John Fredrick Herring (1970 - 1865)

Artist. Born in Surrey, but spent most of his first eighteen years in the City of London, where his father, an American of Dutch parentage, was a fringe-maker in Newgate Street, just West of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 1874, however, he married against the wishes of his father and, without any settled plans, arrived in […]

John Fremont “Grandpa” McCullough (1871 - 1963)

Entrepreneur. After attending college in Oswego, New York, he moved to Davenport, Iowa in 1911, then went into the dairy business in nearby Green River, Illinois. In 1938, he and his son Bradley developed a formula for soft-serve ice cream. They tested their new product at the ice cream retail shop of one of their […]

John French (1872 - 1903)

French formed the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company in 1900 with George P. Dorriss. They produced 85 automobles. Ironically, Mr. French died as a result of an automobile accident in Pittsburgh. He was on a business trip & took a trial spin in a new car & collided with another car. He suffered severe head […]

John G. Adolfi (1881 - 1933)

Motion Picture Director.  Best known for his early 1930s films starring famed British actor George Arliss.  Born in New York City,  he began as an actor in stock and made his screen debut in the Vitagraph one-reeler “The Spy” (1907). He switched to directing in 1913 and turned out scores of silent potboilers for Fox […]

John G. Blystone (1892 - 1938)

Motion Picture Director, Actor. He appeared in 4 films, was the writer of 4, the producer of 7, the supervisor on 46 and the director of 66 films including: “The Last Man on Earth” (silent), “The Sky Hawk,” “Tol’able David,” “Charlie Chan’s Chance,” “Swiss Miss” and “Block-Heads.” He was the brother of actor Stanley Blystone […]

John G. McCrory (1860 - 1923)

Businessman. He was the founder of the McCrory Five and Ten Cent store chain. Born in East Wheatfield Township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, he moved with his family to Cumberland County while still a boy. He returned to Johnstown, Pennsylvania at age 18 and began working in retail stores. Four years later, at age 22, he […]

John Galardi (1938 - 2013)

Fast Food Entrepreneur. He was best known for being the founder of Wienerschnitzel, the world’s largest hot dog chain. At age 19, he began working at Taco Tia restaurant in Pasadena, California, when he decided to create an idea to compete with Glen Bell, who founded Taco Bell. In 1961, he a opened a hot […]

John Garcia (1917 - 2012)

John Garcia was born to a farm family on June 12, 1917, near Santa Rosa, California, and died a world-renowned member of the National Academy of Sciences on October 12, 2012. He was a farmer, a cartoonist, a ship fitter, an Air Corps Cadet, an amateur boxer, a high school teacher and a college professor, […]

John Garfield (1913 - 1952)

Actor. Hollywood leading man in the 1930’s and 1940’s. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor, once in 1939 for Four Daughters, and again in 1948 for Body and Soul. Other noteworthy films include They Made Me A Criminal, The Sea Wolf, Destination Tokyo, Gentleman’s Agreement, Humoresque, and The Postman Always […]

John Gay (1970 - 1970)

Artist. He was a leading photographer and collaborator of the poet Sir John Betjeman. Amongst Gay’s famous “sitters” were Hilaire Pierre Belloc (1948), Walter de la Mare (1948), Thomas Stearns (‘T.S.’) Eliot (1948) and Dylan Thomas (1948). Many of his works now belong to the National Portrait Gallery. (bio by: Kieran Smith)

John Geoghan (1935 - 2003)

John Geoghan (/ˈɡeɪɡən/; June 4, 1935 – August 23, 2003) was an American Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused children while he was assigned to parishes in the Boston Archdiocese of Massachusetts. He was reassigned several times to parish posts involving children, including after attempted treatment for pedophilia. The investigation and prosecution of Geoghan was one […]

John George Taylor Spink (1888 - 1962)

Baseball publicist. Born in St. Louis, he was the son of Charles Spink. Two years before his son’s birth, Charles had abandoned a homesteading venture to assist his brother Alfred in founding Sporting News, a St. Louis-based weekly journal of sporting and theatrical news. Alfred soon left Charles in control of the struggling publication. By […]

John Gibson (1817 - 1892)

Architect. Born in Warwickshire. John was an assistant to Sir Charles Barry and assisted him in the drawings of the Houses of Parliament. John was a prominent bank architect at a time when joint-stock banking was an innovation. His 1849 National Bank of Scotland branch in Glasgow led to perhaps his best-known work, the former […]

John Gielgud (1904 - 2000)

John Gielgud OM CH (/ˈɡiːlɡʊd/; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family […]

