Rev Edward Frederick Sorin (1814 - 1893)

Founder and first president of the University of Notre Dame. (bio by: GP)

Rev Elisha Ballantine (1809 - 1886)

Celebrated theologian, scholar and educator. President of Indiana University. (bio by: Doug Beaver)  Family links:  Spouse:  Betsey Ann Watkins Ballantine (1812 – 1873)*  Children:  Mary O Osborne Brown (1837 – 1905)*  Anna Thankful Ballantine (1842 – 1915)*  Elizabeth Morton Ballantine (1844 – 1866)*  Frances Wood Ballantine (1846 – 1868)*  William Gay Ballantine (1848 – 1937)* […]

Rev Frederic Baraga (1797 - 1868)

Religious Leader. He was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Upper Michigan. A priest to the Ojibway Indians, his efforts to evanglize these Native Americans and to improve their lives was well known.  A county, a village, a street, a township and numerous shrines have been named for him.  For twenty years he labored to […]

Rev Gérard Barbeau (1970 - 1960)

Actor. He appeared in the film, “Le Rossignol Et Les Cloches” (1952). He was ordained a few months before his death Sept. 16, 1960.

Rev Henry Durant (1802 - 1875)

Educator, Oakland Mayor. Born in Acton, Massachusetts, Durant graduated from Yale in 1827 and was ordained a Congregational minister in 1833. In 1853 he moved out west after seeing the potential for education in the new state of California and went on to found Contra Costa Academy, which was renamed the College of California in […]

Rev John Burnaby (1891 - 1978)

Dean of Tinity College, Regius Professor of Divinity (bio by: David Conway)

Rev John Dubois (1764 - 1842)

Educator, Missionary. Born in Paris, France, he was an ordained Priest at the Oratorian Seminary of St-Magloire, when he came to America in 1791. In 1794, he became pastor of Frederick where he built the first church and ministered to Western Maryland. His career as an educator began in 1808, joining the Society of St-Sulpice […]

Rev John Harvard (1607 - 1638)

Educator. Benefactor of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard students erected this monument in 1838, as his original stone had been lost. (bio by: Eric Thomsen)

Rev John Jay Shipherd (1802 - 1844)

Founded Oberlin College in Ohio and Olivet College in Michigan. From their beginnings, these institutions were dedicated to the ideals of education for all, regardless of gender, race, or ability to pay. (bio by: Matthew)  Family links:  Children:  Henry Zebulon Shipherd (1828 – 1908)*  Edward Payson Shipherd (1831 – 1913)* *Calculated relationshipCause of death: Malaria

Rev Mozel Sanders (1924 - 1988)

Educator who trained the unskilled so they could work and fed the hungry. He was best known for establishing the Reverend Mozel Sanders Thanksgiving Dinner service to those in need in the Indianapolis community. A segment of North Belmont Street, on which Reverend Sanders lived and where his pastorate, Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, is located, […]

Rev Peter Paul Dobree (1970 - 1825)

Regius Professor of Greek, and close friend of Richard Porson (q.v.) (bio by: David Conway)

Rex Bell (1903 - 1962)

Cowboy actor and film star, who went on to become the Lieutenant Governor of Nevada. He is also remembered as the husband of actress Clara Bow, the famous “It” girl. Born George Francis Beldam in Chicago, Illinois, he moved with his parents to California, where he graduated from Hollywood High School in 1923. It is […]

Rex Brasher (1869 - 1960)

Painter. Rex was born in Brooklyn, New York, into an old Huguenot family. His grandfather Philip was a member of the  New York State Legislature. Rex became passionate about birds at an early age, due to the influence of his father, an avid naturalist and bird taxidermist. In 1878, at the age of eight he […]

Rex Elvie Allen (1920 - 1999)

Allen was born to Horace E. Allen and Luella Faye Clark on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, 40 miles from Willcox, Arizona. As a boy he played guitar and sang at local functions with his fiddle-playing father until high school graduation when he toured the Southwest as a rodeo rider. He got his start […]

Rex Harrison (1908 - 1990)

Harrison was born at Derry House in Huyton, Merseyside, the son of Edith Mary (née Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He was educated at Liverpool College. After a bout of childhood measles, Harrison lost most of the sight in his left eye, which on one occasion caused some on-stage difficulty. He first […]

Rex Humbard (1919 - 2007)

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Pentecostal evangelists, Rex Humbard was the first evangelist to have a weekly nationwide television program in the United States, running from 1952 to 1983, although his first television broadcast was in 1949. Humbard’s $4 million Cathedral of Tomorrow church in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, a suburb of nearby Akron, was […]

Rex Ingram (1895 - 1969)

