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.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

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 - Mötley Crüe
• 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
• Arvin Singh - Secretary of Health, West Virginia Department of Health, West Virginia (March 13, 2025). "Secretary Arvin Singh Bio".
• 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

References

1. "HARRISON, William Henry (1896–1990)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved November 18, 2012.