John Gilbert (1899 - 1936)

Actor. John Gilbert appeared in theatrical roles and in motion pictures from then 1910s to the 1930s, and became one of the top stars of the silent screen era. Born John Pringle in Logan, Utah, to stock company actor parents, his childhood was marked with abuse and neglect until he escaped to Hollywood, California as […]

John Gillespie Bullock (1871 - 1933)

Businessman. Born in Ontario, Canada, in the 1890s, he moved to Los Angeles, California and with Arthur Letts, set up a dry goods store. Since it was located on Broadway Street, they called it “Broadway” in 1907. The store prospered so they opened a second store which was managed by John Bullock and the new […]

John Glenn (1921 - 2016)

John Glenn John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the space age as the first American to orbit Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95. Ohio State University announced […]

John Gostlin (1970 - 1704)

President of Gonville and Caius College, 1679-1704 (bio by: David Conway)

John Gotti (1940 - 2002)

John Gotti Gotti was born in the Bronx. He was the fifth of the thirteen children of John Joseph Gotti, Sr. and his wife Philomena. John was one of five brothers who would become made men in the Gambino crime family; Gene Gotti was initiated before John due to the latter’s incarceration. Peter Gotti was […]

John Gough (1894 - 1968)

Actor. Born in Boston Massachusetts, he was a popular character performer during the silent film era appearing in sixty movies. His credits include “This Is the Life” (1915), “Sands of Sacrifice” (1917), “Secret Orders” (1926), “The Air Legion” (1929) and “Two For Tonight” (1935). He died at age 73 in Hollywood, California. (bio by: John […]

John Graves Shedd (1850 - 1926)

Businessman, Philanthropist. He was the 2nd president and chairman of the board of Marshall Field & Company, an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois, that would become its largest store and the largest wholesale and dry goods company in the world at that time. Born on a farm in Alstead, New Hampshire, he received his […]

John Gregson (1919 - 1975)

Gregson was born of Irish descent, and grew up in Wavertree, Liverpool, Lancashire, where he was educated at Greenbank Road Primary School and later at St. Francis Xavier’s College. He left school at 16, working first for a telephone company, then for Liverpool Corporation, as the city council was then known, before the Second World […]

John H. “Jack” Hartman (1970 - 1970)

College Basketball Coach. The men’s basketball coach at Kansas State University from 1970 to 1986,  he retired as the career leader in wins at KSU with a record of 295 wins and 169 losses. His teams won three Big 8 titles and had nine postseason appearances. He played football and basketball at Oklahoma A&M (now […]

John H. Auer (1906 - 1975)

Motion Picture Director, Producer, Actor. Hungarian-born film figure of the 1930s through the 1950s. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

John H. Balsley (1823 - 1895)

John H. Balsley (May 29, 1823 – March 12, 1895) was a master carpenter and inventor, inventing a practical folding wooden stepladder and receiving the first U.S. patent issued for a safety stepladder.  He was born in Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania to George H. and Sarah (Shallenberger) Balsley. His father was also a carpenter. An […]

John H. Glenn, Sr (1895 - 1966)

Father of renowned Marine aviator, astronaut and U.S. senator, John H. Glenn, Jr.  Family links:  Spouse:  Clara Theresa Sproat Glenn (1897 – 1971)* *Calculated relationship

John H. Patterson (1844 - 1922)

Businessman. He was a pioneer in sales and an industrialist most noted for being the founder of National Cash Register (N.C.R.). Patterson sought to create a method of sales management that encompassed all aspects of selling, from the calculation of quotas and commission rates to the motivate discouraged salesmen. The aspect of the Patterson method […]

John Haden Badley (1865 - 1967)

Author, Educator. Born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England son of Dr. James Payton Badley and Laura Elizabeth Best his wife. He was the grandson of John Badley, F.R.C.S one of the original 300 fellows of the Royal College of Surgery. Early in life he saw the poverty and squalor of many working class in the Midlands. […]

John Hall (1970 - 1836)

Engineer and Pioneer of Tinned Iron Food Canning. He was the son of a millwright, and served an apprenticeship at the Portal family’s paper mill in Laverstoke in Hampshire, England. In 1784 he travelled to Dartford in Kent to find work. He was given a one year contract to repair the paper mill of T. […]

John Hamilton (1887 - 1958)

Actor. Born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, he was best remembered for the role of Perry White editor of the Daily Planet on the original TV series of “Adventures of Superman” in the 1950s. He was member of a Broadway company when he made his film debut in “Dangerous Nan McGrew” (1930). His many movie credits include […]