List of Belgian Americans

This is a list of notable Belgian-Americans. However, the term Belgian-American is here used in a very liberal way: It includes not only Americans of Belgian descent and Belgians who took American citizenship (Belgian-Americans in the strictest sense), but also Americans born in Belgium, Belgians born in the USA, Belgians who lived for a considerable period of time in the United States and vice-versa. All, however, would describe themselves as Belgian-Americans.A brief bio beside each entry helps to clarify in which of these categories each individual falls.

List

Artists

*Jan Yoors (1922-1977) was a Flemish-American artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, tapestry creator, and, earlier in life, a gypsy.

Builders

*George Washington Goethals (1858-1928) was the Brooklyn-born son of Flemish immigrants. Goethals was the first recorded Flemish-American graduate of West Point (where he is buried) and was appointed by Theodore Roosevelt to build the Panama Canal - which he accomplished under budget in 1914.

Businessmen

*Mary Litogot (1839-1876) (Henry Ford's Mother) was born in Michigan, the youngest child of Belgian immigrants. Her parents died when Mary was a child and she was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns. In 1861 Mary Litogot married Irish-born William Ford. Their son was Henry Ford.
*Paul Bruggemans (1936 -) A pioneer of the fine French dining scene in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California. Born in Leuven on october 27, 1936. Father Guillaume was from Leuven, where his father owned a cigar factory; mother was from Liège of Limburg parents.

Paul Bruggemans, a pioneer of the contemporary French dining scene in Los Angeles, is credited with introducing exquisite updated French cuisine in casual, lush surroundings with the same easy charm and strict professionalism of his Belgian parents who started him, along with siblings Tony and Christiane, on their hospitality careers.

With partner Camille Bardet, Bruggemans created the acclaimed, Le St. Germain restaurant. Chef Claude Alrivy helped Bruggemans forge new culinary ground with bold, appealing flavors and delicate sauces, as well as the “take-home meal” trend with "Le St. Germain To Go" in West Hollywood. With its flattering salmon colored walls and smoked mirrors, Paul’s spectacular fresh flower arrangements, intricate menu recited by the waiters, superb bakery upstairs and sophisticated hospitality, Le St. Germain became home to celebrity regulars and food aficionados. They include iconic fashion designer Jimmy Galanos, Nancy Reagan, Betsy Bloomingdale. Gene Roddenbery (Star Trek creator and writer) lunched there daily.

Because of the demand of clients with a second home in Palm Springs, Paul opened Le Vallauris in the desert city in 1974 with Bardet. Named after the beautiful, regal region in Southern France, Le Vallauris earned immediate acclaim for cuisine and ambiance. The restored historic landmark building, featuring Flemish tapestries, wraps around a lush garden patio covered by a canopy of ficus trees, "which diners prefer even in winter." A Coast to Coast newspaper description reads, “a restaurant with the essence of Paris: French – sexy – romantic.” After Le Vallauris earned high marks, Paul opened Le St. Germain in nearby Indian Wells.

Chef Jean Paul Lair heads the Le Vallauris kitchen, known for its updated French-Mediterranean menu filled with local produce and international influences. Signature dishes include the Stuffed Half-lobster and Lobster sausage, Pommes Soufflé and Sweetbreads. Added new ingredients prompted the use of printed menus for the first time in 2007, along with the familiar original old-world easel boards to be used for handwritten specials. Chef Lair also instituted an international menu for catered parties on site or off. A self-contained traveling kitchen on a truck, instituted by Catering Director, Tony Bruggemans, enabled lavish catered parties at remote locations, such as the desert museum (for 400) and at the architectural masterpiece, Bougainvilla House, halfway up a mountain.

Le Vallauris maintains top guidebook ratings. Zagat Survey’s top ranking includes comments such as "The gold standard in the desert,” and “ superb, classic cuisine paired with an excellent wine list." Gayot describes it as, “a vintage desert jewel.”

Frequent luminaries included the Fords, Sinatras, Hopes, Pecks, Annenbergs and Merv Griffin, Sidney Sheldon and Lee Iococa. Suzanne Somers and Alan Hamel have been regulars from the start.

Though he shuttered his L.A. restaurant in 1989, the Melrose spot continued to flourish, first with Joachim Splichal's Patina. In 2006, Chef Michael Cimarusti opened Providence. Illustrious branches of the Le St. Germain family tree in Los Angeles continued the saga of Le St. Germain elsewhere in the city, such as Le Dome, Le Chardonnay, Le Restaurant, Le Suerre and the original Farm, all gone or reinvented by 2007. Mini Le St. Germains in the form of Le Petit Bistros, created by former busboys, light up Restaurant Row in West Hollywood. Former Le St. Germain servers who went on to lead staffs at other French restaurants earned high praise as recently as 2008.

