List of people from Worcester, Massachusetts

The following is a list of prominent people who were born in Worcester, Massachusetts, lived in Worcester, or for whom Worcester is a significant part of their identity.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Academics and inventors

• Richard T. Antoun, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Binghamton University
• Harvey Ball, inventor of the smiley face
• Harold W. Chase, educator and United States military officer
• Robert Goddard, father of modern rocketry
• G. Stanley Hall, first president of Clark University
• John Kneller, English-American professor and fifth President of Brooklyn College
• Francis E. Reed, inventor and industrialist who founded F.E. Reed & Co.
• Daniel B. Wesson, gunsmith, co-founder of Smith & Wesson

Actors and artists

• John Wolcott Adams (1874–1925), artist
• Edith Ella Baldwin (1846–1920), artist
• H. Jon Benjamin, actor best known as the voices of Sterling Archer on Archer, Bob Belcher on Bob's Burgers, and Can of Vegetables in the Wet Hot American Summer franchise
• Christopher Boffoli, photographer
• Elbridge Boyden, architect of Mechanics Hall
• Stephen DiRado, photographer
• Stephen C. Earle, architect
• Paul Fontaine, abstractist colorist painter
• Ryan Idol, adult film actor
• Rita Johnson, actress, co-starred opposite Spencer Tracy in Edison, The Man
• Jean Louisa Kelly, actress from Yes, Dear
• Arthur Kennedy, Oscar-nominated, Tony Award-winning actor
• Dorothy Stratton King, painter and printmaker
• Diane and Elaine Klimaszewski, actresses and models best known as the "Coors Light Twins"
• Jarrett J. Krosoczka, children's book author and illustrator; his Punk Farm optioned by DreamWorks Animation
• Denis Leary, actor and comedian
• Tom Lewis, artist and activist
• Joyner Lucas, American rapper currently signed to Atlantic Records
• John Lurie, actor, musician, and composer
• Nora Marlowe (1915–1977), actress
• Eddie Mekka, actor best known for playing Carmine Ragusa on Laverne and Shirley
• Alisan Porter, former child actress and winner of Season 10 of The Voice
• Terri Priest, artist
• Sam Qualiana, actor and filmmaker involved with many low-budget horror films, including Snow Shark (2012)
• Renee Sands, former child actress and singer from Kids Incorporated and Wild Orchid
• Sam Seder, Air America radio host of Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder, actor, writer and director
• Joseph Skinger, silversmith, sculptor
• Doug Stanhope, comedian known for abrasive style and for The Man Show
• Lewis Stone (1879–1953), actor, The Secret Six, Grand Hotel, Andy Hardy series
• Erik Per Sullivan, actor, Malcolm in the Middle
• David Whitney, art curator
• Alicia Witt, actress, singer-songwriter
• Hildegard Woodward, children's book illustrator

Athletes

• Jerry Azumah, former NFL defensive back[1]
• Frank Carroll, US figure skater and coach, 1960 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, actor[2]
• Tim Collins, relief pitcher for the Kansas City Royals[3]
• Bob Cousy, Hall of Fame basketball player; attended the College of the Holy Cross; currently lives in Worcester[4]
• Ken Doane, professional wrestler[5]
• Rich Gedman, Boston Red Sox catcher, manager of the Worcester Tornadoes[6]
• Bill Guerin, former Pittsburgh Penguins right winger[7]
• Aaron Haddad, professional wrestler in WWE[8]
• Tom Heinsohn, NBA Hall of Fame, Boston Celtics great; attended College of Holy Cross
• Gordon Lockbaum, attended Holy Cross College; twice finished in the top five in the Heisman Trophy balloting[9]
• Dwayne McClain, former NBA/Professional basketball player. Starred at Villanova in the early/mid 1980s. Attended Holy Name Catholic Central.
• Tom Poti, former NHL defenseman[10]
• J.P. Ricciardi, MLB executive, former general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays[11]
• José Antonio Rivera, WBA light middleweight champion
• Richard Rodgers, starting tight end for the Green Bay Packers; played for St. John's High School
• Edwin Rodríguez, boxer[12]
• Tanyon Sturtze, former MLB pitcher[13]
• Major Taylor, track cycling champion[14]
• Bill Toomey, gold medal decathlete, 1968 Olympics; attended Worcester Academy
• Leah Van Dale, professional wrestler better known by her ring name Carmella
• Vinnie Yablonski, NFL player[15]

