationalist minister
Elisha Mills Huntington – attorney, federal judge, Commissioner of U.S. Land Office
Virginia E. Jenckes – first U.S. Congresswoman from Indiana
Brian Kerns – Republican Congressman
John Edward Lamb – Congressman, political leader
William Carr Lane – military surgeon, mayor St. Louis, governor New Mexico Territory
Dick Thompson Morgan – author, U.S. Congressman
John H. O'Neall – U.S. Congressman
P.B.S. Pinchback – politician, governor of Louisiana
Edward James Roye – merchant, president of Liberia
Everett Sanders – U.S. Congressman, secretary to President Calvin Coolidge, chairman of the Republican National Committee
John Gould Stephenson – fifth Librarian of Congress
Richard Wigginton Thompson – U.S. Congressman and Secretary of the Navy under President Rutherford B. Hayes
Ralph Tucker – five-term mayor of Terre Haute
John Palmer Usher – Indiana Attorney General, Secretary of Interior under President Abraham Lincoln
Daniel Wolsey Voorhees – U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator
Fred Wampler – U.S. Congressman
James Whitcomb – Commissioner of U.S. Land Office, governor of Indiana, U.S. Senator

Scientists and engineers

Willis Blatchley – scientist, naturalist
H. R. Cox (Herald Rea Cox) – bacteriologist
Ernest R. Davidson – chemist, educator, National Medal of Science recipient
David Deming – scientist, author, professor at the University of Oklahoma
Lee Alvin DuBridge – educator, physicist, college administrator
Barton Warren Evermann – biologist
Thomas Lomar Gray – educator, engineer, college administrator
Sam Hulbert – educator, scientist, inventor
James Arthur Lovell, Jr. – astronaut
William R. McKeen, Jr. – engineer, inventor of the McKeen railmotor and McKeen Car; founder of the McKeen Motor Car Company
Thomas Corwin Mendenhall – physicist
William A. Noyes – chemist, educator, recipient of Priestley Medal and Gibbs Medal
John Adelbert Parkhurst – astronomer
William Wesley Peters – architect, structural engineer
Abe Silverstein – engineer, space aerodynamicist
Jill Bolte Taylor – "The Singing Scientist," neuroanatomist, author
Edward Tryon – astrophysicist, cosmologist
Robert Tryon – engineering fatigue analyst

Writers

Lyman Abbott – minister, magazine publisher and editor
Claude Bowers – journalist, author, diplomat
Troy Brownfield – journalist, comic book writer, author, Prince Dracula
Winnifred Harper Cooley – author, journalist
Helen Corey – Syrian-American cookbook author, The Art of Syrian Cookery (1962) and Food from Biblical Lands (1989)
George W. Cutter – The Song of Steam, Buena Vista
Theodore Dreiser – An American Tragedy
Max Ehrmann – A Prayer, Desiderata
Philip Jose Farmer – science fiction author
Robert Greenleaf – author
Ida Husted Harper – suffragist, newspaper editor, History of Woman Suffrage, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony
John Jakes – Kent Family Chronicles
Howard Andrew Jones - American speculative fiction and fantasy author and editor
William Harrison Mace – educator, historian, author, Lincoln, The Man of the People
Edward J. Meeman – journalist and environmentalist
Terry Pettus – journalist
Susie Lankford Shorter – wrote Heroines of African Methodism (1891)
Virginia Sorensen – winner of 1957 Newbery Medal
William Strunk, Jr. – educator, author, "The Elements of Style"
Martina Swafford — poet
Agness Underwood – first female city editor of a metropolitan daily
Will Weng – author, crossword puzzles editor New York Times

Others

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin – educator, religious leader
Eva Mozes Kor – Holocaust survivor, founder of CANDLES Holocaust Museum
Robert Hayes Gore – newspaper executive, author, former Governor of Puerto Rico
Matt Branam – late college president of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Ellen Church Marshall – first airline stewardess
Horace G. Burt – president, Union Pacific Railroad
Ray S. Cline – CIA, author
Lotus Coffman – educator, college administrator
W.C. Coup – circus magnate
Hubert L. Dreyfus – philosopher, educator, author
Stuart Dreyfus – educator, author
Mari Hulman George – philanthropist
Tony George – business executive, former president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Robert K. Greenleaf – business executive, author, educator
William King Harvey – CIA, "America's James Bond"
Anton Tony Hulman – industrialist, philanthropist; Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Mary Fendrich Hulman – business executive, philanthropist
Robert Hunter – social reformer, author, golf course architect
Martin David Jenkins – educator, late college president of Morgan State University
Robert Jerry – dean, University of Florida Levin College of Law
William G. Kerckhoff – business executive, developer of Beverly Hills, California
Abraham Markle – miller, Canadian legislator, soldier, village proprietor
Edison E. Oberholtzer – educator, founder of the University of Houston
Frank Popoff – business executive, current president of Dow Chemical and Chemical Financial Corp.
Wanda Ramey – pioneer broadcast journalist
Orville Redenbacher – popcorn entrepreneur; born in Brazil, Indiana; Vigo County farm agent
Peter Riedel – pilot, gliding champion
Chauncey Rose – railroad baron, philanthropist
Lou Anna Simon – current college president Michigan State University
William Truesdale – railroad executive
Clarence Abiathar Waldo – educator, author
Leroy A. Wilson – business executive, former president of AT&T
William Winter – explorer, author