List of Swiss Americans
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This is a list of notable Swiss Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
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To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Swiss American or must have references showing they are Swiss American and are notable.
Contents |
[edit] List
[edit] Business
- Steve Ballmer (1956 - ) businessman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation
- Meyer Guggenheim (1828–1905) statesman, patriarch of Guggenheim family[1]
- Simon Guggenheim (1867–1941) businessman, politician, and philanthropist
- Otto Frederick Hunziker (1873–1959) pioneer in the American and international dairy industry
- Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) industrialist and art patron, once known as "America's most hated man".[2] as per CNBC one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time".[3]
- Milton Hershey (1857–1945) confectioner, philanthropist, and founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company
- S. S. Kresge (1867–1966) merchant, philanthropist and founder of the The S. S. Kresge Company, now Sears Holdings Corporation.[4]
- Robert Lutz (1932 - ) General Motors Vice Chairman of Product Development and Chairman of GM North America, the world's largest automaker[5]
- James G. Sterchi (1867–1932) furniture store magnate
- Bruce Tognazzini (1945 - ) usability consultant in partnership the Nielsen Norman Group
[edit] The arts
[edit] Actors and directors
- Renée Zellweger (1969 - ) Film actress [6]
- James Caviezel (1968 - ) Film actor[6]
- Michelle Pfeiffer (1958 - ) Film actress [7]
- Liev Schreiber (1967 - ) Film actor
- Meryl Streep (1949 - ) Film actress
- George Lucas (1944 - ) Film director [8]
- Marc Forster (1969 - ) Film director, raised in Davos (Switzerland), Swiss mother, holds Swiss citizenship
- William Wyler (1902–1981) Film director [9]
- Yul Brynner (1920-1985) actor
- Billie Dove (1903–1997) Film actress
- Q'Orianka Kilcher (1990 - ) singer and actress [10]
- Victor Mature (1913–1999) Film actor[11]
- René Murat Auberjonois (1940 - ) Film actor
- Jodi Ann Paterson (1975 - ) model, actress and former beauty queen.
- Berry Berenson (1948–2001) photographer, actress, and model
- Theda Bara (1885–1955) silent film actress and sex symbol
- Sean Michael (1988 - ) Film actor
- Jeremy Maxwell (1973 - ) Film actor
- Ryan Seacrest (1974 - ) television and radio host, television producer, and entrepreneur
- August Schellenberg (1936 - ) actor
- Bridget Marquardt (1975 - ) model, actress
- Tyler Hoechlin (1987 - ) Film actor
- Wallace Beery (1885-1949) Film actor
- Amy Brenneman (1964- ) Film and TV actress
[edit] Visual artists
- Herbert Matter (1907–1984) photographer and graphic designer
- Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) portrait and impressionistic still-life painter
- Jeremiah Theus (1716–1774) painter
[edit] Writers
- William Frank Buckley (1925–2008) writer
- Lorin Morgan-Richards (1975) author, composer, curator. Richards' Amish Yoder ancestry can be traced to Canton of Bern, Switzerland.
