Eight Illinois historians, authors, professors, writers and business leaders submitted picks to help the Chicago Sun-Times compile its list of the 200 most-prominent Illinoisans in state history. Some gave us 200 names; others only a couple dozen. Here’s every name they submitted, and, in some cases, their reasons for picking the individual. Illinois history buffs will be especially impressed with Richard Lindberg’s detailed recommendations.
Lee Bey
Lee Bey is vice president of the DuSable Museum of African American History. He’s a also a writer, photographer and former architecture critic for the Sun-Times. His suggestions:
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable
Ida B. Wells
Dr. Margaret Burroughs, our founder, but also a cornerstone in the creation of the black museum movement that culminates in the new National African American Smithsonian Museum
USAF Major Robert Lawrence, first black person selected to the astronaut program, but tragically died in a jet crash
Curtis Mayfield
Kelan Phil Corhan, legendary musician whose African stylings influenced the work of Earth, Wind and Fire; Ramsey Lewis, and others.
Mahalia Jackson
Dinah Washington
Rhymefest
DJ Rashad, pioneered footworking
Frankie Knuckles, pioneering house DJ
Ron Hardy, very influential DJ and House Music pioneer
Oscar DePriest, first black congressman elected in a northern state; civil rights leader
RELATED: Order a copy of the Sun-Times 64-page Illinois 200 premium edition magazine
Timuel Black
Timuel Black is a teacher, historian, civil rights and political activist. Two volumes of Black’s three-volume work, “Bridges of Memory,” about the black migration to Chicago, have been published, and the third volume is in the works. A fourth book by Black, ‘‘Sacred Ground,’’ is expected to be published soon. He submitted 200 names. Here they are:
Robert S. Abbot
Carol Adams
Jane Addams
Muhammad Ali
Saul Alinsky
Gene Ammonds
Louie Armstrong
J.C. Austin Sr.
Ernie Banks
Etta Moten Barnett
Brenetta Howell Barrett
Rev. Willie Taplin Barrow
Chancelor Bennett “Chance the Rapper”
Lerone Bennett, Jr.
Al Benson
Willam “Bill” Berry
Jesse Binga
Walter Black
Michelle Boone
Arnita Boswell
Alvin Boutte
Barbara Bowman
James Bowman
Carol Moseley Braun
Arthur Brazier
Howard Brookins
Gwendolyn Brooks
“Sweet Charlie” Brown
Maggie Brown
Oscar Brown Jr.
Oscar Brown Sr.
Roland Burris
Margaret Burroughs
Clark Burrus
Jerry Butler
Jane Byrne
Cab Calloway
Blanche Callowy
Archibold Carey
Iva Carruthers
Jacob Carruthers
Michelle Clark
Nate “Sweetwater” Clifton
Rev. Clarence Cobb
Milton Cohen
Nat “King” Cole
Rev. Johnnie Colemon
Common
Sam Cooke
Ertharin Cousins
William Cousins
Allison Davis Sr.
Charles Davis. Sr.
Corneal Davis
Danny K. Davis
Miles Davis
William “Bill” Dawson
Daddyo Daylie
Milton Deas
Geraldine Dehass
Leon Depres
Oscar DePriest
Lauren Deutsch
Jacoby Dickens
Earl B. Dickeson
Dorothy Doneegan
Sammie Dortch
Paul Douglas
Clarice Durham
Richard Durham
Jean Baptist DuSable
Walter Dyett
Billy Eckstine
Edwin Eisendrath
Morris and Jimmy Ellis
Louis Farrakhan
Leon Finney
Sunny Fischer
Rube Foster
Redd Foxx
John Hope Franklin
Brenda Gaines
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia
Ed Gardner
Theaster Gates
Dorothy Geautreux
Marla Gibbs
Joan Gray
William Green
Dick Gregory
Luis V. Gutierrez
Chuck Hamilton
Herbie Hancock
Carl Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry
Bob Harness
Vivian Harsh
Hermene Hartman
Erskine Hawkins
Charlie Hayes
Fletcher Henderson
Mary Herrick
Elzie Higginbottom
Terry Hillard
Mellody Hobson
Richard Hunt
Perri Irmer
Jackson Patterson
Jesse Jackson Sr.
Luster Jackson
Valerie Jarrett
Vernon Jarrett
Bennett Johnson
George Johnson
Jack Johnson
John H. Johnson
Emil Jones
Quincy Jones
Michael Jordan
Chaka Kahn
Lawrence Kennon
Herb Kent
Jewel Lafonte
Anna Langford
A.R. Leak
Carol Lee
John Levy
Karen Lewis
Abraham Lincoln
Bob Lucas
Moms Mabley
Betty Magness
Haki Mahibutu
Madam Malone
Leroy Martin
Walter Massey
Fleetwood McCoy
Lester McKeever
Cirilo McSween
Ralph Metcalf
Robert Ming
James Montgomery
Archibald Motley
Susan Motley
Rudy Nimocks
Jimmy Noone
Barack Obama
Michelle Obama
Ted Oppenheimer
Anthony Overton
Cecil Partee
Eugene Perkins
Walter Payton
Toni Preckwinkle
Al Raby
Jane Ramsey
Everett Rand
Sammie A.A. Rayner
Christopher Reed
Jackie Reynolds
Julianna Richardson
Minnie Ripperston
Renault Robinson
Harold Rogers
John Rogers Jr.
