List of Swiss Americans

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This is a list of notable Swiss Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.

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To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Swiss American or must have references showing they are Swiss American and are notable.


List

Business

  • Robert Abplanalp (1922 - 2003), businessman, inventor of the aerosol valve
  • Steve Ballmer (1956 - ), businessman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation
  • Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), industrialist and art patron, once known as "America's most hated man".[1] as per CNBC one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time".[2]
  • Meyer Guggenheim (1828–1905), statesman, patriarch of Guggenheim family[3]
  • Simon Guggenheim (1867–1941), businessman, politician, and philanthropist
  • Milton Hershey (1857–1945), confectioner, philanthropist, and founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company
  • Otto Frederick Hunziker (1873–1959), pioneer in the American and international dairy industry
  • S. S. Kresge (1867–1966), merchant, philanthropist and founder of the The S. S. Kresge Company, now Sears Holdings Corporation.[4]
  • Robert Lutz (1932- ), General Motors Vice Chairman of Product Development and Chairman of GM North America, the world's largest automaker[5]
  • James G. Sterchi (1867–1932), furniture store magnate
  • Bruce Tognazzini (1945- ), usability consultant in partnership the Nielsen Norman Group

The arts

Actors and directors

Visual artists

Writers

Musicians

Law and politics

Governors and presidents

Congressmen and senators

Other

Historical figures

  • Fernand Auberjonois (1910–2004), journalist, foreign correspondent of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade[21]
  • Edward Walter Eberle (1864–1929), admiral in the United States Navy, served as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy and third Chief of Naval Operations[22]
  • Robert Frank (1924- ), important figure in American photography and film[23]
  • J. Edgar Hoover (1935–1972), first Director of the FBI
  • Adolph Rickenbacker (1886–1976), pioneer of the electric guitar; founder of the Rickenbacker guitar company, whose products would be an important influence on 1960s music through, among others, The Beatles, The Who and The Byrds
  • Eddie Rickenbacker (1890–1973), automobile race car driver and automotive designer, hero of World War I, government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation[24]
  • John Sutter (1803–1880), Californian famous for his association with the California Gold Rush (in that gold was discovered by James W. Marshall in Sutter's Mill) and for establishing Sutter's Fort in an area that would later become the capital of California, Sacramento[25]
  • John Augustus Sutter, Jr. (1826–1897), his son, a U.S. Consul to Acapulco, Mexico and the founder and planner of the City of Sacramento, California
  • William Wirt (1772–1834), author and statesman who is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney General into one of influence[26]
  • Henry Wirz (1822–1865), the only Confederate soldier executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War for war crimes[27]
  • Felix Zollicoffer (1812–1862), newspaperman, three-term US Congressman from Tennessee, officer in the United States Army, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War
  • John Joachim Zubly (1724–1781), pastor, planter, and statesman during the American Revolution[28]

Religion

Scientists and engineers

Sports

Other

  • Henry Bouquet - prominent Army officer in the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War[42]
  • Mary Katherine Campbell (1905-1990), only Miss America winner to hold beauty title twice, 1922 & 1923; mother was of partial Swiss ancestry[43]
  • Gary Gygax (1938–2008), writer and game designer, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons
  • Helen Keller (1880–1968), author, political activist and lecturer; first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree
  • Christoph Meili (1968- ), whistleblower[44]
  • Chesley Sullenberger (1951- ), airline transport pilot who successfully carried out the emergency ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River, saving the lives of the 155 people on the aircraft[45]

References

  1. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. [1] "Portfolio's Worst American CEOs of All Time." CNBC.com April 30, 2009.
  3. [2] "Meyer, though a native speaker of German, was Swiss-German."
  4. http://www.nndb.com/people/755/000160275/
  5. [3] "The legendary Swiss manager has been tasked with bringing fresh momentum to the sputtering engine of the world's largest automobile group."
  6. 6.0 6.1 Swiss Roots: Renee Zellweger
  7. [4] "The actress, who's Alaskan/Swiss on her mother's side, was born in Schweigmatt, Germany."[5]
  8. [6] "His father had mainly Swiss and British roots."
  9. Swiss Roots: Film
  10. [7] "...and my mother is Swiss and Swede."
  11. Biography for William Wyler at the Internet Movie Database "Born Willi Wyler ... to a Swiss father and a German mother"
  12. Swiss Roots: Jewel Kilcher
  13. Swiss Roots: Herbert Hoover
  14. [8]
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 [9] "Swiss ancestry."
  16. [10]
  17. [11] "Ethnicity Swiss/German"
  18. [12] "Born to an aristocratic Swiss family, Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) emigrated from Switzerland to America in 1780."
  19. [13] "Swiss and German ancestry."
  20. Robert Parkinson, Peter Staub. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: 5 August 2010.
  21. toledoblade.com - Blade's man in Europe brought world to Toledo
  22. Mueller Science - Specialities: Switzerland
  23. [14] "Though Swiss by birth, Frank traveled the world before settling in the United States in 1953."
  24. Swiss Roots: Eddie Rickenbacker
  25. [15] "German-born Swiss pioneer settler and colonizer in California; the discovery of gold on his land in 1848 precipitated the California Gold Rush."
  26. [16] mentioned as one of several "Swiss Americans"
  27. Swiss Roots: Henry Wirz
  28. New Georgia Encyclopedia: John J. Zubly (1724-1781)
  29. Louis Agassiz - Britannica Student Encyclopaedia
  30. (German) Structurae [en]: Othmar Herrmann Ammann (1879-1965)
  31. CERN Scientific Information Service
  32. NOAA Central Library
  33. [17] "After his graduation in the spring of 1900, he became a Swiss citizen, worked for two months as a mathematics teacher, and then was employed as examiner at the Swiss patent office in Bern."
  34. Edmond Fischer
  35. [18] "Swiss-born U.S. psychiatrist"
  36. [19] "Martin Buser, a long-time Swiss citizen, is scheduled to be sworn in today as a United States citizen by Judge Ben Esch after crossing the finish line yesterday as winner of the 2002 Iditarod."
  37. [20]
  38. de:William Heffelfinger
  39. [21] "Swiss Roots: How much do you know about your Swiss heritage? Ben Roethlisberger: Honestly, I didn't know a whole lot until recently; then I started feeling it out a little more and hearing a little more about it. Now, when people ask me where I'm from, I'm quick to say, "Well, I'm Swiss." I'm sure I have a lot of things in me, but that's one of the things I tell people—that I'm Swiss."
  40. [22] "The Wanderones were German-Swiss"
  41. [23] "Zobrist Name Meaning Swiss German: topographic name for someone who lived at the highest or furthest point of a settlement."
  42. [24] "Bouqet as a free born Switzer..."
  43. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. [25] "the name of the 30-year-old former Swiss bank guard is already being entered into the ranks of the righteous gentiles -- those persons who have taken risks to help Jews."
  45. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links