[edit] Musicians
- Melissa Auf der Maur (1972 - ) singer
- Jewel (1974 - ) singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and author[12]
- Rudolph Ganz (1877–1972) pianist, conductor and composer
- Karina Lombard (1969 - ) singer and actress
- Cyndi Lauper (1953 - ) singer-songwriter and actress
- Elvis Perkins (1976 - ) singer-songwriter
[edit] Law and politics
[edit] Governors and presidents
- Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States[13]
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) 34st President of the United States
- Anthony G. Brown (1961 - ) Governor of Maryland
- Robert B. Meyner (1908–1990) Governor of New Jersey
- Emanuel L. Philipp (1861–1925) Governor of Wisconsin[14]
- Barack Obama (2008-) 44th President of the United States, (Swiss distant ancestors).[15]
[edit] Congressmen and senators
- Albert Gallatin (1761–1849) Senator of Pennsylvania[14]
- Amy Klobuchar (1960 - ) Senator of Minnesota
- James L. Buckley (1923 - ) Senator of New York
- Robert Portman (1955 -) Congressman Ohio[16]
- James S. Negley (1826–1901) Congressman Pennsylvania[14]
- James William Good (1866–1929) Congressman Iowa[14]
[edit] Other
- Warren E. Burger (1907–1995) Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986[17]
- August Claessens (1885–1954) politician, best known as one of the five New York Assemblymen
- Albert Gallatin (1761–1849) politician, ethnologist, linguist, founder of New York University, diplomat, and United States Secretary of the Treasury[18]
- Fred Iklé (1924-2011) Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
- Wally Schirra (1923–2007) Astronaut, only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo)
- Samuel F. Snively (1859–1952) Mayor of Duluth, Minnesota[19]
- Peter Staub (1827–1904) Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee[20]
- William Wirt (1772–1834) US Attorney General
[edit] Historical figures
- Fernand Auberjonois (1910–2004) highly respected journalist, foreign correspondent of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade[21]
- Edward Walter Eberle (1864–1929) admiral in the United States Navy, served as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy and third Chief of Naval Operations[22]
- Robert Frank (1924 - ) important figure in American photography and film[23]
- Adolph Rickenbacker (1886–1976) Pioneer of the electric guitar and founder of the Rickenbacker guitar company, whose products would be an important influence on 1960s music through, among others, The Beatles, The Who and The Byrds.
- Eddie Rickenbacker (1890–1973) automobile race car driver and automotive designer, hero of World War I, government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation[24]
- John Sutter (1803–1880) Californian famous for his association with the California Gold Rush (in that gold was discovered by James W. Marshall in Sutter's Mill) and for establishing Sutter's Fort in an area that would later become the capital of California, Sacramento[25]
- John Augustus Sutter, Jr. (1826–1897), his son, a U.S. Consul to Acapulco, Mexico and the founder and planner of the City of Sacramento, California
- William Wirt (1772–1834) author and statesman who is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney General into one of influence[26]
- Henry Wirz (1822–1865) the only Confederate soldier executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War for war crimes[27]
- John Joachim Zubly (1724–1781) pastor, planter, and statesman during the American Revolution[28]
- J. Edgar Hoover (1935–1972) first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States.
- Felix Zollicoffer (1812–1862) newspaperman, three-term US Congressman from Tennessee, officer in the United States Army, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War
[edit] Religion
- Daniel Kumler Flickinger (1824–1911) Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
- Martin Marty (1834–1886) Benedictine priest
- Philip Schaff (1819–1893) Protestant theologian and a historian of the Christian church
[edit] Scientists
- Alexander Emanuel Agassiz (1835–1910), geologist and zoologist
- Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists[29]
- Othmar Ammann (1879–1965) civil engineer[30]
- Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (1840–1914) archeologist
- Felix Bloch (1905–1983) physicist[31]
- Armand Borel (1923–2003) mathematician
- Florian Cajori (1859–1930) mathematician[32]
- Albert Einstein (1879–1955) theoretical physicist widely regarded as the most important scientist of the 20th century and one of the greatest physicists of all time[33]
- Edmond H. Fischer (1920 - ) biochemist[34]
- Walter Gautschi (1927 - ) mathematician
- Otto Frederick Hunziker (1873–1959) dairy educator and technologist
- Adolf Meyer (1866–1950) psychiatrist[35]
- Jean Piccard (1884–1963) scientist and high-altitude balloonist
- Louis François de Pourtalès (1824–80) Naturalist
- Max Theiler (1899–1972) virologist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a vaccine against yellow fever
- Etienne Wenger (1952 - ) educational researcher
- David Alter (1807–1881) American inventor, almost discovered spectroscopy
- Josias Joesler (1895–1927) architect
- Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974) astronomer
- Robert Julius Trumpler (1886–1956) astronomer
[edit] Sports
- Ben Roethlisberger (1982 - ) football quarterback in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers[36]
- William "Pudge" Heffelfinger (1867–1954), first professional football player[37]
- Jeff Hostetler (1961 - ) football quarterback in the NFL for the New York Giants, Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, and Washington Redskins.