Bobby Rush
Abe Saperstein
Gus Savage
Hazel Scott
Robert Sengstacke
Dick Simpson
Noble Sissle
Robert Starks
Adlai Stevenson
Monica Faith Stuart
Earl Strayhorn
John Stroger
Sterling Stuckey
Erskine Tate
James Taylor
Robert Taylor
Studs Terkel
Dempsey Travis
Donne Trotter
Jacqueline Vaughn
James Wagner
Harold Washington
Ida B. Wells
Charles White
Jesse White
Daniel Hale Williams
Oprah Winfrey
Conrad Worrill
Jeremiah Wright
Richard Wright
Addie Wyatt
Gloria Castillo
Gloria Castillo is president and CEO of Chicago United, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for multiracial leadership in business. She aims to promote workplace diversity, inclusion, and social and economic justice through the lens of business strategy. Her suggestions:
Dr. Juan Andrade, founder of USHLI
Dr. Jorge Prieto, founding chairman of family practice department at Cook County Hospital and later as president of the Chicago Board of Health in the mid-1980s, Dr. Prieto made medical services available to immigrants, both legal and undocumented.
John Rowe, Former CEO of ComEd and Champion of education and immigration reform
James Tyree, Chicago financier who was chairman and chief executive officer of Mesirow Financial since 1994. In 2009, he led a team of investors that took control of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, which he owned until his death. Chariman of City Colleges of Chicago and philanthropist who served as the international board chair of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
John Johnson, founder Johnson Publishing
Mona Castillo, Chicago business leader and Interim President of the Chicago Park District
Judge David Cerda, first Hispanic to be named to the Illinois Appellate Court.
Maria Mangual, founder: Mujeres Latinas en Accion
Alfred P. Galvan, WWII veteran and a founding member of American GI Forum
John W. Rogers Jr., founder Ariel Capital Investments and Minority Business Champion
Hedy Ratner, co-founder and co-president of the Women’s Business Development Center
Anne Ladky, founding member of Women Employed
G.D. Crain, founder Crain Communications
William Henry Merrill, Jr., founder Underwriters Laboratories
Ralph G. Moore, international supplier diversity expert
John Callaway, journalist
Sandra Cisneros, author
Tom Ayers, ComEd CEO; founding member Chicago United
Bill Berry, Johnson Products/Chicago Urban League
Jim Compton, Chicago Urban League CEO for 35 years
Daryl Grisham, Parker House Sausage
Pervis Spann, WVON
Carlos Tortolero, founder National Museum of Mexican Art
Guadalupe Reyes, founder El Valor
George E. Johnson, founder Johnson Products
Paul Freeman, founder of Chicago Sinfonietta
Margaret Burroughs, founder DuSable Museum
Richard Wright, author
Teresa Fraga, community organizer
Art Velasquez, Azteca Foods founder
Ann Keating
Ann Keating is the Toenniges Professor of History at North Central College in Naperville. She is co-editor of the “Encyclopedia of Chicago” and several books, including “Rising Up From Indian Country: The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago.” Here are her 200 nominations:
Pontiac
George Rogers Clark
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable
Ninian Edwards
August Chouteau
Edward Coles
Black Hawk
Stephen A. Douglas
Abraham Lincoln
Elijah P. Lovejoy
John and Mary Jones
William B. Ogden
Judge David Davis
George Pullman
Mary Livermore
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Cyrus McCormick
U.S. Grant
Gustavus Swift
Philip Armour
Eugene Debs
Carl Sandburg
Mike Royko
Gwendolyn Brooks
Nelson Algren
Richard Wright
Edgar Lee Masters
Daniel Burnham
Louis Sullivan
Bishop Bernard James Sheil
Father Arnold Damen
Mies Van der Rohe
John Wellborn Root
Louise Dekoven Bowen
Jane Addams
Ellen Gates Starr
Bertha Palmer
Mary Dreier Robbins
Sophonisba Breckinridge
Martin Roche
Martin Ryerson
Charles Hutchinson
August Spies
Billy Sunday
Lorado Taft
Lyman Trumbull
Charles Wacker
Charles Tyson Yerkes
Ella Flagg Young
Philip Klutznick
Mother Agatha O’Brien
Jane Byrne
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Theodore Thomas
Ardis Joan Krainik
Bill Veeck
William Wrigley
Saul Alinsky
Archibald John Motley, Jr.
