A.N. Marquis published the first edition of Who's Who in America in 1899. It contained over 8,000 biographical sketches of notables.
Later editions had over 100,000 entries, about three per 10,000 of general population.
Wealth, social position, or desire to be included are not sufficient reasons for listing. You can't buy your way in.
Admission is based on either "the position of responsibility held" or "the level of significant achievement in a career of noteworthy activity." In many instances these criteria overlap.
Although there is a databank breakdown of college alma maters, none exists for the source of high school diplomas. I have discovered 48 local graduates who have been among the entries in Who's Who over the years, but there may be, and probably are, others who have been overlooked.
The 48 include the designer of art experimental streamlined train (Fred Adams), a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry (Paul J. Flory), an authority on food-home diseases (Gail M. Dack), a researcher in magneto-elasto-dynamics (Robert C. Geldmacher), the director of the first test of an air-to-air rocket missile (Frank O'Beime) and the discoverer of the Streptococcus equisimilis (Mildred Engelbrecht).
Among their occupations are a sculptor (Trygve Rovelstad), anthropologist (David W. Plath), foreign service officer (J. Wesley Adams), entomologist (John P. Kramer), federal judge (Alfred Kirkland), TV critic (Tom Shales), professor of pedodontics (John R. Mink), physicist (Samuel A. Wemer), biochemist (William H. Matchett), microbiologist (Dietrich C. Bauer), and impressionist painter (Jane Peterson).
Some are or have been chief executives of large scale business enterprises: (Greyhound (John W. Teets), General Motors (James M. Roche), Republic Steel (William De Lancey), Encyclopedia Britannica (Charles E. Swanson) and Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co. (Joseph C. Ladd).
Others have been vice presidents of Sears, Roebuck (Max Adler), Carnation (Arthur P. Herold), Motorola (Earl Gomersall), and American Hospital Supply (Paul D. Scheele).
The books they've authored are not exactly in the hammock reading class: "Small-Scale Reactivity Measurements in Nuclear Reactors" (Wesley K. Foell), "Ecology and Economics" (Marshall I. Goldman), "The Beginning of Ideology" (Donald R. Kelley), "Elements of Railroad Engineering" (Walter C. Sadler), "The Coordination of Complexity in South Asia" (Lloyd I. Rudolph) and "Transition Metal Hydrides" (Earl L. Muetterties).
In the first edition of Who's Who, fewer than half of the listees had graduated from college. Now almost all the entries are college graduates. Our local products, most of them far above average in academic standing while in high school, attended colleges and universities of excellent reputation. Of the 37 Elgin entries who received degrees, eight went to the University of Illinois, five to Northwestern, two to Harvard, two to Stanford and two to the University of Michigan.
Considering the accomplishments of these former students of our schools, it is surprising that only two were starters on varsity basketball teams:
John Teets, Greyhound executive and Tom Shales, television critic. Add a comment
Columnists
A.N. Marquis published the first edition of Who's Who in America in 1899. It contained over 8,000 biographical sketches of notables.
Later editions had over 100,000 entries, about three per 10,000 of general population.
Wealth, social position, or desire to be included are not sufficient reasons for listing. You can't buy your way in.
Admission is based on either "the position of responsibility held" or "the level of significant achievement in a career of noteworthy activity." In many instances these criteria overlap.
Although there is a databank breakdown of college alma maters, none exists for the source of high school diplomas. I have discovered 48 local graduates who have been among the entries in Who's Who over the years, but there may be, and probably are, others who have been overlooked.
The 48 include the designer of art experimental streamlined train (Fred Adams), a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry (Paul J. Flory), an authority on food-home diseases (Gail M. Dack), a researcher in magneto-elasto-dynamics (Robert C. Geldmacher), the director of the first test of an air-to-air rocket missile (Frank O'Beime) and the discoverer of the Streptococcus equisimilis (Mildred Engelbrecht).
Among their occupations are a sculptor (Trygve Rovelstad), anthropologist (David W. Plath), foreign service officer (J. Wesley Adams), entomologist (John P. Kramer), federal judge (Alfred Kirkland), TV critic (Tom Shales), professor of pedodontics (John R. Mink), physicist (Samuel A. Wemer), biochemist (William H. Matchett), microbiologist (Dietrich C. Bauer), and impressionist painter (Jane Peterson).
Some are or have been chief executives of large scale business enterprises: (Greyhound (John W. Teets), General Motors (James M. Roche), Republic Steel (William De Lancey), Encyclopedia Britannica (Charles E. Swanson) and Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co. (Joseph C. Ladd).
Others have been vice presidents of Sears, Roebuck (Max Adler), Carnation (Arthur P. Herold), Motorola (Earl Gomersall), and American Hospital Supply (Paul D. Scheele).
The books they've authored are not exactly in the hammock reading class: "Small-Scale Reactivity Measurements in Nuclear Reactors" (Wesley K. Foell), "Ecology and Economics" (Marshall I. Goldman), "The Beginning of Ideology" (Donald R. Kelley), "Elements of Railroad Engineering" (Walter C. Sadler), "The Coordination of Complexity in South Asia" (Lloyd I. Rudolph) and "Transition Metal Hydrides" (Earl L. Muetterties).
In the first edition of Who's Who, fewer than half of the listees had graduated from college. Now almost all the entries are college graduates. Our local products, most of them far above average in academic standing while in high school, attended colleges and universities of excellent reputation. Of the 37 Elgin entries who received degrees, eight went to the University of Illinois, five to Northwestern, two to Harvard, two to Stanford and two to the University of Michigan.
Considering the accomplishments of these former students of our schools, it is surprising that only two were starters on varsity basketball teams:
John Teets, Greyhound executive and Tom Shales, television critic. Add a comment