List of people from Utica, New York

This article lists notable people from Utica, New York.

Academics and scientists

• Daniel Barwick – higher education administrator, teacher, author, fundraiser, journalist, and podcaster; president of Independence Community College
• Amariah Brigham – psychiatrist and founding member of American Psychiatric Association
• Robert E. Brown – ethnomusicologist, coined the term "world music"
• John Seely Brown – organizational studies researcher and author; director of PARC and chief scientist at Xerox
• James Dwight Dana - geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist
• Bob Van Dillen – meteorologist
• Elizabeth E. Farrell – educator
• Russell H. Fazio – psychologist and professor at Ohio State University
• Henry S. Fitch – herpetologist
• Asa Gray – botanist
• John P. Gray – psychiatrist; psychiatric expert in the trial for the assassination of president James A. Garfield and superintendent of the Utica Psychiatric Center
• Marilyn E. Jacox – physical chemist
• Milton Kerker – physical chemist; namesake of the Kerker effect
• Paul Krugman – economist who is a professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; columnist for the New York Times
• Cherilla Storrs Lowrey – educator and clubwoman; founder and chairwoman of The Outdoor Circle
• Otto M. Nikodym – Polish mathematician
• Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters – astronomer
• John Ballard Rendall – president of Lincoln University, Latin professor, member of Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and minister
• Robert J. Sampson – sociologist, president of the American Society of Criminology, and Harvard professor
• Deborah F. Stanley – State University of New York and president of the State University of New York at Oswego
• Susan Stone – nurse midwife; president of Frontier Nursing University
• Walter Sutton - geneticist and biologist; co-developer of the Boveri–Sutton chromosome theory
• Michael Sweet – computer scientist known for being the original developer of CUPS
• E. Fuller Torrey – psychiatrist and schizophrenia researcher
• Samuel Wells Williams – linguist, sinologist, and missionary
• Sam Wineburg – educational and cognitive psychologist
• Peter T. Wolczanski – chemist and Cornell professor

Actors and entertainers

• Lester Allen – actor, dancer, acrobat
• Kim Bass – director, screenwriter, and producer
• Yale Boss – actor
• Steven Brill – actor, film producer, director, and screenwriter ^[1]
• Adelaide Bronti – actress and operatic singer
• Victor Bumbalo – actor and playwright
• Frank Cappelli – creator of Cappelli & Company
• Dick Cerri – disc jockey
• Dick Clark – television and radio personality and television producer ^[2]
• Leonard Crofoot – actor, singer, dancer, writer and choreographer
• John Curran – director and screenwriter
• Natalie Dagwell – burlesque performer, dancer, and singer
• F. A. Dobson – cinematographer
• Frank Dumont – performer, sketch writer, and songwriter
• Robert Earle – game show host and voice actor
• John A. Ellsler – actor
• John Eskow – screenwriter
• Annette Funicello – actress and singer ^{[3] [4]}
• Donna Hanover – radio and television personality, television producer, and actress
• John William Isham – vaudeville impresario
• Jim Jackson – sportscaster and television and radio host
• Mary Lawlor – actress
• David Mancuso – disc jockey; creator of "The Loft"
• Jerry Mandy – actor
• Rex Marshall – actor, television announcer, and radio personality ^[5]
• Joseph Franz – director and actor
• Ron O'Neal – actor, director, and screenwriter
• Tiffany Pollard – television personality
• Daniel Pritzker – director and musician
• Tim Roye – sports announcer and radio host
• Ralph Sheheen – sports announcer and television host
• Hal Smith – actor
• Anna Townsend – actress and frequent Harold Lloyd collaborator
• Matteo Vittucci – dancer ^[6]

Artists and architects

• Mark Bodé – cartoonist; son of Vaughn Bodē
• Vaughn Bodē – cartoonist and illustrator; ^[7] graduated from Proctor High School ^[8]
• Neave Brown – architect and artist
• Arthur Bowen Davies – avant-garde artist and advocate of modern art
• Absalom Barrett Hallock – architect
• Maurice J. Power – sculptor
• Joe Zane – painter, sculptor, video and performance artist, and humorist