Robert Sengstacke Abbott
Paul V. Galvin
Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch
Grace Abbott
Max Adler
Abner Mikva
Augustus Eugene Staley
Margaret Haley
Joseph Medill
William Hale Thompson
Robert Merriam
Harriet Monroe
Dwight Moody
A. Montgomery Ward
Cardinal Joseph Louis Bernardin
Cardinal George William Mundelein
Studs Terkel
Richard J. Daley
Ralph Metcalfe
Harold Washington
Eugene Sawyer
Anton Cermak
Edward J. Kelly
Carter Harrison I
Carter Harrison II
Frances E. Willard
Albert Parsons
Fred Hampton
George Halas
William Rainey Harper
Robert M. Hutchins
William LeBaron Jenney
Florence Kelley
Otto Kerner
Pierre Menard
Vachel Lindsay
Shadrach Bond
Richard Yates
Frank O. Lowden
Jane Byrne
Everett Dirksen
Paul Simon
Paul H. Douglas
Muddy Waters
Charles Comiskey
Governor John Peter Altgeld
Adlai Stevenson II
Charles Dawes
Richard B. Ogilvie
Phyllis Schlafly
Al Raby
Florence Kelley
John Fitzpatrick
John Kikulski
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
Leon Lederman
Julius Rosenwald
George Johnson
Julia Lathrop
Ernie Banks
Raymond A. Kroc
Jens Jensen
Frank Lloyd Wright
Buddy Guy
Koko Taylor
Benny Goodman
Rabbi Jacob Weinstein
Arthur Rubloff
Henry Horner
William Stratton
Jacob Arvey
Thomas Dorsey
John A. Logan
Saul Bellow
James T. Farrell
Peter Finley Dunne
Ben Hecht
Milton Friedman
Edward F. Dunne
Henry Crowne
Ernest Hemingway
Red Grange
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard
Walter Newberry
Samuel Insull
Al Capone
Rudy Lozano
Jay Pritzger
Daniel Pope Cook
David Davis
Clarence Darrow
John Deere
John Dewey
Edward F. Dunne
Marshall Field
Marshall Field III
Harold L. Ickes
Philip Cavarretta
Walt Disney
Ronald Reagan
Bessie Coleman
Robert Hunter
Joseph Smith
Louise Wirth
Joy Morton
Charles Rudolph Walgreen
Wallace C. Abbott
Agnes Nestor
Dankmar Adler
Ben Hecht
John Root
Bessie Louise Pierce
Juliette Kinzie
Jesse Thomas
Myra Bradwell
William Holabird
Mother Jones
Richard Ogelsby
Fred Busse
Alice Hamilton
Mary McDowell
Vivian Maier
Sister Mary Justitia Coffey BVM
Richard Lindberg
Richard Lindberg is a lifelong Chicagoan, author, journalist and research historian who has written and published 17 books dealing with aspects of Chicago history, politics, criminal justice, sports and ethnicity. Read all about him at richardlindberg.net. His picks:
Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931), physician, surgeon, civil rights leader. Willliams was the founder of Provident Hospital (opened May 4, 1891), the first non-segregated hospital in the U.S. In the late 19th century he was one of only three African-American physicians in Chicago. In 1889 he was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health (now the Illinois Department of Public Health). From 1894-1898, he served at the Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington D.C. He co-founded the National Medical Association for Doctors, and on July 10, 1893, he performed successful heart surgery on one James Cornish, who suffered a knife wound to the heart. He performed this surgery on the patient, without the benefit of penicillin or blood transfusion, at Provident Hospital, Chicago. His actions greatly advanced the success rate of cardiac surgery in America.
Ella Flagg Young (1845-1918), educator, administrator, reformer and the first woman Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools. Although women dominated the teaching profession, few had risen much higher than classroom teaching. Young was a notable exception. Her experience spanned 47 years beginning in the Foster School in Chicago in 1862, weeks after her high school graduation. Three years after attaining her certificate, Young took charge of the “normal” (teacher training) program’s first practice school, established in 1865 in the Scammon School. She oversaw teacher training there until 1877 when she moved over to the West Side Skinner School in the 1880s. Dr. Young, a childless widow whose husband passed when she was only 27, climbed high in educational circles before being named superintendent of schools in Chicago in 1909. Highly regarded as an innovator in the Francis Parker mold, Young resigned from the service of the public schools in 1899 over a long-standing disagreement with Dr. Benjamin Andrews. She accepted the professorship of education at the University of Chicago. In 1900, Young earned a PhD at age 55 under the mentorship of renowned University of Chicago educator John Dewey. In 1905, she accepted appointment to serve as principal of the Cook County Normal School in Englewood. (Antecedent of Chicago Teacher’s College / Chicago State University / Northeastern Illinois University). Dr. Young advocated for the extension of industrial education into the public schools and the training of both young men and women to help students meet the challenge of an increasingly technical world. Vocationalism as an educational current in the public schools emphasized social efficiency through career preparedness for the specific trades demanded by the business community in large and mid-sized industrial cities. Young was visible and high-profile — a personable educational theorist thrust into the national stage upon assuming the presidency of the National Education Association during the 1910–1911 school year. Young’s administration inaugurated an unprecedented period of new school construction in Chicago. From 1911 to 1920, the board of education opened 61 new buildings. Dr. Young’s elevation to the post of superintendent of schools in 1909 (serving until 1915), the city’s highest educational posting, advanced the public visibility of women in educational roles outside of the classroom. It marked the first time a woman headed a major urban school system in the United States.