- Martin Buser (1958 - ) champion of sled dog racing[38]
- Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone (1913–1996) perhaps the best known pool player in the United States[39]
- Bobby Fischer (1943–2008), controversial world chess champion
- Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) racing driver and the founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company, now the most famous brand of General Motors.[40]
[edit] Other
- Henry Bouquet
- Chesley Sullenberger (1951 - ) American airline transport pilot (ATP) who successfully carried out the emergency ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River, saving the lives of the 155 people on the aircraft.[41]
- Christoph Meili (1968 - ) whistleblower.[42]
- Helen Keller (1880–1968) author, political activist and lecturer. First deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
- Gary Gygax (1938–2008) writer and game designer, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)
[edit] References
- ^ [1] "Meyer, though a native speaker of German, was Swiss-German."
- ^ "American Whiskey". http://www.ellenjaye.com/hist_mono3overholt.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
- ^ [2] "Portfolio's Worst American CEOs of All Time." CNBC.com April 30, 2009.
- ^ http://www.nndb.com/people/755/000160275/
- ^ [3] "The legendary Swiss manager has been tasked with bringing fresh momentum to the sputtering engine of the world's largest automobile group."
- ^ a b Swiss Roots: Renee Zellweger
- ^ [4] "...and my mother is Swiss and Swede."
- ^ [5] "His father had mainly Swiss and British roots."
- ^ [6] "Born Willi Wyler ... to a Swiss father and a German mother"
- ^ [7] "The actress, who's Alaskan/Swiss on her mother's side, was born in Schweigmatt, Germany."[8]
- ^ Swiss Roots: Film
- ^ Swiss Roots: Jewel Kilcher
- ^ Swiss Roots: Herbert Hoover
- ^ a b c d [9] "Swiss ancestry."
- ^ [10]
- ^ [11]
- ^ [12] "Ethnicity Swiss/German"
- ^ [13] "Born to an aristocratic Swiss family, Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) emigrated from Switzerland to America in 1780."
- ^ [14] "Swiss and German ancestry."
- ^ Robert Parkinson, Peter Staub. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: 5 August 2010.
- ^ toledoblade.com - Blade's man in Europe brought world to Toledo
- ^ Mueller Science - Specialities: Switzerland
- ^ [15] "Though Swiss by birth, Frank traveled the world before settling in the United States in 1953."
- ^ Swiss Roots: Eddie Rickenbacker
- ^ [16] "German-born Swiss pioneer settler and colonizer in California; the discovery of gold on his land in 1848 precipitated the California Gold Rush."
- ^ [17] mentioned as one of several "Swiss Americans"
- ^ Swiss Roots: Henry Wirz
- ^ New Georgia Encyclopedia: John J. Zubly (1724-1781)
- ^ Louis Agassiz - Britannica Student Encyclopaedia
- ^ (German) Structurae [en]: Othmar Herrmann Ammann (1879-1965)
- ^ CERN Scientific Information Service
- ^ NOAA Central Library
- ^ [18] "After his graduation in the spring of 1900, he became a Swiss citizen, worked for two months as a mathematics teacher, and then was employed as examiner at the Swiss patent office in Bern."
- ^ Edmond Fischer
- ^ [19] "Swiss-born U.S. psychiatrist"
- ^ [20] "Swiss Roots: How much do you know about your Swiss heritage? Ben Roethlisberger: Honestly, I didn't know a whole lot until recently; then I started feeling it out a little more and hearing a little more about it. Now, when people ask me where I'm from, I'm quick to say, "Well, I'm Swiss." I'm sure I have a lot of things in me, but that's one of the things I tell people—that I'm Swiss."
- ^ de:William Heffelfinger
- ^ [21] "Martin Buser, a long-time Swiss citizen, is scheduled to be sworn in today as a United States citizen by Judge Ben Esch after crossing the finish line yesterday as winner of the 2002 Iditarod."
- ^ [22] "The Wanderones were German-Swiss"
- ^ [23]
- ^ ""Held vom Hudson" stammt aus Wynigen" (in German). Berner Zeitung. 2008-01-20. http://www.bernerzeitung.ch/region/emmental/Held-vom-Hudson-stammt-aus-Wynigen/story/11891131. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
- ^ [24] "the name of the 30-year-old former Swiss bank guard is already being entered into the ranks of the righteous gentiles -- those persons who have taken risks to help Jews."