Athletes and athletics personnel

• Irving Baxter – gold medalist in the men's high jump and the pole vault at the 1900 Summer Olympics
• Alonzo Breitenstein – played baseball for the Philadelphia Quakers
• George Burns – played baseball for the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Philadelphia Phillies
• Tim Capstraw – basketball coach and color commentator
• Dave Cash – played baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, and San Diego Padres
• Dominick Dawes – ice hockey coach
• George Detore – played baseball for the Cleveland Indians
• Louie Ehrensbeck – biathlon skier who competed in the 1968 Winter Olympics
• Robert Esche – played hockey for the Phoenix Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers; president of the Utica Comets
• Jim Fairbank – played for the Philadelphia Athletics
• Chris Garrett – played football for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders
• Jimmie Hunt – played basketball for Franklin Pierce University and for the Sportist Svoge of the National Basketball League (Bulgaria).
• James Joseph – curler
• Mark Lemke – played baseball for the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox; sportscaster for the Atlanta Braves
• Dave McKeough – played baseball for the Rochester Broncos and the Philadelphia Athletics
• Art Mills – played baseball for the Boston Braves; coach for the 1945 World Series champion Detroit Tigers
• Willie Mills – played baseball for the New York Giants
• Bill Morehouse – curler
• Nick Palmieri – played hockey for the New Jersey Devils
• Hardy Richardson – played baseball for the Buffalo Bisons, Detroit Wolverines, Boston Reds, Boston Beaneaters, New York Giants, and Washington Senators.
• Len Rossi – wrestler who competed in the National Wrestling Alliance; member of the NWA Hall of Fame and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
• Bernard Russ – played football for the New England Patriots
• Michael Slive – commissioner of the Southeastern Conference
• Andy Van Slyke – played baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, and Philadelphia Phillies
• Will Smith – played football for the New Orleans Saints
• Lou Lazzaro – modified racing driver; member of the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame
• Hal White – played baseball for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, and the St. Louis Cardinals
• George Burrell Woodin – wrestler; better known by his stage name "Mr. Wrestling"

Business figures

• Richard H. Balch – Vice President of the Horrocks-Ibbotson Company, co-founder of Utica University
• Harry H. Bassett – automotive executive who served as president of Buick
• Joseph H. Boardman – CEO of Amtrak and administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration
• John Butterfield – founder of American Express
• John C. Devereux – pioneering Irish Catholic and philanthropist; co-founder of the Savings Bank of Utica
• Nicholas Devereux – financier, banker, and philanthropist; founder of St. Bonaventure University
• Arthur Hind – textile industrialist and philatelist
• Sue Mengers – talent agent
• Theron T. Pond – businessman and pharmacist; founder of Pond's
• Andy Rubin – computer programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist; founder of Android Inc.
• Arthur William Savage – inventor; founder of Savage Arms
• Richard Stark – fashion designer; co-founder of Chrome Hearts
• Kenny Friedkin – aviator and businessman; founder of Pacific Southwest Airlines
• William Williams – printer and publisher
• Frank Winfield Woolworth – entrepreneur; founder of F. W. Woolworth Company
• Steve Wynn – real estate developer and art collector best known for his involvement in the casino and hotel industry ^[9]

Lawyers and jurists

• Fritz Beebe – lawyer and chairman of the board of The Washington Post Company
• Francis Marion Burdick – legal scholar and a mayor of Utica
• John D. Caton – chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court
• Ward Hunt – associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Alexander S. Johnson – judge
• Hugh R. Jones – served as an Associate Judge on the New York Court of Appeals and as chair of the New York Commission on Judicial Nomination
• John J. Marquette – judge of the United States Tax Court
• Louis M. Martin – justice of the New York Supreme Court
• Harry S. Patten – lawyer and politician

Military figures

• William Anders – Air Force major general, electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman
• Jacksel M. Broughton – United States Air Force colonel and author; retired with 43 separate awards and decorations, including four Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Silver Stars and the highest Air Force service decoration for heroism, the presidentially-awarded Air Force Cross
• Daniel Butterfield – Union army general and Assistant Treasurer of the United States
• Mark Divine – Navy SEAL commander
• Ferris Foreman – Mexican-American War veteran, Union army colonel, and California 49er
• Edward F. Jones – Union army officer, merchant, manufacturer, author and politician
• James H. Ledlie - Union army general and civil engineer
• William Mervine - Navy real admiral, served during the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War
• James A. Mulligan - Union army colonel
• Jedediah Sanger – Continental Army first lieutenant, politician, judge, and founder of New Hartford
• Richard Henry Savage – military officer and author, potential inspiration for the pulp novel character Doc Savage
• Charles Stuart – Bermudian-born military officer, abolitionist, and principal of Utica Academy
• Benjamin Walker – Continental Army officer, businessman, and politician ^[10]