General James J. Shields (1806-1879), soldier, statesman, politician. James Shields is the only U.S. senator to represent three different states in Congress: Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri. He arrived on these shores in 1826, a penniless 25-year-old Irish immigrant from County Tyrone. He taught school, commenced a law practice in Kaskaskia in 1832 and was elected to the State Legislature in 1836. General James Shields became a hero in two wars. Commissioned a Major-General in command of the Illinois Regiment during the Mexican War, Shields served under Zachary Taylor and was wounded at Cerro Gordo. Mustered out in 1848, President James K. Polk appointed Shields Territorial Governor of Oregon. For some men, this might be the capstone of a long and exemplary career in public service. While traveling in Mexico that fateful April day in 1861, when the South fired on Fort Sumter to commence the Civil War, Shields hurried back to Washington D.C. to answer President Lincoln’s call. Shields and Lincoln were close friends from their early years in Illinois. He received a Brigadier General’s commission. Amid a succession of spectacular combat failures by Union generals early in the war, Shields delivered a stunning victory at Winchester, Virginia on March 23, 1862 during the Shenandoah campaign. Although gravely wounded at the battle of Kernstown a day earlier, General Shields, leading the 2nd Division of the V Corps in the Army of the Potomac returned to the field to inflict a tactical defeat upon the legendary Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Shields’ victory marked the only time in the bloody four-year ordeal of Civil War that a Union Army bested Jackson in combat. Defeated in his 1855 re-election bid, Shields moved to Minnesota. He served one term as junior senator in 1858-1859; then later represented the State of Missouri in 1879. Shields was the editor of the 1854 volume “A History of Illinois, from its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847.” Shields Avenue on the South Side is named in his honor.
Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896), American statesman, justice of the Illinois Supreme Court (1848-1853), U.S. Senator from Illinois (1855-1873). Born in Connecticut, Lyman Trumbull moved to Alton, Illinois in 1837, where he launched his career in public life, beginning as Illinois Secretary of State in the years 1841-1843. As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during the Civil War he co-authored the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. During the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson in 1868, Trumbull voted to acquit – a controversial stance that cost him political support within the Republican Party. In 1872, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination.
Edward “Butch” O’Hare (1914-1943), Naval aviator, first naval recipient of the Medal of Honor. Lieutenant Commander Edward O’Hare, the son of Selma and Edward “E.J.” O’Hare, Butch graduated from the Naval Academy in 1937 as an Ensign and moved on to the flight training school in Pensacola where, in 1940, he fully qualified as a Naval aviator. During the Java Sea campaign, on February 20, 1942, 28-year-old Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare answered that call in his Grumann F-4-F fighter plane by single-handedly repelling the attack of nine Japanese twin-engine bombers targeting the aircraft carrier Lexington and its endangered crew. Within four minutes Lieutenant Commander O’Hare single-handedly shot down five Japanese G-4-M-1 Betty bombers, saving the Lexington. It didn’t end there. Butch went on to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry near Marcus Island on August 31, 1943, and a Navy Cross for actions taken over Wake Island on 26 November, 1943. In December 1943, O’Hare was shot down by friendly fire while testing experimental radar equipment. On September 18, 1949, Butch’s widowed mother flew into the Glenview Naval Station from her home in St. Louis to dedicate a new civilian aviation airfield (formerly known as Orchard Field) located northwest of Chicago. Selma O’Hare unveiled a bronze plaque presented to the City by the Naval Airmen of America depicting Butch in the cockpit of his Grumann fighter, and the modern O’Hare Field was born.
