1915 births

James Van Gundia Neel (March 22, 1915 – February 1, 2000) was an American geneticist who played a key role in the development of human genetics as a field of research in the United States. He made important contributions to the emergence of genetic epidemiology and pursued an understanding of the influence of environment on genes. In his early work, he studied sickle-cell disease and thalassemia conducted research on the effects of radiation on survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.

Roland Gérard Barthes (; French: [ʁɔlɑ̃ baʁt]; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular culture. His ideas explored a diverse range of fields and influenced the development of many schools of theory, including structuralism, anthropology, literary theory, and post-structuralism.
Barthes is perhaps best known for his 1957 essay collection Mythologies, which contained reflections on popular culture, and the 1967/1968 essay "The Death of the Author," which critiqued traditional approaches in literary criticism. During his academic career he was primarily associated with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Collège de France.

John Donald Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first tennis player — male or female, and still the only American male — to win the Grand Slam, and to win all four Grand Slam events consecutively overall. Budge was the second man to complete the career Grand Slam after Fred Perry, and remains the youngest to achieve the feat. He won ten majors, of which six were Grand Slam events (consecutively, a men's record) and four Pro Slams, the latter achieved on three different surfaces. Budge is considered to have one of the best backhands in the history of tennis, with most observers rating it better than that of later player Ken Rosewall.Budge is also the only man to have achieved the Triple Crown (winning singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles at the same tournament) on three separate occasions (Wimbledon in 1937 and 1938, and the US Championships in 1938), and the only man to have achieved it twice in one year. Budge was the world Number 1 amateur in 1937 and 1938 and world Number 1 professional in 1939, 1940 and 1942.

Paul Naudon (16 April 1915 – 2001), was a Doctor of Law and a 20th-century French historian, author of several books on freemasonry.

Victoria Garvin (December 18, 1915 – June 11, 2007) was an American political activist, Pan-Africanist, and self-described "working class internationalist." While growing up in a working-class family during the height of the Great Depression, Garvin was exposed early on to the realities of both proletariat and racial exploitation. Garvin became a prominent organizer in the Black Left during the height of McCarthyism, before traveling to Nigeria, Ghana, and China. In Ghana, Garvin was a member of a committee who received Malcolm X and created his itinerary, since Garvin had previously met him in Harlem. As a lifelong activist and radical intellectual, Garvin created direct links between Black Power politics, Pan-Africanism, and Third World liberation.

Parke Shepherd Rouse Jr. (1915 – March 5, 1997) was an American journalist, writer and historian in Tidewater Virginia.

Elouise Westbrook (1915–2011) was an American housing rights and health activist in San Francisco. She was one of five activists that made up the Big Five of Bayview. Elouise, is also the Great- Grandmother of NBA player, Drew Gooden.

Arthur Bent Balinger (February 1, 1915 – June 10, 2011) was an American actor known for television roles throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Specifically, Balinger was cast in numerous productions created by Jack Webb and his production company, Mark VII Limited.
Balinger was born to parents Sheldon and Ellen Bent Balinger in Los Angeles, California. He was raised in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Balinger began his career as a radio announcer, before transitioning to television as an actor. His credits included Dragnet and Emergency! (as "Battalion Chief Conrad"). He largely retired from television after the 1970s. One of his last memorable parts in film was that of the dedication ceremony announcer in the blockbuster hit The Towering Inferno.
Balinger also worked for the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft company in the 1970s performing several on-camera appearances as well as voice-only narration of multiple McDonnell Douglas promotional films (See Periscope Films available on YouTube.)
Balinger died at the Terwilliger Plaza Nursing Home in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 96.

Jessie Valentine (née Anderson) (18 March 1915 – 6 April 2006) was a Scottish amateur golfer who won the British Ladies Amateur in 1937, 1955 and 1958. In 1937, after winning the British Ladies title at Turnberry she was the world number one ranking ladies golfer. Valentine was one of the dominant figures in women's golf for a period which spanned two decades from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. In 1959, she was the first woman golfer to be appointed as an MBE for services to golf and she was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. She was considered one of Perthshire's greatest sporting personalities of all time and was known locally as "Wee Jessie" and the "Queen of Golf".

Johan Randulf Bull Hambro (24 October 1915 – 27 February 1993) was a Norwegian journalist, translator and biographer. He was the fourth son of Norwegian politician C. J. Hambro, whose biography he wrote in 1984. He lived in the United States from 1939 to 1982, where he studied and worked as a foreign-affairs journalist, press attaché and consulate-general. He was secretary general of the Norse Federation for 27 years, from 1955 to 1982. He was decorated as a Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 1975.