Rex Ingram was born near Cairo, Illinois, on the Mississippi River; his father was a steamer fireman on the riverboat Robert E. Lee. Ingram graduated from the Northwestern University medical school in 1919 and was the first African-American man to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key from Northwestern University. He went to Hollywood as a […]

Rex Stewart (1907 - 1967)

Rex William Stewart (February 22, 1907 – September 7, 1967) was an American jazz cornetist best remembered for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra. After stints with Elmer Snowden, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and Luis Russell, Stewart joined the Ellington band in 1934, replacing Freddie Jenkins. Ellington arranged many of his pieces […]

Reynaldo G. Garza (1915 - 2004)

First Mexican-American Federal Judge. Born the son of Mexican immigrants in Brownsville, Texas, he earned a law degree at the University of Texas in 1939. During WW II, he served in the Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1945 and returned to private law practice in Brownsville. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed him the first […]

Rhoda Blumberg (1917 - 2016)

Author. A writer of both fiction and nonfiction children’s books, she received a 1986 Newbery Honor for her work “Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun” (1985). Born into a Jewish family, she was raised in Brooklyn and received her Bachelor of Arts from Adelphi University. She began her career as a freelance writer […]

Rhoda Williams (1930 - 2006)

Voice Actress. A native of Denver, Colorado, she is best known as the voice of the evil step-sister ‘Drizella’ in the classic Disney animated film, “Cinderella” (1950). She began her career at the age of 9, and then she got the role of ‘Betty’ on the radio version of “Father Knows Best” from 1949 to […]

Rhoda Winkler (1970 - 2015)

Chief Puppeteer and Voice Actress. Winkler performed for five and a half years with the ‘Howdy Doody Show’ beginning with its premier on December 27, 1947. Born Rhoda Mann, she taught herself to work marionettes at age 9. Her first job in show business was working as assistant to Ali Benali, the Moroccan Wonderman. At […]

Rhodes Reason (1930 - 2014)

Rhodes Reason was born in Glendale, California, the son of Jean (Robinson) and Rex G. Reason. The younger brother of actor Rex Reason, Reason made his acting start at the age of eighteen in a production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Charles Laughton. Among his starring roles were parts in King Kong Escapes (1967) and […]

Rhys Jones (1995 - 2007)

Rhys Jones was the son of Stephen (born in Liverpool) and Melanie Jones (née Edwards; born in Wrexham). They have an older son, Owen (born 1990). Jones, who would have turned 12 one month after his death, had just left Broad Square Primary School on the Norris Green housing estate, and was due to start […]

Ricard Boix Oviedo (1904 - 1994)

Sculptor. He was born and died in Valencia (Spain). He studied in Academia de San Carlos and was friend of the artists Josep Renau, Francesc Badía and Rafael Pérez Contel. He also was the brother of sculptor Arturo Boix. In 1930, he moved during two months to Paris where discovered the egyptian sculpture. When he […]

Ricardo Bastid Peris (1919 - 1966)

Painter, Writer. He was born in Valencia, Comunidad Valenciana. Loyal to the Government of the Spanish Republic, after the Spanish Civil War, he was enjailed. He made his first exhibition in the 50s, but he was forced to exile to France and later to Argentina. As painter, is remembered for works such as “Vista de […]

Ricardo Cortez (1900 - 1977)

Born to a Jewish family in New York City (Vienna has been incorrectly cited as his birthplace), Ricardo Cortez was an amateur boxer and worked on Wall Street prior to entering the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name from Krantz to Cortez in order to capitalize on the popularity of the era’s “Latin lovers” […]

Ricardo García Lopez K-Hito (1890 - 1984)

Journalist, cartoonist and author. Born in Villanueva del Arzobispo, he worked as a post office employee but he soon started to contribute with the pseudonym of K-Hito to humour publications in Spain and France. In 1927 he founded the magazine of humour “Gutiérrez”, named after one of his characters, where he brought together a number […]

Ricardo García Lopez K-Hito (1890 - 1984)

Journalist, cartoonist and author. Born in Villanueva del Arzobispo, he worked as a post office employee but he soon started to contribute with the pseudonym of K-Hito to humour publications in Spain and France. In 1927 he founded the magazine of humour “Gutiérrez”, named after one of his characters, where he brought together a number […]

Ricardo Muñoz Suay (1917 - 1997)

Producer, Screenwriter. Born in Valencia, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain. An active antifascist fighter, Muñoz Suay was considered one of the most important innovators of the Spanish cinema, during the dark years of Franco’s dictatorship. His work as an assistant director, producer and screenwriter was related with films such as Luis García Berlanga’s “Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall,” “El […]