Charles Albert Comiskey (1859-1931), co-founded the American League of baseball teams; founded the Chicago White Sox; he is a charter member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as a player and manager; and civic leader. Raised on the West Side of Chicago in the old 7th Ward, Comiskey’s father was the renowned Alderman John Comiskey, who organized a volunteer regiment in 1861 known as the “Irish Brigade.” The younger Comiskey began his professional baseball playing career in Dubuque, Iowa in 1879. At the close of a long and distinguished career as both player and manager, Charles purchased the struggling Sioux City Cornhuskers, an Iowa team in the Western League. He was granted approval to move the club to St. Paul, Minnesota on November 21, 1894 where they were re-christened the St. Paul Saints. In October 1899, he relocated the Saints to the South Side of Chicago to become the Chicago White Stockings of the re-named American League (formerly the Western League). Historians fail to properly credit the significant role Comiskey played in establishing the American League with Byron Bancroft Johnson (league president) in 1900 and elevating it to equal footing with the established National League following a three-year trade war, 1900-1903. Under his ownership, the White Sox won league championships in 1900, 1901, 1906, 1917 and 1919. With his own money, Charles built and opened Comiskey Park on July 1, 1910. It was the nation’s first symmetrical ball field and the third concrete and steel stadium built in America and would serve the team and the city until its demolition in 1991. For his contributions as a baseball pioneer who introduced the sport to Japan, Charles Comiskey was enshrined in the first class of the Hall of Fame in 1939. A beloved public figure in Chicago throughout his lifetime, his reputation as a penurious baseball magnate only emerged after 1963. This exaggerated and questionable portrayal of Comiskey is largely the invention of Eliot Asinof in his 1963 revisionist history of the Black Sox Scandal titled “Eight Men Out” that has unjustly tarred Comiskey’s reputation.
Arthur J. Goldberg (1908-1990), diplomat, politician, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice. Born into poverty in the Jewish quarter of the old Maxwell Street ghetto, Goldberg was one of 11 children of Russian-Jewish émigrés. As a boy he worked a shoe shine stand to earn money and assist his parents. After completing high school at age 15, he went to college and attained a law degree from Northwestern in 1930. During World War II he was a member of the O.S.S. Goldberg practiced labor law throughout his career and in 1955 he oversaw the merger of the Af of L and the CIO. He was appointed the 9th Secretary of Labor by President John F. Kennedy, and served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962-1965, but resigned to become U.N. Ambassador succeeding Adlai Stevenson II. He stepped down from that post in 1968 to express his opposition to the Vietnam War and differences with President Johnson.
Paul Howard Douglas (1892-1976), academic, economist, author, Chicago alderman, U.S. senator. Although he attained his academic credentials in the East at Bowdoin College, Columbia University and Harvard; Paul Douglas emerged as son of Illinois beginning as a professor of economics at University of Illinois in 1916-1917. Between 1930 and 1939 Douglas served on many state and national commissions and represented the 5th Ward of Chicago as alderman in 1939-1942. Regarded as a political independent, he authored the 1932 book “The Coming of a New Party.” During World War II he served in the Marines Corps as a private and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Douglas won election to the U.S. Senate and served continuously until January 3, 1967, serving on many committees.
Frances Xavier (Mother) Cabrini (1850-1917), beatified on November 13, 1938, by Pope Pius XI, and canonized on July 7, 1946. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII sent Mother Cabrini to New York City to serve the needs of the increasing number of Italian immigrants and orphans arriving in Manhattan. Mother Cabrini’s success working with the poor and indigent brought her to Chicago where she founded and taught at Assumption School, the first Italian school in the city. She founded Columbus Hospital, dedicated and opened on February 26, 1905 in a former North Shore hotel at Deming Place and Lakeview Avenue in the Lincoln Park community, and later founded the Columbus Extension Hospital (later changed to St. Cabrini Hospital) on Polk Street in a low-income neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side using surplus funds from the original hospital. Employing her strong business acumen, Mother Francesca Cabrini purchased a 32-acre farm in what is now Park Ridge, Illinois, for the benefit of her patients so they could access to fresh food. By the time of her death on December 22, 1917, Mother Francesca Cabrini had founded 67 institutions while helping to shape America’s social and healthcare systems. In 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed Mother Francesca Cabrini as “Universal Patroness of Immigrants,” honoring her devotion to helping immigrant populations around the world.
Harry Blackmun (1908-1999), U.S. Supreme Court justice, 1970-1994. Appointed by President Richard Nixon. Born in Nashville, Illinois, but grew up in Dayton’s Bluff, MN. Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, Blackmun authored the majority opinion in the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick (1926-2006), diplomat and the first woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Resident of Mount Vernon, Illinois beginning at age 12. A 1944 graduate of Mount Vernon Township High School, she was appointed to serve as U.N. Ambassador by President Reagan. She served from 1981-1985, and remained a top foreign policy advisor to the president through both terms of office. She considered a run against George W. Bush in 1988, but endorsed Robert Dole instead.
Paul Simon (1928-2003), newspaper editor, reformer, politician. Member of the U.S. Senate 1985-1997. As a 25-year-old journalist he took over the Troy Call newspaper in Troy, Illinois as publisher and editor. Simon was elected to the Illinois General Assembly. He served two terms in the State Senate before being elected lieutenant governor in 1968. He served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before defeating Republican Charles Percy for the U.S. Senate seat in 1984. Simon retired from the Senate in 1996. He became the first person to hold the Paul Simon Chair in Public Policy at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He also was the executive director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. He died in December 2003.
