List of Swiss Americans

This is a list of notable Swiss Americans or (at least) Americans of Swiss ancestry or national origin.

List

Entertainment

*Jewel (1974 - ) singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and author [ [http://history.swissroots.org/219.0.html Swiss Roots: Jewel Kilcher ] ]
*Q'Orianka Kilcher (1990 - ) singer and actress [ [http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/movies/stv-122305ent-movies-kilcher,0,531575.story?coll=orl-calmoviestop] "The actress, who's Alaskan/Swiss on her mother's side, was born in Schweigmatt, Germany." http://history.swissroots.org/233.0.html] ]
*Victor Mature (1913 - 1999) film actor [ [http://history.swissroots.org/153.0.html Swiss Roots: Film ] ]
*Cork Graham (1964 - ) actor, screenwriter, war correspondent, and author [The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War; DPP Inc. 2004]
*Renée Zellweger (1969 - ) Film actress [http://history.swissroots.org/222.0.html Swiss Roots: Renee Zellweger ] ]
*James Caviezel (1968-) Film actor

Historical figures

*Fernand Auberjonois (1910 - 2004) highly respected journalist, foreign correspondent of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade [ [http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040828/NEWS13/408280302 toledoblade.com - Blade's man in Europe brought world to Toledo ] ]
*Warren E. Burger (1907 - 1995) Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986 [ [http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/97/background] "Ethnicity Swiss/German"]
*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 [ [http://www.muellerscience.com/ENGLISH/Switzerland.htm Mueller Science - Specialities: Switzerland ] ]
*Robert Frank (1924 - ) important figure in American photography and film [ [http://m2.aol.com/UvGotMail/frank/frank.html] "Though Swiss by birth, Frank traveled the world before settling in the United States in 1953."]
*Albert Gallatin (1761 - 1849) ethnologist, linguist, politician, founder of New York University, diplomat, and United States Secretary of the Treasury [ [http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/management/curator/collection/secretary/gallatin.htm] "Born to an aristocratic Swiss family, Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) emigrated from Switzerland to America in 1780."]
*Meyer Guggenheim (1828 - 1905) statesman, patriarch of what became known as the Guggenheim family [ [http://www.nysun.com/article/8142] "Meyer, though a native speaker of German, was Swiss-German."]
*Herbert Hoover (1874 - 1964) 31st President of the United States [ [http://history.swissroots.org/112.0.html Swiss Roots: Herbert Hoover ] ]
*Adolf Rickenbacker (1886 – 1976) Pioneer of the electric guitar and founder of the Rickenbacker guitar company, whose products would be an important influence on 1960's 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 [ [http://history.swissroots.org/166.0.html Swiss Roots: Eddie Rickenbacker ] ]
*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 [ [http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9070519] "German-born Swiss pioneer settler and colonizer in California; the discovery of gold on his land in 1848 precipitated the California Gold Rush."]
*William Wirt (1772 - 1834) author and statesman who is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney General into one of influence [ [http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Sr-Z/Swiss-Americans.html] mentioned as one of several "Swiss Americans"]
*Henry Wirz (1822 - 1865) the only Confederate soldier executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War for war crimes [ [http://history.swissroots.org/263.0.html Swiss Roots: Henry Wirz ] ]
*John Joachim Zubly (1724 - 1781) pastor, planter, and statesman during the American Revolution [ [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-662 New Georgia Encyclopedia: John J. Zubly (1724-1781) ] ]

cientists

*Louis Agassiz (1807 - 1873) zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists [ [http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9272749 Louis Agassiz - Britannica Student Encyclopaedia ] ]
*Othmar Ammann (1879 - 1965) civil engineer [de icon [http://en.structurae.de/persons/data/index.cfm?id=d000001 Structurae [en: Othmar Herrmann Ammann (1879-1965) ] ]
*Felix Bloch (1905 - 1983) physicist [ [http://library.cern.ch/archives/dg/bloch.html CERN Scientific Information Service ] ]
*Florian Cajori (1859 - 1930) mathematician [ [http://140.90.235.27/edocs/HASSLER7.htm NOAA Central Library ] ]
*Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) theoretical physicist widely regarded as the most important scientist of the 20th century and one of the greatest physicists of all time [ [http://www.britannica.com/nobel/macro/5002_5.html] "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."]
*Edmond H. Fischer (1920 - ) biochemist [ [http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march98/fischer.html Edmond Fischer ] ]
*Otto Frederick Hunziker (1873 - 1959) dairy educator and technologist
*Adolf Meyer (1866 - 1950) psychiatrist [ [http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9372023/Adolf-Meyer] "Swiss-born U.S. psychiatrist"]
*Jean Piccard (1884 - 1963) scientist and high-altitude balloonist
*Louis Franois de Pourtals (1824-80) Naturalist

ports

*Martin Buser (1958 - ) champion of sled dog racing [ [http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:OwpydLmzy5QJ:www.senate.gov/member/ak/stevens/general/pr/2002/march/pr031302a.htm+%22Martin+Buser%22+Swiss&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=7] "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."]
*Louis Chevrolet (1878 - 1941) racing driver and the founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company, now the most famous brand of General Motors. [ [http://www.swissworld.org/eng/swissworld.html?siteSect=603&sid=4270276&rubricId=14030] ]
*Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone (1913 - 1996) perhaps the best known pool player in the United States [ [http://espn.go.com/classic/s/2001/0422/1177138.html] "The Wanderones were German-Swiss"]
*Bobby Fischer, (1943 - 2008), controversial world chess champion
*Ben Roethlisberger (1982 - ) football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL [ [http://www.swissroots.org/celebrities/default.asp] "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."]

Other

*Robert Lutz (1932 - ) General Motors Vice Chairman of Product Development and Chairman of GM North America, the world's largest automaker [ [http://emagazine.credit-suisse.com/app/article/index.cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle&aoid=18718&coid=72939&lang=EN] "The legendary Swiss manager has been tasked with bringing fresh momentum to the sputtering engine of the world's largest automobile group."]
*Christoph Meili (1968 - ) whistleblower [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_24_35/ai_54492309] "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."] .

References

External links

* [http://history.swissroots.org/famous_swiss.0.html List of Swiss-Americans]
* [http://www.ahneninfo.com Forefathers in Switzerland]