Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected Biography

Selected Biography

Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected Biography/1

Robert Patrick Casey Jr. (born April 13, 1960), better known as Bob Casey Jr. is the junior United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the Senate in 2006, he served as Pennsylvania’s Treasurer and Auditor General.

Casey, one of eight children, was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, of Irish American descent on his father's side. He is the son of Ellen Harding Casey and Bob Casey, the 44th Governor of Pennsylvania.

Casey played basketball and graduated from Scranton Preparatory School in 1978. Following in his father's footsteps, he graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1982, and received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America in 1988. Between college and law school, Casey served as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and spent a year teaching 5th grade and coaching basketball at the Gesu School in inner city Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Terese were married in 1985, and they have four daughters: Elyse, Caroline, Julia, and Marena. (Read more...)

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Guion "Guy" Bluford, Junior (born November 22, 1942) is a retired Colonel, from the United States Air Force and a former NASA Astronaut. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger on mission STS-8, Bluford became the first African American in space. (Note that the first person of African ancestry in space was the Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez.)

Bluford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a BS in aerospace engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1964; a Master of Science in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1974; a PhD in aerospace engineering with a minor in laser physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1978, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Houston–Clear Lake in 1987. (Read more...)

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Daniel Constantine Marino Jr. (born September 15, 1961, in Pittsburgh) is a Hall of Fame quarterback who played for the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League. The last quarterback of the legendary Quarterback Class of 1983 to be taken in the first round, Marino became one of the most prolific quarterbacks in league history, holding or having held almost every major NFL passing record. Despite never being on a Super Bowl-winning team, he is recognized as one of the greatest quarterbacks in American football history. Remembered particularly for having a quick release and a powerful arm, Marino drove the Dolphins into the playoffs on numerous occasions.

The defending AFC Champions Miami Dolphins chose Marino with the 27th pick in the NFL draft. After starting the season as a backup to incumbent starter David Woodley and seeing action twice off the bench to relieve an ineffective Woodley, Marino was given his first NFL start in Week 6 versus the Buffalo Bills. He posted a 96.0 passer rating- a rookie record until it was broken by Ben Roethlisberger's 98.1. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in his rookie year and became the first rookie QB to start in a Pro Bowl game. (Read more...)

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George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union. However, although McClellan was meticulous in his planning and preparations, these attributes may have hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment. He chronically overestimated the strength of enemy units and was reluctant to apply principles of mass, frequently leaving large portions of his army unengaged at decisive points.

McClellan was born in Philadelphia, the son of a prominent surgical ophthalmologist, Dr. George McClellan, the founder of Jefferson Medical College. His mother was Elizabeth Steinmetz Brinton McClellan, daughter of a leading Pennsylvania family. The couple produced five children: a daughter, Frederica; then three sons, John, George, and Arthur; and a second daughter, Mary. (Read more...)

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Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected Biography/5

William Penn (October 14, 1644 – July 30, 1718) was founder and "Absolute Proprietor" of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English, North American colony and the future U.S. state of Pennsylvania. He was known as an early champion of democracy and religious freedom and famous for his treaty with the Lenape Indians. Well ahead of his time, Penn wrote and urged for a Union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe, "European Dyet, Parliament or Estates," in his voluminous writings.

Penn was born in London in 1644, the son of Admiral Sir William Penn and Margaret Jasper, the daughter of a Rotterdam merchant. His father served in the Royal Navy (controlled by parliament) during the English Civil War and was rewarded by Oliver Cromwell with estates in Ireland. Later, though, his father took part in the restoration of Charles II and was knighted by him. Penn was educated at Chigwell School, by private tutors in Ireland and then at Christ Church, Oxford. (Read more...)

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Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected Biography/6

James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the fifteenth President of the United States (1857–1861). To date he is the only President from Pennsylvania and the only President never to marry. As president he was a "doughface" who battled Stephen A. Douglas for control of the Democratic Party. As Southern states declared their secession in the lead-up to the American Civil War, he held that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. Taking his own advice, he did nothing.

Buchanan was a Representative and a Senator from Pennsylvania. He was born in a log cabin at Cove Gap, near Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1791, to James Buchanan and Elizabeth Speer as the second of ten children (two of whom did not survive past infancy). The Buchanan family claims direct descent from King James I of Scotland. In 1802, he moved to Mercersburg with his parents, where he was privately tutored. He later attended the village academy and graduated from Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. At one point, he was expelled from Dickinson for wild behavior and bad conduct, but after pleading for a second chance he graduated with honors three years later on September 7, 1809. (Read more...)

