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 editing the page to add missing items, with references to 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
• 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
• Trevor Perkins - Entrepreneurs

References

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