Amelia Earhart and Edward Rickenbacker

Amelia Earhart, July 24, 1897 - c. July 2, 1937
Edward Rickenbacker, October 8, 1890 - July 27, 1973
American Aviators

Earhart and Rickenbacker were two of the world’s most celebrated aviators, she for discovery, he for military prowess.

Earhart was the first woman to fly the Atlantic as a passenger in 1928, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo in 1932, the first person to fly from Hawaii to the mainland, the first person to fly solo over the Pacific, and the first person to fly solo over both the Atlantic and Pacific. Her accomplishments were not limited to flight, however; she also developed a successful clothing line. Her dream of circumambulating the globe airborne was left unfinished when her plane disappeared over the Pacific on July 2, 1937.

Rickenbacker was an American flying ace in both World War I and World War II who received seven Distinguished Service Cross citations and the Medal of Honor. He was later a race car driver and head of Eastern Air Lines.

Earhart

Cal Ripken, Jr.

Born 1960
Baseball Player

Cal Ripken, Jr. is a successful baseball player whose professionalism and perseverance is said to have saved baseball as America’s sport. He broke Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games, having already garnered many baseball records including AL Rookie of the Year, AL MVP, Gold Glove, All-Star MVP, and more. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, having long played with the Orioles (which was owned by GU alumnus Edward Bennett Williams for several of Ripken’s years with the team). His current activities include Cal Ripken Baseball for youths, as well as the Ripken Stadium and Ripken Youth Baseball Academy.

Ripken

Peace Signing on the Jordan River

This historic image of the Peace Signing on the Jordan River was taken on October 26, 1994 as leaders signed an “end to bloodshet and sorrow.” The treaty intended to normalize relations between Jordan and Israel, and the image depicts GU Alumnus Bill Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, and King Hussein at that historic moment.

Peace

Gregory Hines

February 14, 1946 - August 9, 2003
Dancer

Gregory Hines was a dancer, singer, and actor whose appearances on television, movies, and the stage brought him international acclaim. During the 1980s and 1990s, he personified the art of classical tap, and he lobbied for a National Tap Dance Day, which we now celebrate in 40 US cities and 8 nations worldwide. He has twice been the recipient of a Tony Award, and in 1998 he was featured on PBS’s Great Performances.

Hines

Warren Buffett

born August 30, 1930
Business Leader

Warren Buffett is a philanthropist, investor, and business magnate. Ranked among the world’s wealthiest people, Buffett is famous for his frugal approach, value investing philosophy, and generosity. He has donated 99% percent of his wealth to charitable causes, much of it to the Gates Foundation, and in 2011 he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Buffett

Sandra Day O'Connor

Born March 26, 1930
Supreme Court Justice

Sandra Day O’Connor the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, is renowned as a distinguished jurist and often praised as a “consummate compromiser.” In 1973, she became the first woman to serve as the major leader of a state senate, and her groundbreaking career continued when, in the summer of 1981, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by Ronald Reagan to fill the vacany left by the retired Potter Stewart. She continues to be known for her dedication to women’s and children’s rights.

O'Connor

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Born 1947
Politician

Hillary Rodham Clinton, currently serving as the 67th Secretary of State, has spent her distinguished career as a public servant championing human rights and democracy. Her 1995 Beijing speech declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights,” a sentiment that inspired advocates of women’s rights worldwide. Clinton has also dedicated much attention to children’s rights, specifically toward improving adoption and foster care systems, providing health to care to children, and reducing teen pregnancy. She is the first First Lady to be elected to the Senate, has served on numerous Senate committees, and has collaborated with GU professor and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to launch an initiative that will provide training and organization to women leaders across the globe.

Clinton

John Newton Mitchell

September 15, 1913 - November 9, 1988
Attorney General

John Newton Mitchell was the U.S. Attorney General from 1969 to 1972, when he resigned to chair the committee for the reelection of President Nixon. He served in the US Navy during World War II and was a member of the American Bar Association.

Mitchell

Walter Cronkite

November 4, 1916 - July 17, 2009
Broadcast Journalist

Television news anchor and pioneer presenter Walter Cronkite was the face of the CBS Evening News from 1962 until 1981. His avuncular presence was welcomed into American homes every evening for twenty years as he helped the American public process national triumphs and tragedies alike. Cronkite described wars, natural disasters, nuclear explosions, social upheavals, and space flights with clarity and equanimity. In rare moments, Cronkite dramatically lost his equanimity, displaying boyish delight as the Eagle landed on July 20, 1969 and emotional disbelief when President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. In 1968 he advocated a negotiated peace in a special program on Vietnam following his tour there. After that program, Lyndon B. Johnson said to Bill Moyers, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.” Cronkite’s interviews with Anwar el-Sadat and Menachem Begin were both deemed instrumental to the historic Israel-Egypt peace treaty of 1977. In 1981, Cronkite was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was also featured as the voice of Benjamin Franklin on the PBS cartoon series Liberty’s Kids, and he was the subject of an American Masters special on PBS in 2006.

