1927 births

Ed_Cantrell

Ed Cantrell (December 21, 1927 – June 11, 2004) was the public safety director of Rock Springs, Wyoming, a town tied to widespread corruption, who killed one of his own officers in 1978 but was acquitted after trial.The son of Samuel Glenn Cantrell, a Nazarene minister and Vesta Marie (née Robinson) Cantrell, Ed was born in Bloomington, Indiana. He excelled in sports and graduated from Plainfield High School in 1945 with a football and basketball scholarship. Aspiring to be a coach, he had almost completed three years at Indiana State College when President Truman ordered the Berlin airlift in 1948. Cantrell immediately enlisted in the Army and spent three years as a military policeman in the "bombed-out ruin" south of Frankfurt, Germany. His tour of duty was then extended due to the Korean War. Upon discharge, he graduated with honors from the Indiana State Police Academy.
An avid hunter, fisherman and marksman, he later visited Wyoming and decided to relocate there. Accepted into the Wyoming Highway Patrol, he was assigned to the Rock Springs area in 1960. Although he liked his job, he later resigned from the highway patrol to lobby for a state police bill. "A little skeleton crew of highway patrolmen and a sheriff's department were understaffed," he said, explaining that he and his fellow officers were trying to create a more effective state police force.
The following January he was hired as a range detective in Lusk. His job took him all over Wyoming as well as neighboring states in pursuit of lawbreakers. Then, in 1976, following the death of his oldest son in a car accident, Cantrell and his wife decided to return to Rock Springs, where he worked for undersheriff Jim Stark. The following year Cantrell assumed the post of safety director of a badly demoralized Rock Springs police force. He then formed a detective division from existing officers and hired Michael Rosa as an undercover detective.

Richard_J._Grosh

Richard Joseph Grosh (born October 29, 1927) was the thirteenth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
He was born on October 29, 1927, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He attended Purdue University, where he received B.S., M.S. and P.h.D. degrees in mechanical engineering (in 1950, 1952 and 1953 respectively). In 1953, he was appointed assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. In 1953, he was appointed professor of mechanical engineering and in 1961, he was appointed head of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue. In 1965, he was named associate dean of the Schools of Engineering. In 1967, he was appointed dean of the Schools of Engineering. In 1971, he was appointed president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1976, he left Rensselaer to become CEO of Ranco Inc. of Columbus, Ohio and remained in that post until the company was acquired by Invensys in 1987.In 1969, he was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for significant contributions to heat transfer research. In 1991, he received the Outstanding Mechanical Engineer Award from the Purdue University School of Mechanical Engineering. He served on the board of the Maine Maritime Academy from 1997 until 2012.

Gordon_St._Angelo

Gordon St. Angelo (June 20, 1927 – October 18, 2011) born in Huntingburg, Indiana, US was a former Democratic Party State Chairman of the state of Indiana and was a prominent politician during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Gordon was born on June 20, 1927, to George and Lillian (Salat) St. Angelo in Huntingburg, Indiana. He served in the Navy at the end of World War II. He then attended North Central College, where he was active in student politics. He there met his future wife Beatrice Mae Larson, who was from Watertown, South Dakota. Gordon became active in Democratic Party politics in 1954. He was elected Dubois County Chairman in 1958. An early key supporter of then Senator John F. Kennedy, he became 8th District Chairman in 1960.
St. Angelo worked on two presidential campaigns including holding the position of National Co-chairman of Humphrey for President Committee. He was also manager of Roger Branigin's successful campaign for the governorship of Indiana in 1964. After managing the campaign of Governor Roger D. Branigan in 1964, Gordon was elected state Democratic Party Chairman, a position he held until 1974. His tenure was longer than that of any party chairman in Indiana. From 1974 to 1996, he was vice-president of Community Development for the Lilly Endowment, and during this time was a vocal proponent for the development of free market economies in North and South America.
Gordon's political reach extended beyond the state. He was Deputy Democratic Party National Chairman from June to November, 1968, when he helped manage the Hubert Humphrey presidential campaign. In 1974 Gordon left politics to become Senior Program Officer of community development at the Lilly Endowment, where he loved working for twenty three years. There he was instrumental in expanding the role of non-profits in public policy, with many positive civil- and individual-rights implications. His building of coalitions between non-profit think tanks was instrumental in the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. In 1973, he ran for National Democratic Party chairman, being narrowly defeated by Larry O'Brien.Gordon also served on the boards of the University of Indianapolis (1965-1993), St. Meinrad College, WFYI, the United Way, the Welfare Service League, the State Employment Commission, the Indiana Division of the National Civil Rights Commission, and the Indianapolis 500 Festival Committee. Starting with his work at the Lilly Endowment, Gordon and Beatty took special interest in historic New Harmony, Indiana which they visited often. He was appointed by Governor Evan Bayh to the New Harmony Commission and served on the board of the Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation until his death (chairman, 1995–2006). He received honorary doctorates from the University of Indianapolis and the University of Southern Indiana. He received "Sagamore of the Wabash" awards for his service to Indiana from Governors Welsh, Branigan, Whitcomb, Bowen, Orr, Bayh and Daniels.In 1996, St. Angelo helped create a foundation with Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose Friedman to promote and help establish educational choice in America. He served as President & CEO of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation for School Choice until 2009.
Though he started his career in the Democratic party, he was a supporter of many Republican candidates since the mid-seventies. For example, he endorsed Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, for both of his gubernatorial campaigns.
St. Angelo died on October 18, 2011, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Patricia_Benoit

Patricia Eloise Benoit (February 21, 1927 – August 6, 2018) was an American television and stage actress. She starred as the title character's eventual wife Nancy Remington in the 1950s TV series, Mister Peepers.

Robert_A._Plane

Robert Allen Plane (1927 – August 6, 2018) was an American retired chemistry professor and college administrator. He served as Provost of Cornell University from 1969 to 1973 and president and chief executive officer of Clarkson University from 1974 until 1985. From 1991 to 1995, he was president of Wells College.Plane graduated from Evansville College (now called University of Evansville) in Indiana in 1948 with a bachelor's degree, and from the University of Chicago in 1951 with a doctorate.

Dick_Grove

Richard Dean Grove (December 18, 1927 – December 26, 1998) was an American musician, composer, arranger, and educator. He is best known as the founder of the Dick Grove School of Music. Its students include Michael Jackson, Linda Ronstadt, and Barry Manilow, and its teachers Henry Mancini, Bill Conti, and Lalo Schifrin.

Robert_Kearns

Robert William Kearns (March 10, 1927 – February 9, 2005) was an American mechanical engineer, educator and inventor who invented the most common intermittent windshield wiper systems used on most automobiles from 1969 to the present. His first patent for the invention was filed on December 1, 1964, after a few previous designs by other inventors had failed to gain any traction in manufacturing.
Kearns won one of the best known patent infringement cases against Ford Motor Company (1978–1990) and a case against Chrysler Corporation (1982–1992). Having invented and patented the intermittent windshield wiper mechanism, which was useful in light rain or mist, he tried to interest the "Big Three" auto makers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) in licensing the technology. Each rejected his proposal, yet began to install electronic intermittent wipers based on Kearns's design in their cars, beginning in 1969, when Ford rolled out the feature to its Mercury line.
Kearns's legal battle against Ford to protect his invention and patent was the subject of a 1993 article in The New Yorker magazine, which became the basis for a full-length biographical feature film titled Flash of Genius in 2008. Kearns was played by actor Greg Kinnear. Kearns had six children with his wife Phyllis, although they separated, supposedly as a result of the stress from the legal battle. He died of brain cancer at the age of 77.