Musicians

• Carlos Alexander – operatic singer
• Joe Bonamassa – blues rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter ^[11]
• Bruce Burger – singer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer
• Fran Cosmo – musician best known as a former lead singer of the rock bands Boston and Orion the Hunter ^[12]
• Tommy DeCarlo – singer who is the current lead vocalist for the rock band Boston ^[13]
• Earthstar – electronic music group
• Arthur Fields – singer-songwriter
• Debbie Friedman – singer-songwriter of religious Jewish music ^[14]
• Lincoln Holroyd – performer, band leader, and music educator
• Howard Kaylan – musician and songwriter; member of The Turtles, Flo & Eddie, and The Mothers of Invention
• David Eric Lowen – half of the songwriting team Lowen & Navarro ^[15]
• Joseph Michael – lead singer of Sanctuary, former member of White Wizzard, Midnight Reign and Peppermint Creeps
• moe. – jam rock band ^[16]
• J. R. Monterose – jazz saxophonist
• Barbara Owen – organist
• Rosetta Reitz - remastering engineer, record label owner, concert organizer, jazz historian, and activist
• B. A. Rolfe – bandleader, recording artist, radio personality, and film producer
• Sofronio Vasquez – Filipino singer; winner of season 26 of The Voice
• Jimmy Wormworth – jazz drummer
• Ronnie Zito – jazz musician; drummer for Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee, and Eartha Kitt
• Torrie Zito – pianist, composer, and conductor; string arranger for John Lennon

Religion and philosophy

• Leopoldina Burns – religious sister; close companion and biographer of Marianne Cope during the 1883 Hansen’s Disease epidemic on the island of Moloka’i, Hawaii
• Marianne Cope – religious sister and Roman Catholic saint
• George Washington Gale – minister, founder of the Oneida Institute of Science and Industry ^[17]
• Asa Jennings – pastor who organized the evacuation of 350,000 Christian refugees from the shores of Smyrna
• Alexander Bryan Johnson – philosopher and semanticist; married to the granddaughter of president John Adams
• Samuel Kirkland Lothrop – clergyman and writer
• Granville M. Williams – priest, monk, and writer

Social reformers

• Jane Louisa Hardy – activist and philanthropist
• Gerrit Smith – social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist
• Theodore Dwight Weld – early architect of the abolitionist movement

Politicians

See also: List of mayors of Utica, New York

• Dean Alfange – politician, Greek-American activist
• Josh J. Allen – New York State Assembly member and Supervisor of Elections for the Eastern District of New York
• Mike Arcuri – U.S. congressman
• William J. Bacon – U.S. congressman
• Wesley Bailey – politician and newspaper editor
• William Baker – Speaker of the New York State Assembly and Erie Canal Commissioner
• Samuel Beardsley – U.S. congressman
• Sherwood Boehlert – U.S. congressman
• Alvan E. Bovay – Wisconsin State Assembly representative; one of the founders of the Republican Party
• Anthony Brindisi – U.S. congressman
• William S. Calli – New York State Assembly member and New York State senator
• John T. Clark – civil engineer and politician
• Alfred Conkling – U.S. congressman, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, and United States Minister to Mexico
• Roscoe Conkling – U.S. congressman ^{[18] [19]}
• Simon Newton Dexter – politician and merchant
• Fred J. Douglas – U.S. congressman
• Russell G. Dunmore – New York State Assembly member
• Rufus Elefante – Democratic political boss
• Richard Hanna – U.S. congressman
• Thomas Lemuel James – United States Postmaster General, journalist, and banker
• Francis Kernan – U.S. congressman
• Joseph Kirkland – U.S. congressman
• Orsamus Benajah Matteson – U.S. congressman
• Henry Merrill – Wisconsin State senator, pioneer, and merchant
• Victor H. Metcalf – Secretary of Commerce and Labor and Secretary of the Navy under Theodore Rosevelt
• Rutger B. Miller – U.S. congressman
• Cyrus D. Prescott – U.S. congressman
• Alexander Pirnie – U.S. congressman
• John A. Roche – mayor of Chicago
• Theodore S. Sayre – New York State senator and businessman
• William R. Sears – New York State Assembly member and New York State senator
• Henry Seymour – politician, merchant, banker
• Horatio Seymour – politician who served as New York State Governor ^{[20] [21]}
• Walter Sheridan – FBI investigator and author
• Carrie Babcock Sherman – wife of Vice President James S. Sherman, second lady of the United States
• James Schoolcraft Sherman – lawyer and politician who served as 27th vice president of the United States ^{[22] [23]}
• Fred Sisson – U.S. congressman
• John T. Spriggs – U.S. congressman
• Henry R. Storrs – U.S. congressman
• Charles A. Talcott – U.S. congressman
• Enoch B. Talcott – New York State senator
• William B. Taylor – civil engineer and politician; New York State Engineer and Surveyor
• William Townsend – New York State Assembly member and New York State senator
• Chandler J. Wells – prominent builder who served as mayor of Buffalo, New York
• Philo White – Wisconsin State senator
• John Williams – U.S. congressman
• James Zogby – founder of the Arab American Institute

