Prominent Peekskill Residents and Natives
- Former New York Governor George Pataki (served 1995–2006) was born in Peekskill. He also served as mayor from 1981-1984.
- Richard E. Jackson, a former Peekskill mayor, was the first African-American mayor in New York State.
- Chauncey M. Depew was chairman of the board of the New York Central Railroad and then served as a United States senator for New York.
- Cornelius A. Pugsley was a congressman and preservationist whose name is still attached to a national preservation award for public parks.
- William Nelson was a colleague to Abraham Lincoln, leading to President-elect Lincoln's brief 1861 stop at the Peekskill village on his way to the Washington D.C. inauguration.
- Henry Ward Beecher was an influential Civil War-era minister who built his impressive family mansion on East Main Street in 1878.
- Moses S. Beach was responsible for initiating the Associated Press (AP) while publisher of the New York Sun newspaper.
- T. C. Boyle (b. 1948), a novelist, is a former Peekskill resident.
- Actors Mel Gibson, Paul Reubens and Stanley Tucci were born in Peekskill.
- Former NFL lineman Tre Johnson graduated from Peekskill High School, and had a stellar nine-year NFL career highlighted by his selection to the 2000 Pro Bowl with the Redskins.
- NBA Basketball professionals Elton Brand and Hilton Armstrong are Peekskill High School graduates.
- Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada (born Keith Gordon Ham in Peekskill on September 6, 1937, and graduated with honors from Peekskill High School in 1955), Hare Krishna guru.
- Hayward Burns graduated from Peekskill High School before going on to be editor of the Harvard Law Review and to help draft the constitution of South Africa.
- John Leslie (01/31/1915-03/12/2009), a Peekskill native, was working for IBM in 1957 when he conceived of the idea that a computer could prepare a tax return. He turned in the first completely computer generated and printed tax return that the IRS ever accepted to the Andover, MA office in 1971.
- Longtime Marvel Comics artist Herb Trimpe (The Incredible Hulk) was raised in Peekskill.
- Former United States Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti. In 2005, he became the first U.S. lawyer to charge $1000 an hour. Ben is currently a Senior Partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Venable LLP.
- Independent filmmaker Abel Ferrara was born in the Bronx, however he moved to Peekskill as a teenager and graduated from high school there.
- L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz, attended Peekskill Military Academy for approximately 2 years.
- Jackie Gleason lived in Peekskill from 1959 to 1963.
- Cartoonist Peter Bagge was born and brought up in Peekshill.
Read more about this topic: Peekskill, New York
Famous quotes containing the words prominent, residents and/or natives:
“The vain man does not wish so much to be prominent as to feel himself prominent; he therefore disdains none of the expedients for self-deception and self-outwitting. It is not the opinion of others that he sets his heart on, but his opinion of their opinion.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“I am sorry to say we whites have a sad reputation among many of the Polynesians. The natives of these islands are naturally of a kindly and hospitable temper, but there has been implanted among them an almost instinctive hate of the white man. They esteem us, with rare exceptions, such as some of the missionaries, the most barbarous, treacherous, irreligious, and devilish creatures on the earth.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)