Walter Cronkite was awarded an honorary degree from Georgetown University in 1978.

Cronkite

Eudora Alice Welty

April 13, 1909 - July 23, 2001
Writer

Southern novelist and photographer Eudora Welty is famed for her portrayals of the American South. She earned a Pulitzer Prize for her 1973 novel The Optimist’s Daughter. Welty believed that the artist must look squarely at the mysteries of human experience without trying to resolve them. Toni Morrison praised Welty for her portrayals of “black people….[without] patronizing or romanticizing” (EudoraWelty.org). Welty’s 1984 autobiography, One Writer’s Beginnings, was a national bestseller, and she was the first living writer to be published in the Library of America series. Welty was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor.

Welty

Linus Pauling

February 28, 1901 - August 19, 1994
Scientist

Physicist, scientist, and social activist Linus Pauling is the only person to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes. A dedicated teacher and practicing scientist, Pauling published hundreds of articles covering a broad spectrum of topics. His 350 publications on the structure of crystals, for instance, are a testimony to his investigative skills and his desire to share information. In 1954 Pauling received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into the nature of the chemical bond, which elucidated the structure of complex subjects. In 1962 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in honor of his 1958 book No More War! and his public involvement with the movement against atomic weapons.

Pauling

James William Fulbright

April 9, 1905 - February 10, 1995
Politician and Creator of the Fulbright Scholarship

Arkansas senator and educator James William Fulbright was a post-World War II internationalist who fought against an American retreat into isolationism. He served in the US Congress from 1945 to 1974, where he was the longest serving Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also served as Chair of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. Senator Fulbright’s most significant legacy is the Fulbright program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, which was established to increase mutual understanding between the people of the US and other countries through the exchange of knowledge and skills. The Fulbright program distributes competitive, merit-based grants to students, scholars, teachers, professionals, artists, and scientists to travel on international exchange. The Fulbright program provides 8,000 grants annually, and it is quite prestigious in its design and awardees; 43 Fulbright scholars have gone on to earn the Nobel Prize, while 78 have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Senator Fulbright received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993.

Fulbright

Charles Richard Drew

June 3, 1904 - April 1, 1950
Father of the Blood Bank

Charles R. Drew was a surgeon, teacher, and researcher. He is most famous as the founder of two of the world’s largest blood banks. His research on and discovery of techniques for storing and shipping plasma saved many lives during World War II. He was the first African-American surgeon to serve as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University and, in 1940, he became the first African-American to receive a Doctor of Science degree from Columbia University. Drew served as medical supervisor of “Blood for Britain” and director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank in New York, where he initiated the bloodmobile. Outraged that the US Army and Navy, after appointing him to organize a massive 100,000+ donor blood drive, demanded that blood be typed according to race and that blood from African-American donors be refused, Drew resigned his position. He was later honored with a portrait at the Clinical Center of National Institutes of Health in 1976, the first African-American to be honored in that way. In 1980, the US Postal Service released a “Great Americans” stamp series with one stamp featuring Dr. Drew.

Drew

Bernard Mannes Baruch

August 19, 1870 - June 20, 1965
Business Leader and Financier

Bernard Baruch was a financier and presidential advisor. By the time he had turned 30, Baruch had already purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and amassed significant wealth speculating on the sugar market. A successful career led to his being styled "the Lone Wolf of Wall Street," and in 1916 he left Wall Street to begin advising the incumbent president, Woodrow Wilson. His time as a presidential advisor continued into the decades that followed, when he served as a member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famed "brain trust." In 1946, he was appointed representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission and proposed international control of then-new atomic energy.

Baruch

General George S. Patton, Jr.

November 11, 1885 - December 21, 1945
Military General

General George S. Patton, also known by the bold nickname "Old Blood and Guts," was renowned for his military leadership during World War II. He assumed command of the Third Army in 1944, and he quickly acquired a reputation as a fearless leader by advancing his troops further, capturing more enemy prisoners, and liberating more territory in less time than any other army in military history. He earned his fourth star in April 1945 in recognition for his accomplishments the previous year.

Patton

Albert Einstein

March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955
Scientist

Albert Einstein was an eminent scientist whose theory of relativity and quantum mechanics revolutionized physics and permanently altered our understanding of the universe. Like many other creative minds during the period, he fled Nazi Germany and found refuge in the US. He became a professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton from 1933-1945, acquiring his US citizenship in 1940. He was a leading figure in the World Government Movement and was offered the Presidency of Israel. Along with Chaim Weizmann, he established the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His theory of relativity, E=MC², remains an important scientific discovery that has made its way into our cultural lexicon.