Musicians

• John Coolidge Adams, popular composer
• Duncan Arsenault, musician
• Norman Bailey, big band trumpet player from The Lawrence Welk Show
• Jaki Byard, jazz pianist and composer
• Frank Capp, jazz drummer and bandleader
• Don Fagerquist, jazz trumpeter
• Four Year Strong, rock band
• J. Geils, lead in J. Geils Band, attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Duke Levine, guitarist[16]
• Georgia Gibbs, 1950s pop singer
• The Hotelier, rock band
• J. Geils Band, formed in Worcester as a fraternity party band at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, as Snoopy and the Sopwith Camels
• Jordan Knight, member of the boy band New Kids On The Block
• Joyner Lucas, rapper
• Arun Luthra, jazz saxophonist, konnakol artist, composer, arranger, band leader[17]
• Orpheus, band that enjoyed popularity in the 1960s and early 1970s
• Cole Porter, Broadway composer, student at Worcester Academy ca. 1912, born in Peru, Indiana
• Andy Ross, guitarist for rock band OK Go
• Luke Caswell, better known as Cazwell, a LGBT rapper

Politicians

• Charles Allen (1797–1869), United States Congressman from Massachusetts[18]
• George Bancroft, 17th United States Secretary of the Navy, founder of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, author of the first comprehensive history of the United States[19]
• John Binienda, Massachusetts state legislator[20]
• Alexander H. Bullock, Governor of Massachusetts (1866–1868)[21]
• Kate Campanale, member of Massachusetts House of Representatives from District 17.[22]
• John Curtis Chamberlain, US Representative[23]
• Dorothea Dix, reformer and activist
• Dwight Foster, Massachusetts Attorney General and Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court[24]
• Roger Sherman Baldwin Foster, lawyer[25]
• Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-American anarchist; owned ice cream parlor in Worcester[26]
• Thomas Wentworth Higginson, abolitionist, literary mentor to Emily Dickinson[27]
• Abbie Hoffman, radical activist[28]
• Abby Kelley Foster, abolitionist, suffragette[29]
• Levi Lincoln Sr., American revolutionary
• Levi Lincoln Jr., Governor of Massachusetts
• Albert L. Nash, politician and businessman[30]
• Kenneth P. O'Donnell, Appointments Secretary and Political Adviser to President John F. Kennedy[31]
• John Rucho, politician and businessman[32]
• Charles F. Sullivan, Mayor of Worcester and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, 1949–1953
• Benjamin Swan, longest-serving Vermont State Treasurer[33]
• Charles G. Washburn, member of the U.S. House of Representatives

Writers and journalists

• Jane G. Austin, writer
• S. N. Behrman, playwright, author of memoir The Worcester Account
• Robert Benchley, writer and member of the Algonquin Round Table
• Elizabeth Bishop, poet and writer
• John D. Casey, novelist and translator
• John Dufresne, novelist and screenwriter
• Alice Morse Earle, writer
• Esther Forbes, writer
• Samuel Fuller, screenwriter, producer and director
• John Michael Hayes, writer of the Alfred Hitchcock films Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much
• Stanley Kunitz, Poet Laureate
• Frank O'Hara, poet
• Charles Olson, modernist poet
• Normand Poirier, writer
• Ernest Lawrence Thayer, poet and journalist, known for "Casey at the Bat"
• Isaiah Thomas, publisher of the Massachusetts Spy
• Stanley Woodward, newspaper editor and sportswriter

