Dubuque, Iowa - Notable People

Notable People

• Austin Adams, judge. Iowa state supreme court chief justice (1880-87).
• Don Ameche, actor, Loras College. Ameche is buried in nearby Asbury, Iowa.
• Francis Beckman, bishop. Beckman was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Lincoln (1924–30) and as Archbishop of Dubuque (1930–46).
• Alfred S. Bennett, judge. Bennett was an American judge, educator, and attorney in Oregon. He was the 49th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, serving from 1919 to 1920.
• Leo Binz, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
• Richard Pike Bissell, author
• Gottfried Blocklinger, rear admiral in the US Navy. Notable achievements include: in 1879 as a Lieutenant, he commanded the survey of the Madeira river, in the Amazon. Was a lieutenant on board the USS Baltimore (C-3) during the Baltimore Crisis of 1891. And was the Executive Officer, on board the USS Charleston (C-2) during the Capture of Guam to the United States during the Spanish American war in 1898.
• Donald G. Bloesch, theologian. For more than 40 years, he published scholarly yet accessible works that generally defend traditional Protestant beliefs and practices while seeking to remain in the mainstream of modern Protestant theological thought. The ongoing publication of his Christian Foundation Series, has brought him recognition as an important American theologian.
• Charles H. Bradley, Jr., businessman.
• Robert Byrne, author, billiards player. Byrne is an American author and Hall of Fame instructor of pool and billiards. Byrne became a full-time writer in 1977 after the publication of his third book. He is the author of seven novels, five collections of humorous quotations, seven books on billiards, two anthologies, and an expose of frauds in the literary world. One of his novels, Thrill, was made into NBC’s Monday Night Movie, which aired for the first time on May 20, 1996. Four of his novels were selections of Reader's Digest Condensed Books and published in over a dozen languages.
• LeRoy E. Cain, flight director during the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
• Doron Jensen, founder of Timber Lodge Steakhouse
• John Patrick Carroll, bishop.
• Tom Churchill, TV and radio meteorologist ABC, NBC, PBS.
• Andrew Clemens, sand artist.
• Julien Dubuque, explorer, first white settler in Dubuque.
• David Farley, author and journalist. Farley writes mostly about travel, food, and culture for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Conde Nast Traveler, and World Hum, among other publications.
• Victor Feguer, criminal. Feguer was a convicted murderer and the last federal inmate executed in the United States before the moratorium on the death penalty following Furman v. Georgia, and the last person put to death in the state of Iowa.
• Robert John Felderman, born in Dubuque 1955, first Major General (retired) from Dubuque in 21st Century, over 35 years of service in the Army and Air Force (including 2 years enlisted), inducted into Fort Benning Infantry School Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame
• Margaret Feldner, nun, educator. She served as Quincy University's 21st president. Feldner assumed the post January 1, 2004. She was the first woman president appointed to the role at Quincy University. She was excused in 2006.
• George J. Fritschel, theologian.
• William Arthur Ganfield, educator. Ganfield was a figure in American higher education and served as president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky from 1915 to 1921 and later president of Carroll College (now called Carroll University in from 1921 until his retirement in 1939. Ganfield was a supporter of athletic programs at both schools.
• Thomas Gifford, author. Gifford was a best-selling American author of thriller novels.
• Robert John Giroux, educator. Giroux served as president of Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa from 1969-1978. He served as president of Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky from 1978-1981 and then served as president of Newman University in Wichita, Kansas from 1982-1989.
• John Graas, musician. Graas had a short but busy career on the West Coast, known primarily as one of the first and best French horn players in jazz.
• Jerome Hanus, bishop. is an archbishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as Bishop of Saint Cloud in the state of Minnesota from 1987 to 1994. He is the current Archbishop of Dubuque in the state of Iowa.
• Fridolin Heer, architect. He and his son set up practice in Dubuque in 1864. Buildings by Fridolin Heer and Son include the Dubuque County Courthouse, 1891-1893.
• Gwen Hennessey, activist, religious sister. She is most widely known for protests at Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the Army's School of the Americas, a facility for training Latin American soldiers.
• John Hennessey, bishop. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Dubuque in the state of Iowa from 1866–1893, when he was named the first archbishop of Dubuque.
• Jack Hicks, sculptor.
• Frederick William Kaltenbach, American who served the Nazis as the wartime radio broadcaster known as "Lord Hee Haw".
• Frank Keenan, actor. Keenan was a stage and screen actor and stage director and manager during the silent film era. He was among the first stage actors to star in Hollywood, and he pursued work in film features a number of years.
• Dallas Kinney, photojournalist. Kinney is a world renowned photo journalist who won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in photography for his photographs of Florida migrant workers.
• Kay Kurt, artist. Kurt is an American New Realist painter known for her large-scale candy paintings.
• Mathias Clement Lenihan, bishop. Lenihan was a 20th century archbishop in the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Great Falls in the state of Montana from 1904-30.
• Alexander Levi, Levi was a French Jew of Sephardic origin, was the first foreigner to be naturalized in Iowa. A grocer, miner, mine provisioner and successful department store owner, he founded the first two Jewish congregations in the city, was a loyal Whig, served a term as Justice of the Peace and was the first Mason to be sworn in after the Dubuque lodge received its charter. He was naturalized in 1837 and died in 1893.
