American Presbyterians

James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military officer. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality, which he portrayed both on and off the screen, he epitomized the "American ideal" in the mid-twentieth century. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors. He received numerous honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980, the Kennedy Center Honor in 1983, as well as the Academy Honorary Award and Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985.
Born and raised in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart started acting while at Princeton University. After graduating, he began a career as a stage actor making his Broadway debut in the play Carry Nation (1932). He landed his first supporting role in The Murder Man (1935) and had his breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You (1938). Stewart went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in George Cukor romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story (1940). His other Oscar-nominated roles were in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Harvey (1950) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
Stewart played darker, more morally ambiguous characters in movies directed by Anthony Mann, including Winchester '73 (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), and The Naked Spur (1953), and by Alfred Hitchcock in Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958). Stewart also starred in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) as well as the Western films How the West Was Won (1962), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).
He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, deputy commanding the 2nd Bombardment Wing and commanding the 703d Bombardment Squadron from 1941 to 1947. He later transferred to the Air Force Reserve, and held various command positions until his retirement in 1968 as a brigadier general. Stewart remained unmarried until his 40s and was dubbed "The Great American Bachelor" by the press. In 1949, he married former model Gloria Hatrick McLean. They had twin daughters, and he adopted her two sons from her previous marriage. The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994, and Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later.

James Ronald Ryun (born April 29, 1947) is an American former Republican politician and Olympic track and field athlete, who at his peak was widely considered the world's top middle-distance runner. He won a silver medal in the 1500 m at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and was the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes. He is the last American to hold the world record in the mile run. Ryun later served in the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing Kansas's 2nd congressional district.

Henry Martin Jackson (May 31, 1912 – September 1, 1983), also known as Scoop Jackson, was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. representative (1941–1953) and U.S. senator (1953–1983) from the state of Washington. A Cold War liberal and anti-Communist member of the Democratic Party, Jackson supported higher military spending and a hard line against the Soviet Union, while also supporting social welfare programs, civil rights, and labor unions.Born in Everett, Washington, to Norwegian immigrants, Jackson practiced law in Everett, after graduating from the University of Washington School of Law. He won election to Congress in 1940, and joined the Senate in 1953 after defeating incumbent Republican Party senator Harry P. Cain. Jackson supported the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and authored the National Environmental Policy Act, which helped establish the principle of publicly analyzing environmental impacts. He co-sponsored the Jackson–Vanik amendment, which denied normal trade relations to countries with restrictive emigration policies. Jackson served as chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from 1963 to 1981. He was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1972 and 1976 presidential elections. While still serving in the Senate, Jackson died in 1983.
His political beliefs were characterized by support of civil rights, human rights, and safeguarding the environment but with an equally strong commitment to oppose totalitarianism in general and — with the start of the Cold War — Communist rule in particular. Jackson's political philosophies and positions have been cited as an influence on a number of key figures associated with neoconservatism, including Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, both of whom previously served as aides to Jackson. The Seattle-based Henry M. Jackson Foundation was created in 1983 by his former colleagues and staff, as well as his widow and other family members, to further his work. In 1987, the Department of Defense gave to the Jackson Foundation a one-time, $10 million appropriation for its endowment, in honor of the Senator. To date, the Foundation has awarded over $26 million in grants to educational and non-profit institutions. Jackson also sponsored legislation to form the Foundation to Advance Military Medicine, which was later renamed in his honor at the time of his death, to the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine.

Reid Kyle Beveridge (born October 20, 1942 in Waverly, Iowa) is a retired brigadier general in the National Guard of the United States.

Ruth McCue Bell Graham (June 10, 1920 – June 14, 2007) was a Chinese-born American Christian author, most well known as the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. She was born in Qingjiang, Jiangsu, Republic of China, the second of five children. Her parents, Virginia Leftwich Bell and L. Nelson Bell, were medical missionaries at the Presbyterian Hospital 300 miles (480 km) north of Shanghai. At age 13 she was enrolled in Pyeng Yang Foreign School in Pyongyang, Korea, where she studied for three years. She completed her high school education at Montreat, North Carolina, while her parents were there on furlough. She graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.
The Grahams met at Wheaton College and were married in the summer of 1943, shortly after their graduation. Ruth Graham became a minister's wife for a brief period in Western Springs, Illinois. She lived out the rest of her life in Montreat, North Carolina. The Grahams have five children: Virginia (Gigi), Anne, Ruth, Franklin, and Nelson Edman (Ned), 19 grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren.
Graham wrote a number of books, including some co-authored with her daughter Gigi Graham.

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.

John Richard Gott III (born February 8, 1947) is a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. He is known for his work on time travel and the Doomsday argument.

Richard Passwater (July 24, 1926 – July 10, 2020) was an American racecar driver who raced in NASCAR and USAC Stock Cars. He won the fifth race of the 1953 NASCAR Grand National Series (now NASCAR Cup Series) at Charlotte Speedway.

Dorothy Marie Mengering (née Hofert, formerly Letterman; July 18, 1921 – April 11, 2017), better known to Late Night and Late Show viewers as Dave's Mom, was the mother of late-night talk show host David Letterman and frequent telephone and live guest on his show.
She appeared on camera (identified as Dorothy Mengering) on Late Night with David Letterman on the "Parents' Night" broadcast of February 25, 1986, in which the parents of many Late Night staffers were also seen. Following several years of appearing via telephone, Mengering (usually billed as "Dave's Mom" or "Dave's Mom Dorothy", with no mention of her surname) became a recurring on-camera guest on Letterman's subsequent Late Show, initially by covering the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. She lived in Carmel, Indiana, at the time of her death.

Daniel Willett Foster (March 4, 1930 – January 25, 2018) was the John Denis McGarry, Ph.D. Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and Metabolic Research and Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. He was Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine for 16 years. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He was a Master of the American College of Physicians. He was also a former member of the President's Council on Bioethics.