Writers and journalists

• Mary C. Ames – novelist, poet, and journalist
• Daniel Barwick – writer, fundraiser, journalist, podcaster, higher education administrator, and teacher
• Allan Beekman – writer and reporter
• Richard Benedetto – political reporter and columnist
• Eric Boehlert – journalist, writer, and media critic
• Dan Cameron – writer and contemporary art curator
• Daryl Cobb – author of children's books ^[24]
• Jane Elizabeth Dexter Conklin – poet and religious writer
• Pádraig Phiarais Cúndún – Irish-American homesteader and composer of American poetry in the Irish language
• John Elliott Curran – novelist
• Mark Danner – writer, journalist, and educator
• Georgia Roberts Durston – novelist and poet
• David Skaats Foster – novelist
• Harold Frederic – journalist and novelist
• Charles E. Fritch – fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery novelist
• Joanne Grant – journalist, activist
• Michael Kernan – writer and Washington Post journalist
• John D. MacDonald – writer and best-selling crime novelist
• Ryan Nobles – journalist
• Grace May North – newspaper journalist and author of novels for children and adolescents
• Dan Senor – columnist, writer, and political advisor to Mitt Romney
• John Zogby – political pollster, author, and public speaker; founder of the Zogby poll and the Zogby International poll

Other

• Bianca Devins – teenager who was murdered by a male acquaintance
• Edward P. Felt – passenger on United Flight 93
• Lewis Lawrence – founder of Eatonville, Florida, the oldest incorporated Black town in the U.S
• John Thomas Moss – frontiersman, prospector, and miner
• Nyah Mway – teenager who was killed by an officer of the Utica Police Department
• Samuel Manning Todd – founding member of the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the oldest extant New Orleans, Louisiana Carnival Krewe

Fictional characters

• Gary Chalmers – superintendent of Springfield School District on the animated sitcom The Simpsons
• Karen Filippelli – regional manager of the Utica branch of Dunder Mifflin on the mockumentary sitcom The Office
• Uncle Leo – Alice Kramden's uncle on The Honeymooners

See also

• Category:Utica University people
• List of people from Rome, New York

References

1. Tubia, Luke (December 22, 2016). "'Mighty Ducks', 'Little Nicky' Writer Was Born In Utica!". Big Frog 104. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
2. Chuck Dauphin (April 19, 2012). "Dick Clark Could Rock, But He Started Out Country". Billboard. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
3. "Music". Annette Connection. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2013. Promised Land, a song she and her husband, Glen Holt wrote together telling the story of her and her family's journey from New York to California.
4. Davey Jones (April 8, 2013). "Was Annette Funicello Making Fun Of Utica In 1983 With The Song "The Promised Land"?". WODZ 96.1 AM. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
5. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/11/obituaries/rex-marshall-64-announcer-on-radio-and-tv-since-1937.html
6. Kisselgoff, Anna (March 29, 2011). "Matteo, Master of Spanish Dance, Dies at 92". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 12, 2025.
7. "Feature Artist: Vaughn Bode". A&H Magazine. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2013.
8. "Happy Herbs". Art and Architecture – San Francisco. Retrieved December 9, 2013.
9. Harris, Edward (October 15, 2021). "Steve Wynn: The downtown Utica 'hospital will make you proud. It will save lives'". Observer-Dispatch. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
10. "WALKER, Benjamin, (1753 - 1818)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Office of the Historian, United States Congress. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
11. Browning, Tamara (May 3, 2012). "Guitarist Joe Bonamassa born to play the blues". State Journal-Register. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019.
12. "Utica native finds musical home on independent label". Utica Observer Dispatch. October 14, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
13. Derminio, Andrew; Todd, Nicole. "Utica Native And Boston Singer, Coming To Stanley Theatre". WIBX 950. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
14. Elaine Woo (January 11, 2011). "Debbie Friedman, self-taught Jewish folk singer, dies at 59". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on October 24, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2013.
15. https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/pop-hiss/story/2012-03-26/lowen-and-navarros-eric-lowen-dies-of-als-at-60
16. moe. at AllMusic
17. Gale, George (1964). Autobiography of George Washington Gale.
18. United States Congress. "Roscoe Conkling (id: C000681)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress .
19. "NNDB". Archived from the original on July 16, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
20. Oneida County Freedom Trail
21. Mrs. Mecomber (June 14, 2008). "Forest Hill Cemetery, Utica, NY". New York Traveler. Archived from the original on June 28, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2010.
22. United States Congress. "James Schoolcraft Sherman (id: S000345)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress .
23. "NNDB". Archived from the original on July 16, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
24. Bostwick, Joanne. "Author Visits by Daryl Cobb". Author Visits by Daryl Cobb. Daryl Cobb Production. Archived from the original on June 27, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2015.