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Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected Biography/7

George Kenneth "Ken" Griffey, Jr. (born November 21, 1969, in Donora, Pennsylvania) is a second generation Major League Baseball player on the Cincinnati Reds. He is one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history. His nicknames have been "The Natural", "The Kid", and "Junior". He is the son of former big league outfielder Ken Griffey, Sr.

Ken Griffey, Jr. shares not only the same birthday, but also the same birthplace, as Hall of Famer Stan Musial in the town of Donora, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where father Ken Griffey, Sr. played for the Cincinnati Reds, when Junior was five. He attended Archbishop Moeller High School.

In 1987, Griffey was selected with the first overall pick of that year's amateur draft by the Seattle Mariners based on his tremendous potential. One scout said of Griffey, "If you thought Barry Bonds was interesting, wait until you see this kid." In January of 1988, Griffey attempted suicide by swallowing 277 aspirin. He ended up in the intensive care unit at Providence Hospital in Mount Airy, Ohio. Griffey was overwhelmed by racial slurs directed at him as well as a tenuous relationship with his father. He rebounded the next year as a big leaguer. He was well on his the way to the Rookie of the Year award, but was thwarted when he slipped in the shower and broke a bone in his right hand in late July, 1989. (Read more...)

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Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected Biography/8

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children.Dizzie's father was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to Dizzy. He started to play the piano at the age of 4. Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.

In addition to featuring in these epochal moments in bebop, he was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz, the modern jazz version of what early-jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the "Spanish Tinge". Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. In addition to his instrumental skills, Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop, which was originally regarded as threatening and frightening music by many listeners raised on older styles of jazz. He had an enormous impact on virtually every subsequent trumpeter, both by the example of his playing and as a mentor to younger musicians.

He also used a trumpet whose bell was bent at a 45 degree angle rather than a traditional straight trumpet. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused during a job on January 6, 1953, but the constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect. Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie likely got the idea when he saw a similar instrument in 1937 in Manchester, England while on tour with the Teddy Hill Orchestra.

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William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr., Ed.D. (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, television producer, activist, and luminary. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a vanguard role in the 1960s action show I Spy. He later starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby Show, in the late 1960s. He was one of the major characters on the children's television show The Electric Company for its first two seasons, and created the humorous educational cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. Cosby also acted in numerous films, although none has received the acclaim of his television work.

During the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in what is considered one of the decade's defining sitcoms, The Cosby Show, which aired from 1984 to 1992. The sitcom featured an upper-middle class African-American family without resorting to the kinds of stereotypes previously seen among African-Americans in prime-time television. While some argued that The Cosby Show ignored the issues of racial inequity still prevalent in society, many agreed that it showcased positive role models. Cosby was active in showbusiness in the 1990s, starring in Cosby, which first aired in 1996, and hosting Kids Say the Darndest Things, which began in 1998, as well as making more movies. He has also continued appearing on the stand-up circuit. His material consists mainly of anecdotal tales, often dealing with his upbringing and raising his own family, and he is known for having a clean, family-friendly routine. His good-natured, fatherly image has made him a popular personality and earned him the nickname of "America's Dad", and he has also been a sought-after spokesman for products like Jello Pudding, and the defunct retail chain Service Merchandise. (Read more...)

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Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected Biography/10

Arnold Daniel Palmer (born September 10, 1929) is an American golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. Nicknamed "The King," he is arguably golf's most popular star and its most important trailblazer because he was the first star of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s. Palmer won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and in 1974 was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Palmer was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He learned golf from his father Deacon Palmer, who was head professional and greens keeper at Latrobe Country Club, allowing young Arnold to accompany his father as he maintained the course. At age seven, Palmer broke 70 at Bent Creek Country Club. As a youngster, Palmer was only allowed on the Latrobe course (it was just nine holes then) in early morning or late afternoon, when the members weren't playing. He attended Wake Forest University, on a golf scholarship. He left upon the tragic death of close friend Bud Worsham, and enlisted in the Coast Guard, where he served for three years and had some time to continue to hone his golf skills. (Read more...)

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