Hugh M. Hefner (1926-2017), publisher and bon vivant. Steinmetz High School graduate Hugh Hefner was a product of the Northwest Side Bungalow Belt. His imagination and drive forged a publishing empire and changed the social and sexual mores of American society in profound ways during the 1950s and 1960s. Whatever else one may think of him, he was one of the most influential people of the mid-to-late-20th Century.
Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), American Christian evangelist, author, publisher and founder of the Moody Bible Institute. Born in Massachusetts, but influential in Minnesota and Illinois. Moody converted to Evangelical Christianity as a 17-year-old in April 1855. During the Civil War, President Lincoln visited and spoke at a Sunday School meeting he sponsored on November 25, 1860. Moody preached on many battlefronts including Shiloh, Stones River and Richmond. After the Civil war he moved to Chicago begin a congregation in the Illinois Street Church. Wiped out by the Chicago Fire, Moody began anew and over the next 20 years he became internationally known, holding many religious revivals in Great Britain and Sweden. Moody led the Chicago Bible Institute, and after his death the Chicago Avenue Church was renamed the Moody Church and the Chicago Bible Church became the Moody Bible Institute we know today.
Thomas Hawley Miner (1927 – ). International businessman and founder of the Mid-America Committee for International Business and Government Cooperation, an organization that launched Chicago into the era of globalization in 1966. Overtly and covertly the Committee opened up the rest of the world to business and trade with the West at a time in our history when “globalization” was nothing more than an abstract, drawing board concept. Miner gained early influence as a member of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. He is the past chairman or co-chairman of 50 different respected organizations. Miner led the first delegation of American business leaders to China in 1974 after President Nixon’s historic visit. In all, Miner led 30 trade missions to foreign capitols across the world including 15 visits to China. He journeyed to Russia multiple times, and on one memorable visit he escorted the entire Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sir Georg Solti to St. Petersburg for a series of concerts. It was Solti’s last request before retiring in 1991. Miner traveled to Japan, Vietnam (Tom spent three years there formulating peace plans in an effort to stimulate future trade opportunity) and Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iran (post revolution).
William S. Paley (1901-1990), broadcast executive who built CBS from a network of local stations into the nation’s most dominant television network. A product of Maxwell Street, Paley owned the New York Yankees for a time and, during World War II, expanded the coverage of news in Great Britain by bringing to the fore Edward R. Murrow and the “Murrow Boys.”
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard (1802-1886), fur trader and land speculator, and one of the “early settler” grouping (as they were known by historians) of Chicago citizens who elevated the city from a swampy frontier outpost to a thriving town, then later “Metropolis of the Mid-Continent.” Hubbard, also known as the “Swiftwalker” (after allegedly walking 75 miles in one night to warn the people of Danville of an impending raid by Native tribes), arrived in Chicago in October 1818. He was prominent in the fur trading business, served as a Town Trustee, became Chicago’s first insurance underwriter, opened the first meat packing business in an industry that would define the essence of Chicago manufacturing prowess, and owned the Lady Elgin, the ill-fated ship that went down in a Lake Michigan gale in 1860.
Stephen A. Douglas, Ulysses S. Grant, Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Oprah Winfrey, Richard J. Daley, Jesse Jackson, Ida B. Wells, Marshall Field I, Potter Palmer and Michael Jordan, are all obvious choices. Less obvious are Benny Goodman, Jack Benny, Robert R. McCormick, George Cardinal Mundelein, Enrico Fermi, Ray Kroc, Bill Veeck, Myra Bradwell (first female lawyer in Illinois), Ellen Gates Starr, John Dewey (University of Chicago philosopher and education reformer), Robert S. Abbott (Chicago defender founder) and Ring Lardner.