• Margaret Lindsay, actress. She was noted for her supporting work in successful films of the 1930s and 1940s such as Jezebel (1938) and Scarlet Street (1945) and her leading roles in lower-budgeted B movie films such as the Ellery Queen series at Columbia in the early 1940s.
• Bill Lipinski, politician. Lipinski attended Loras College. He was a U.S. Representative for Illinois' 3rd and 5th districts (1983-2005).
• Francis MacNutt, religious author. MacNutt is a leading member of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and an author of books on healing prayer, including Healing, The Healing Reawakening and Deliverance from Evil Spirits.
• Dennis Mahony, journalist. One of the founders of the Telegraph Herald. He was a highly partisan Northern Democrat of Copperhead sympathies and wrote articles that negatively criticized Abraham Lincoln and the conduct of the Civil War. He was arrested on August 14, 1862 by U.S. Marshal H.M. Hoxie for publishing an editorial article that was allegedly disloyal to the government. He was transported from Dubuque to Washington D.C, and held at the Old Capitol Prison. He was released from prison on November 10.
• ShaChelle Devlin Manning, businesswoman. Manning is an American change agent for nanotechnology, attempting to pave the way for nanotechnology's commercialization at the university, company, state, federal, and international level.
• Michael Joseph Melloy, judge, Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek Voyager actress
• Louie Psihoyos, documentary film director. In 2009 he directed and appeared in the feature-length documentary The Cove, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
• David Rabe, playwright. He won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1972 (Sticks and Bones) and also received Tony award nominations for Best Play in 1974 (In the Boom Boom Room), 1977 (Streamers) and 1985 (Hurlyburly).
• John F. Rague (1799-1877) architect who designed and built the 1837 Old Capitol of Illinois and the 1840 Territorial Capitol of Iowa, the city hall, central market house, and jail.
• Robert Reuland, novelist.
• Jim Romagna, bodybuilder and educator. He is an instructor of Health Wellness and Recreation at the University of Dubuque. He's also a personal trainer, and writes columns for various sports magazines such as Muscle & Fitness. Natural Fit Inc. owner.
• Raymond Roseliep, poet and haiku writer, Loras College
• Alexander Rummler, painter
• Albert Sale, soldier. Sale was an American soldier in the U.S. Army who served with the 8th U.S. Cavalry in the Arizona Territory during the Apache Wars. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry against a hostile band of Apache Indians, killing an Apache warrior in hand-to-hand combat and seizing his war pony, at the Santa Maria River on June 29, 1869. Sale moved to Dubuque in 1864 and he enlisted in Dubuque in 1866.
• John P. Schlegel, educator. Schlegel is the 23rd President of Creighton University since 2000. He formerly served as 26th President of the University of San Francisco from 1991 until 2000.
• Dennis Schmitz, contemporary poet
• George Shiras, Jr., judge. Shiras was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who was nominated to the Court by Republican President Benjamin Harrison. At that time, he had 37 years of private legal practice, but had never judged a case. Shiras was the only Supreme Court justice, as of 2011, to have no record of public (political, governmental or judicial) service. Shiras practiced law in Dubuque from 1855 to 1858.
• Oliver Perry Shiras, judge. Shiras was the first United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.
• William A. Shanklin, educator. He was president of Upper Iowa University in 1905-09 and thereafter president of Wesleyan University.
• J.R. Simplot- entrepreneur and formerly world's oldest billionaire
• Mark Steines, TV anchor/reporter on Entertainment Tonight
• James Huff Stout, Wisconsin politician and businessman, founded Stout Manual Institute - now University of Wisconsin-Stout.
• Jessie Taft, an early American authority on child placement and therapeutic adoption. She is best remembered for her work as the translator and biographer of Otto Rank, an outcast disciple of Sigmund Freud.
• Saint Cessianus whose remains are kept inside the altar at St. Raphael's Cathedral.
• John Tomkins, criminal. Tomkins is an American who was arrested and charged with sending several threatening letters and bomb-like devices to financial firms in the Midwestern United States under the pseudonym The Bishop.
• William Vandever, politician. Vandever serverd as U.S. Representative for Iowa's 2nd district (1859-61) and California's 6th district (1887-91).
• James F. Watson, judge. Watson was the 25th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court serving from 1876 until 1878. Previously he served in the state legislature and later served as United States Attorney for the District of Oregon.
• Loras Joseph Watters, Roman Catholic bishop
• Westel W. Willoughby, educator. At the urging of Professor Willoughby, Johns Hopkins created the first department of Political Science under his leadership and with him as the only professor. He continued to lead this department until his retirement at the age of 65 in 1932. He helped to found the American Political Science Association and served as its 10th President. Some have referred to him as the father of modern political science thanks to his prolific writing. He published many books over the span of his career at Hopkins. His first, entitled The Nature of the State was published in 1898. From there, he went on to establish himself as one of the foremost authorities on Constitutional Law and the workings of the Supreme Court of the United States.