Einstein

Mary McLeod Bethune

July 10, 1875 - May 18, 1955
Educator

Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, civil rights leader, and government official who founded the National Council of Negro Women and Bethune-Cookman College. Bethune was a political activist and the first African-American woman to be involved in the White House, where she assisted four different presidents. One particularly important role saw her as the informal “race leader at large” for Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1936 to 1945. In addition to serving as Director of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration to help young people find jobs and to secure funds for the youth, she was the first Black leader and woman to have a monument, Bethune Memorial Statue, erected on public park land in the District of Columbia. She was honored with a memorial site in the nation’s capital in 1994, when the National Parks Service acquired the Council House that today bears her name and offers educational programs and exhibits.

Bethune

Cecil B. DeMille

August 12, 1881 - January 21, 1959
Film Producer and Director

Cecil B. DeMille was a filmmaker renowned for his own role in the development of the American film industry. He is recognized especially for his role as producer/director of biblical epics such as The Ten Commandments, The King of Kings, and Samson and Delilah, but his “Georgetown Connection,” Father Daniel A. Lord, S.J., was also an important part of his professional life. Father Lord was DeMille’s “Catholic advisor” for The King of Kings, and he not only reviewed the scripts and maintained a daily presence on the sets, but also offered Mass daily and before significant episodes such as the Crucifixion and Resurrection sequences. Father Lord’s papers, along with those of his colleague in the writing of the 1930 Production Code, Martin Quigley, are preserved in the Special Collections of Lauinger Library and available for use by current Georgetown University students, including those in Georgetown University's Catholic movie classes, “Catholics go to the movies” and “The Bible goes Hollywood!”

DeMille

John Pierpont Morgan, Sr.

April 17, 1837 - March 31, 1913
Business Leader and Financier

John Pierpont Morgan was an influential financier and entrepreneur. His business specialty was railroads, and he is associated with the West Shore, Philadelphia & Reading, Richmond Terminal, Erie, and New England railroads. He is best known for his work consolidating railroads, a phenomenon that become known as “Morganization.” On several occasions he assisted the US government with its finances, including the 1877 float of $260 million in US government bonds and the later purchase of $200 million of government bonds with gold. His biggest business venture was the formation of the US Steel Corporation, America’s first billion-dollar corporation. He was also involved in the formation of Western Union Telegraph Company and General Electric.

Morgan

Charles Evans Hughes

April 11, 1862 - August 27, 1948
Lawyer and Supreme Court Justice

Charles Evan Hughes was an accomplished jurist and statesman. He was twice a member of the US Supreme Court, including his tenure as the 11th Chief Justice. He also served as the US Secretary of State and Governor of New York. Hughes ran as the Republican Party candidate for the Presidency in 1916, and he led the Supreme Court during the controversies that accompanied Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation.

There is a portrait of Charles Evan Hughes in the National Portrait Gallery's "The 20th Century Americans: 1900-1930" collection.

 

 

 

Hughes

Lillian D. Wald

March 10, 1867 - September 1, 1940
Nurse and Social Advocate

Lillian D. Wald was a social reformer and nursing advocate. She initially worked with poor immigrant families in New York’s Lower East Side which led her to establish her practice, the Henry Street Settlement (later Visiting Nurse Service of New York City). She advocated for nurses in public schools, and her ideas were instrumental in leading the New York Board of Health to found the world’s first public nursing system. She also championed a national health insurance, founded Columbia University’s School of Nursing, established the US Children’s Bureau, and advocated for the disabled. She campaigned for civil rights and helped to establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. Wald was a vocal advocate for women’s suffrage and protested the United States' entry into World War I.

Wald

John Muir

April 21, 1838 - December 24, 1914
Environmentalist

John Muir was a naturalist, author, and conservationist. An industrial accident in a carriage factory became a critical moment in Muir's life as it led him to dedicate his life to the "fields and woods." Grateful for his recovery from the factory accident, he walked a thousand miles from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico. After his initial sojourns, he settled in California, where the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite dominated his life. He founded the Sierra Club and wrote Our National Parks. He collaborated with Teddy Roosevelt to develop innovative and notable conservation programs protecting much of the American West including Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forests.

Muir

Jane Addams

September 6, 1860 - May 21, 1935
Social Advocate

Jane Addams was a pioneering social worker, human rights advocate, and feminist. She established Hull House in 1889 to serve the underprivileged of Chicago, served as a civic leader on Chicago’s Board of Education, participated in the founding of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, and was the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. She was also the first woman awarded an honorary degree from Yale University in 1910. As a pacifist, she opposed World War I, and her commitment as a pacifist is evidenced by her Carnegie Foundation lectures, her election as chairman of the Women’s Peace Party, and her presidency of the International Congress of Women. Her involvement in the cause of pacifism during the onset of World War I, however, led to her expulsion from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Addams is also known for founding and serving as president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Addams