Notable People
See also category: People from Santa Rosa, California- Arthur Leigh Allen, suspected Zodiac Killer
- Francis Boggs, actor, writer, and director
- Warren Boyd, television producer, drug counselor
- Luther Burbank, horticulturalist
- Shirlee Busbee, writer
- Maria Ygnacia Lopez de Carrillo was the first Mexican/Spanish settler and land grantee of Santa Rosa, establishing the Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa in 1838. She was also notable in California as a rare female land grantee; mother-in-law of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, a major Californio administrator who played a crucial role in California during both the Mexican and US periods; mother of Vallejo's wife, Francisca Maria Felipe Benicia, after whom the city of Benicia was named; grandmother of Romualdo Pacheco, California's only Californio state governor; and aunt of Californio administrators Andrés Pico and Pio Pico.
- Chad Channing, drummer for Nirvana.
- Robert X. Cringely, technology journalist
- Florian Dauenhauer of Santa Rosa founded Dauenhauer Manufacturing which is still located on 5th Street in Santa Rosa. Around 1940, he revolutionized the US hop industry by inventing a hop harvesting machine which mechanized what was a time-consuming, labor-intensive process and which is the basis for current hop harvesting. Unfortunately for the region, it helped destroy the region's once-thriving hop industry.
- Rebecca De Mornay, film and television actress
- Frank Doyle, owner of the regionally significant Exchange Bank until his death in 1948, instrumental advocate of the creation of the Golden Gate Bridge (Doyle Drive, the southern approach to the bridge, memorializes his role), and creator of the endowment commonly known as the Doyle Trust, which holds controlling stock in the Bank in trust solely for the funding of scholarships for qualifying students attending the Santa Rosa Junior College. Because of the Doyle Trust, the Exchange Bank (still headquartered in Santa Rosa) can never be bought or sold.
- William Mark Felt, Watergate informant known as "Deep Throat"
- Guy Fieri, celebrity chef
- Mendy Fry, drag racer
- Paul Gilger, author of the musical Showtune
- Thomas Lake Harris, mystic and prophet
- Chris Hayes, musician, member of Huey Lewis and the News
- Richard Heinberg, ecological journalist
- Dan Hicks, singer and songwriter
- Joseph and William Hunt, founders of Hunt's foods
- Levi Leipheimer, cyclist and three-time winner of the Tour of California
- Julie London, singer and actress
- Ray Luv, Bay Area rapper. Native of the West 9th district.
- Kanaye Nagasawa (1852–1934) was a Japanese-American who became known as "The Grape King", "The Baron of Fountaingrove", and "The Japanese Wine King of California". He was a follower and adoptive son of Thomas Lake Harris. For his efforts to improve U.S.-Japanese relations, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun. Nagasawa Community Park is named after him.
- Ernie Nevers, football star
- Vicky Nguyen, television reporter
- Stephan Pastis, cartoonist of Pearls Before Swine
- Jade Puget, guitarist for the band AFI
- Robert Ripley, columnist of Ripley's Believe It or Not
- Stephanie St. James, is actress, singer, and disease advocate.
- Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist of Peanuts
- Pete Stringfellow, country music artist
- David Terrell, fighter
- Natalie Wood, film actress
Read more about this topic: Santa Rosa, California
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or people:
“Every notable advance in technique or organization has to be paid for, and in most cases the debit is more or less equivalent to the credit. Except of course when it’s more than equivalent, as it has been with universal education, for example, or wireless, or these damned aeroplanes. In which case, of course, your progress is a step backwards and downwards.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other’s despair into hope?—
You yourself must change it.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)