Critics credit Bruggemans’ staying power to his outstanding and unflagging hospitality,” and "shrewdly knowing where to open and when to close.”

Economists

* Robert Triffin (1911-1993) was a Belgian-born economist best known for his critique of the Bretton Woods system, later known as Triffin's Dilemma.

Entertainers

* Taylor Dooley (1993 - ) child actress [ [http://www.taylordooley.com/Favorites.asp] "I'm basically a "Mutt", but I'll give you the run down. I'm mostly Belgium, with some German and English on my mom's side and Irish, German, English, and Sioux Indian on my Dad's side."]
* Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993) award-winning film star, model, and humanitarian. She was born in Brussels to Dutch and British parents and grew up in The Netherlands.
* Jean-Claude Van Damme (1960-) is a Belgian martial artist and actor who is most known for his action movies. His Belgian background gave rise to the nickname "The Muscles from Brussels."

Musicians

* Désiré Defauw (1885-1960) was a Belgian-born violinist and conductor. He made his American debut with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Since 1940, Defauw was director and conductor of the Orchestra of the Symphonic Concerts of Montreal. During the following years he conducted the major American Orchestras: the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, with the Chicago Symphony he was Musical Director and Conductor for four years. The Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Chicago Youth Orchestra, he was visiting conductor of orchestral activities at Northwestern University in 1955. Just before his death, he retired as director of the Gary Symphony Orchestra in Indiana.
* Jean-Baptiste "Toots" Thielemans (1922-) is a Belgian jazz artist well known for his guitar, harmonica play and also for his highly accomplished professional whistling. He made his big breakthrough when he went on European tour with Benny Goodman in 1950. He moved to America in 1952 (and became a US citizen the same year) where he is extremely well-known, especially among the jazz community. Quincy Jones said this about him in 1995 : "I can say without hesitation that Toots is one of the greatest musicians of our time. On his instrument he ranks with the best that jazz has ever produced. He goes for the heart and makes you cry. We have worked together more times than I can count and he always keeps me coming back for more". Toots hates his favourite instrument, the harmonica, being called a 'miscellaneous instrument'. Indeed, the late Clifford Brown said : "Toots, the way you play the harmonica they should not call it a miscellaneous instrument".His successes include harmonica solo contributions to film scores for Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway, Sugarland Express, Cinderella Liberty, Turks Fruit (Turkish Fruit), Jean de Florette and others. In 1962, he had a massive hit with 'Bluesette'. He also did many concerts and recordings with legends such as George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Jaco Pastorius, Natalie Cole, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon and Billy Joel. Many people also will remember him from the music used for the 'Old Spice' TV commercial.

Singers

* Vivica Genaux is an American mezzo-soprano. Her Belgian-born father was a biochemistry professor at the University of Alaska.
* Brian Molko, lead singer of Placebo, was born in Brussels.

Fashion

* Liz Claiborne (1929-2007) was a Belgian-born fashion designer.

Historians

* George Sarton (1884-1956) was a seminal Belgian-American polymath and historian of science. Father of May Sarton.

Inventors

* Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944) was a Belgium-born American chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular plastic. In 1978, Baekeland was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
* Charles Joseph Van Depoele(1846-1892) was an electrical engineer, inventor, and pioneer in electric railway technology.

Politicians

* Charles Benedict Calvert (1808-1864) was a U.S. Congressman from the sixth district of Maryland, serving one term from 1861—1863. His mother, Rosalie Eugenia Stier, was the daughter of a wealthy Belgian aristocrat, Baron Henri Joseph Stier (1743-1821) and his wife Marie Louise Peeters.
* Peter Minuit (1589-1638) was a Walloon-born politician. He was the Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1633 and founder of the Swedish colony of New Sweden in 1638. By tradition he purchased the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans (Algonquins), on May 24, 1626.