Dominic Pacyga
Dominic Pacyga is the author of “Chicago: A Biography” and “Slaughterhouse: Chicago’s Union Stock Yard and the World it Made.” He retired last June from teaching history at Columbia College. He divided his suggestions into categories:
Politics
Stephen Douglas
Abraham Lincoln
Carter Harrison
Carter Harrison II
Anton Cermak
Edward Kelly
Richard J. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Harold Washington
Everett Dirksen
Ulysses S. Grant
Hilary Rodham Clinton
Paul Douglas
Barack Obama
Adlai Stevenson
Adlai Stevenson II
Adlai Stevenson III
Dan Rostenkowski
Peter Kiolbassa
Michael Madigan
William H. Thompson
Rahm Emanuel
Toni Preckwinkle
David Axelrod
Paul Simon
Religion
Joseph Cardinal Bernadin
Bishop Paul Rhode
George Cardinal Mundelein
Samuel Cardinal Stritch
Dwight L. Moody
Louis Farrakhan
Elijah Muhammad
Rev. Michael Pfleger
Rev. Vincent Barzynski
Reformers/Neighborhood Organizers
Jane Addams
Florence Kelly
Mary McDowell
Graham Taylor
Ida B. Wells
Saul Alinsky
Joseph Megan
Patrick Salmon
Craig Chico
Steve Bubacz
Jim Capraro
Timuel Black
Academics
William Rainey Harper
John Dewey
Lisa Oppenheim
Carl Condit
Neal Harris
Judge Richard Posner
Scientists
Enrico Fermi
Frank Wilczek
Economists
Milton Friedman
Paul Samuelson
Writers/Journalists/Public Intellectuals
Saul Bellow
Richard Wright
Lorraine Hansberry
Gwendolyn Brooks
James T. Farrell
Joseph Meno
Ernest Hemingway
Margaret T. Burroughs
Harriet Monroe
Studs Terkel
Willard Motley
Carl Sandburg
Theodore Dreiser
Sarah Paretsky
Mike Royko
Andrew Greeley
Garry Wills
Roger Ebert
Bill Kurtis
Gene Siskel
Artists
Archibald Motley
Ethnic Leaders
Charles Rozmarek
Wanda Rozmarek
Aloysius Mazewski
Stanley Balzekas
Carlos Tortolero
Helen Martinez
Jesse Jackson
Lucyna Migala
Show Business/Sports
Oprah Winfrey
Don Maclean
Muhammad Ali
Michael Jordan
Ernie Banks
Nellie Fox
Louis Aparicio
Gale Sayers
Mike Ditka
Dick Butkus
Charles Comiskey
P.K. Wrigley
Hack Wilson
Business
Marshal Field
George Pullman
Montgomery Ward
Gustavus Swift
Phillip Armour
Thomas Wilson
Nelson Morris
John Sherman
Julius Rosenwald
William Wrigley
John Edel
Labor Leaders
W.E.B. Dubois
John L. Lewis
Ed Sadlowski
Charles Hayes
John Fitzpatrick
Larry Spivack
John Rosenthal
Les Orear
John Gorman
Jorge Ramirez
William J. Adelman
Rev. Addie Wyatt
Architecture
William LeBaron Jenney
John Root
Daniel Burnham
Louis Sullivan
Dankmar Adler
William Holabird
Martin Roche
Frank Lloyd Wright
Jeanne Gang
Helmut Jahn
Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe
Stanley Tigerman
Harry Weese
Civic and Philanthropic
Maggie Daley
Eleanor “Sis” Daley
Jay Pritzker
Penny Pritzker
Margot Pritzker
J.B. and M.K. Pritzker
Joseph and Rika Mansueto
Joan And Irving Harris
Mellody Hobson
Ellen Alberding
Carol Lavin Bernick
Sunny Fischer
James Simeone
James Simeone is a professor of political science at Illinois Wesleyan University. He is the author of “Democracy and Slavery in Frontier Illinois: The Bottomland Republic.” Simeone’s picks:
I took the liberty to define “prominent” in my own way. Prominent people are ones who make significant contributions in their communities, however small; or who, because they existed or perhaps because of their misdeeds, changed the course of the state’s history. Significant contributions come in many stripes and colors in my book — they make society freer, fairer, and nobler. Or because of them Illinois became more equal, more beautiful, more knowledgeable, more joyful, and more inclusive. In other cases, I am afraid, we simply became more powerful, colder, greedier.
