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 tremendous outflow of intellectuals that formed such a prominent part of the general exodus from Soviet Russia in the first years of the Bolshevist Revolution seems today like the wanderings of some mythical tribe whose bird-signs and moon-signs I now retrieve from the desert dust.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Most of the folktales dealing with the Indians are lurid and romantic. The story of the Indian lovers who were refused permission to wed and committed suicide is common to many places. Local residents point out cliffs where Indian maidens leaped to their death until it would seem that the first duty of all Indian girls was to jump off cliffs.”
—For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“As I walked on the railroad causeway, I used to wonder at the halo of light around my shadow, and would fain fancy myself one of the elect. One who visited me declared that the shadows of some Irishmen before him had no halo about them, that it was only natives that were so distinguished.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)