Prelates

* Archbishop Charles John Seghers, the Apostle of Alaska (1839-1886) was consecrated Bishop of Vancouver Island on June 29, 1873. On November 28, 1886, while resting in a deserted cabin in the Alaskan foothills, Bishop Seghers was shot through the heart. His body was borne back to a grief stricken people and his remains rest under the high altar in the Cathedral at Victoria.
* James Oliver Van de Velde (1795-1855) was a Belgian-born US Catholic bishop. He served as the second Roman Catholic Bishop of Chicago between 1849 and 1853. in 1853, he was transferred to Natchez, Mississippi and became bishop of the Diocese of Natchez, where he served until his death.
* Father Damien (1840-1889) was a Flemish-born Catholic missionary of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who is revered primarily by Hawaii residents and Christians for having dedicated his life in service to the lepers of Molokai in the Kingdom of Hawaii. In Catholicism, Father Damien is the spiritual patron of people with leprosy, outcasts, and those with HIV/AIDS, and of the State of Hawaii. Father Damien Day is recognized each year in Hawaii on April 15. His Feast Day in the Catholic Church is May 10. Having been beatified in 1995, Father Damien is awaiting formal approval for sainthood. On December 1, 2005, Father Damien was chosen as the Greatest Belgian of all time by the Flemish public broadcasting service, VRT.
* Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet (1801-1873) was a Belgian-born Roman Catholic priest who became the most trusted of the white men among the Native Americans of the Western United States in the mid-1800s.
* Louis Hennepin, baptized Father Antoine (1626- c. 1705) was a Flemish Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollect Order (French: Récollets) and an explorer of the interior of North America. He discovered Niagara Falls, Hannibal, Missouri and was the first to place the name 'Chicago' on a map (1683).

Scientists

* John M. Deutch (1938-) was the Belgian-born Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from May 10, 1995 until December 14, 1996. John Deutch is now an Institute Professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has held a faculty position since 1970.
* Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944) was a Belgium-born American chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular plastic. In 1978, Leo Hendrik Baekeland was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
* Maurice Anthony Biot (1905-1985) was a Belgian-American physicist and the founder of the theory of poroelasticity.
* Karel Bossart (1904-1975) was a pioneering rocket designer and 'father (creator) of the Atlas ICBM'.
* Julius Arthur Nieuwland (1878-1976) was a Belgian-born Holy Cross priest and professor of chemistry and botany at the University of Notre Dame. He is known for his contributions to acetylene research and the discovery of synthetic rubber which eventually lead to the discovery of Neoprene by DuPont.
* Charles Schepens (1912-2006) was an influential American ophthalmologist, regarded by many in the profession as "the father of modern retinal surgery"
* George Van Biesbroeck (1880-1974) was a Belgian-American astronomer.

Sports

* Edgard Colle (1897-1932) was a Belgian-born chess master, who pioneered the chess opening termed the Colle System.
* George Koltanowski (1903-2000) was a Belgian-born chess player and promoter.
* Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau (1898-1965) was the founder, a player, and the first coach of the Green Bay Packers professional football team. Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin is named after him.
* Roger DeCoster (1944-) is a legendary Belgian-born motocross racer. His name is almost synonymous with the sport of motocross. He won five 500cc Motocross World Championships and tallied a record 36 500cc Grand Prix victories. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994, becoming only the seventh motorcyclist in the Hall. In 1999, he was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
* Christian Vande Velde (1976-) is a professional road cyclist, whose grandfather immigrated from Ghent in Flanders.

Writers

* May Sarton (1912-1995) was a Belgian-born American poet, novelist, and memoirist; daughter of George Sarton. Many of her novels and poems are pellucid reflections of the lesbian experience.
* Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was a Belgian-born novelist who lived in the US from 1945 until 1955. Considered as one of the most skilled and literate writers of detective fiction, he is best known as the creator of Paris police detective Inspector Maigret. He turned out 84 Maigret mysteries and 136 other novels, but he never wrote the 'big' novel that many critics demanded of him. Over 500 million copies of Simenon's books have been printed and translated into 50 languages. His second son, John, was born in 1949 in Tucson, Arizona.
* Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) was a Belgian-born novelist.
* Robert Goffin (1898-1984)
* Christine Vaughan (nee Naert) (1950- ) -- a Belgian-American writer born in Detroit, Michigan. Both her parents were born in Roeselare, W.Vl., Belgium. A talented advertising and technical writer, Ms. Vaughan also worked at the Gazette van Detroit during her college career.

External links

* [http://www.bahsc.org/ Belgian American Historical Society of Chicago]
* [http://belgium.rootsweb.com/soc/usa/tbr/index.html Genealogical Society for Belgian Immigrants (USA)]
* [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WI/subcollections/BelgAmrColAbout.shtml The Belgian-American Research Collection]
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~gsfa/heroes.html Flemish-American Heroes]
* [http://home.tiscali.be/gallez.nic/index.htm Belgians in the Civil War - 1840-1865]
* [http://www.viwchicago.org/index.html The Belgian-American Club of Chicago]
* [http://www.euroamericans.net/belgian%20famous.htm Famous Belgian Americans]
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~wipbac/ Peninsula Belgian American Club]
* [http://www.cleydael.org/calverts.shtml The Calverts and Stiers of Riversdale]
* [http://www.theBAA.us/ Belgian-American Association of Detroit]

References