George Churchill of Madison County
Daniel P. Cook of Madison County
Hooper Warren of Madison County
William Kinney of St Clair County
Daniel Parker of Crawford County
Mary Davis of Peoria
Chris Koos of McLean County
Henry Brockman of Woodford County
Terra Brockman of Woodford County
Marty Travis of Livingston County
Minor Myers of McLean County
Jessie Fell of McLean County
Isaac Funk of McLean County
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable
Billy Caldwell
Black Hawk
Ninian Edwards
Thomas Ford
William Gooding
John Deere
John D. Lee
Joseph Smith
Free Frank McWorter
Abraham Lincoln
Ulysses S. Grant
Barack Obama
Lyman Trumbull
Jonathan Baldwin Turner
John A. Logan
Stephen A. Douglas
William Jennings Bryan
John Peter Altgeld
Carter Harrison II
Joseph Cannon
Jane Addams
Anton Cermak
Richard J. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Harold Washington
Danny Davis
Saul Alinsky
Rahm Emanuel
William L. Dawson
Adlai Stevenson I
Adlai Stevenson II
Jessie Jackson
John Johnson
Jessie White
Dick Simpson
Dick Gregory
Abner Mikva
David Orr
Richard Posner
Vashti McCollum
Elmer Getz
Everett Dirksen
Paul Simon
Judy Barr Topinka
John Paul Stevens
Phyllis Schlafly
Paul Douglas
Robert Michel
Dan Rostenkowski
Tammy Duckworth
Elijah Lovejoy
Owen Lovejoy
Carl Sandberg
Studs Terkel
Mother Jones
Myra Bradwell
Frances Cabrini
Ida B. Wells
Lucy Parsons
Albert Parsons
Sigmund Livingston
Florence Fifer Bohrer
Frances Willard
Clarence Darrow
Emmitt Till
Jamie Kalven
Shannon Spaulding
Juan Salgado
Miguel Del Valle
Luis Gutierrez
Gale Cincotta
Tom Ping
Slim Bundage
Rudy Lozano
Elizabeth Wood
Michale Callahan
Cindy Canary
John McDerrmott
Salim Muwakkil
Rami Nashashibi
Father Michael Pfleger
Findley Peter Dunn
Mike Royko
Jean Gump
Louis Armstrong
Lil Hardin
Miles Davis
Big Bill Broonzy
McKinley Morganfield
Willie Dixon
Little Walter Jacobs
Buddy Guy
Junior Wells
Thomas Dorsey
Mavis Staples
Lou Rawls
Mahalia Jackson
Sam Cooke
Tyrone Davis
Burl Ives
Steve Goodman
John Prine
Chris Ware
Ed Pashke
Roger Brown
Scott Simon
Ira Glass
John Dewey
Enrico Fermi
Wayne Booth
Leo Stauss
David Grene
Richard MeKeon
Richard Thayer
Milton Friedman
Wendy Doniger
Susan Rudolph
Jane Mansbridge
Robert Maynard Hutchins
Alexander Bradley
Ernie Banks
Michael Jordan
Dick Butkus
Amos Alonzo Stagg
George Halas
Red Grange
Oscar DePriest
Bobby Hull
Phil Wrigley
Bill Veeck
Joe Maddon
Louis Sullivan
William Le Baron Jenney
Frank Lloyd Wright
Mies Van Der Rohe
Montgomery Ward
Daniel Burham
Richard Warren Sears
Marshall Field
Philip Armour
Samuel Insull
George Pullman
Robert Sengstacke Abbott
Edgar Lee Masters
Ernest Hemingway
James T. Farrell
Nelsen Algren
Richard Wright
Aleksander Hemon
Gwendolyn Brooks
Saul Bellow
John Bardeen
John Wesley Powell
Robert Ridgeway
Steven A. Forbes
Lorado Taft
George Spoor
Lorraine Hansberry
Harriet Monroe
Theaster Gates
David Foster Wallace
Viola Spolin
Bernard Sahlins
John Malcovitch
David Mamet
John Belushi
Bill Murray
Roger Ebert
Gene Siskel
Cyrus McCormick
Robert R. McCormick
Frances Peabody
Charlie Birger
Al Capone
George Lincoln Rockwell
Dwayne Andreas
Ray Kroc
Common
Andrew Greeley
Fulton John Sheen
Henry Darger
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Richard Pryor
Chester Gould
James Pankow
John McFarland — a place holder for so many others. In 1841 when the Driscoll gang was taken by a lynch mob in Oogle County, he argued that they should be taken across the Mississippi River and released with the warning that if they returned, they would be shot on sight. His idea was ignored and the mob executed the accused — likely guilty, but untried — on the spot.
Dick Simpson
Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman, is a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author or co-author of more than 20 books. His most recent books are “Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality” and “The Good Fight: Life Lessons from a Chicago Progressive.” Simpson’s recommendations:
Gov. Peter Altgeld
State Sen. Russell Arrington
Author Saul Bellow
Robert Maynard Hutchins, U. of C.
Mortimer Adler, U. of C.
Cyrus McCormick
Jens Jensen
Dankmar Adler
Louis Sullivan
Abraham Lincoln
Carl Sandburg
Gwendolyn Brooks
Finley Peter Dunne
Theodore Dreiser
Mike Royko
Mayor and Gov. Edward Dunne
Ronald Reagan
Harold Washington
Dawn Clark Netsch
Ald. Charles Merriam
Gov. Adlai Stevenson II
Jane Addams
Clarence Darrow
Sen. Paul Douglas
Sen. Stephen Douglas
Ray Nordstrand
Win Stracke
Studs Terkel
Montgomery Ward
Jesse Jackson Sr.
Robert Abbott
Marshall Field
Frank Lloyd Wright
Harry Mark Petrakis
Potter and Bertha Palmer
Ida B. Wells
Timuel Black
Ed Paschke
Ald. Leon Despres
State Sen. Miguel del Valle
U.S. Sen. Paul Simon
Scott Turow
Stuart Dybek
Bessie Colman
Daniel Burnham
Enrico Fermi
Paul Sills
Margaret Burroughs
Ald. and Mayor William Dever
Benny Goodman
Jesse Owens
Ralph Metcalfe
Saul Alinsky
Nelson Algren
Al Raby
Georg Solti