Other

• Lillian Asplund, last survivor of the RMS Titanic who remembered the actual sinking
• William Austin Burt, 19th-century explorer and surveyor in Michigan
• Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, convicted child molester, possible serial killer and cannibal
• Timothy Bigelow, Revolutionary War patriot
• Jonas Clark, founder of Clark University
• Edgar C. Erickson (1896–1989), United States Army Major General and Chief of the National Guard Bureau
• John Stanley Grauel (1917–1986), Christian Zionist leader
• Samuel Fisk Green (1822–1884), physician and medical missionary, served with the American Ceylon Mission 1847-1873
• Samuel R. Heywood, founder of the Heywood Boot & Shoe Company
• Myra Kraft, philanthropist, wife of New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft
• Joe Morrone, Connecticut Huskies soccer coach
• Charley Parkhurst, stagecoach driver and horseman
• Irving Price, co-founder of Fisher Price toys and games
• George Edward Rueger (1929–2019), Roman Catholic bishop
• Stephen Salisbury III, founder of the Worcester Art Museum
• Richard B. Sellars (1915–2010), Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson[34]
• Ichabod Washburn, founder of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Steven N. Wickstrom, Army National Guard Major General who commanded the 42nd Infantry Division[35]
• Stillman Witt (1808–1875), Ohio railroad and steel executive, banker[36]
• Geoffrey Zakarian, Iron Chef, Food Network Channel celebrity chef

References

1. "MEET JERRY AZUMAH". ASAP. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
2. "Rink Master". Holy Cross. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
3. "Tim Collins". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
4. "Bob Cousy". Pro-Basketball Reference . Com. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
5. "Ken Doane". 2013, Canoe Inc. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
6. "Rich Gedman". Pro-Baseball Reference.com. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
7. "Bill Guerin". Hockey Reference.com. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
8. "Aaron Haddad". 2013, Canoe Inc. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
9. Glassboro High School Hall of Fame (1989 Inductees). Accessed August 6, 2007.
10. "Tom Poti". Hockey Reference.com. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
11. "J.P. Ricciardi". Pro-Baseball Reference.com. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
12. "Andre Ward pummels Edwin Rodriguez". Los Angeles Times. November 16, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
13. "Tanyon Sturtze". Pro-Baseball Reference.com. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
14. "Marshall Taylor". 2000 - 2002 Major Taylor Association, Inc. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
15. "VINNIE YABLONSKI". profootballarchives.com. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
16. "Duke Levine Official Site | Duke Levine Official Site".
17. HeraldSun.com.-Cliff Bellamy
18. Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Marquis Who's Who. 1967.
19. "George Bancroft Secretary of the Navy 1800 - 1891". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
20. Votesmart.org.-John Binienda, Sr.
21. "Massachusetts Governor Alexander Hamilton Bullock". NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
22. "40 Under Forty: Kate D. Campanale, 32". wbjournal.com. August 20, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
23. "CHAMBERLAIN, John Curtis (1772-1834)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
24. Davis, William Thomas (1900), History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts: Including the Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies, The Province of Massachusetts Bay, and The Commonwealth, Boston, MA: The Boston Book Company, p. 194
25. "THE ANCESTRY OF SALLY SLEEPER RUSSELL OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS (1919-1983)". Ancestry.com. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
26. "People & Events: Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919)". American Experience. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
27. "Thomas Wentworth Higginson". Civil War Trust. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
28. "Abbie Hoffman, 60's Icon, Dies; Yippie Movement Founder Was 52". The New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
29. "Abigail Kelley Foster". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
30. '1973-1974 Public Officials of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Biographical Sketch of Albert L. Nash, pg. 252
31. "Biographical Profiles: Kenneth P. O'Donnell". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
32. '1977-1978 Public Officials of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Biographical Sketch of John Rucho, pg. 282
33. Henry Swan Dana, History of Woodstock, Vermont, 1889, page 485
34. Abelson, Reed. "Richard B. Sellars, Former Chief of Johnson & Johnson, Dies at 94", The New York Times, June 26, 2010.
35. • Caywood, Thomas (May 10, 2009). "Responsibility of Rank". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, MA.
36. "Personal". Railway Age. May 15, 1875. p. 199. Retrieved October 1, 2017.