People from Muncie

Francis William Lawvere (; February 9, 1937 – January 23, 2023) was an American mathematician known for his work in category theory, topos theory and the philosophy of mathematics.

Jack Hamilton Beeson (July 15, 1921 – June 6, 2010) was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There!, and The Sweet Bye and Bye.

L. Dennis Smith (January 18, 1938 – March 29, 2021) was an American scientist and academic administrator who served as the president of the University of Nebraska system from March 1, 1994, to June 2004.

Clifford E. Brubaker (born December 23, 1938) is Dean of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Brubaker is also a professor at that institution and an adjunct professor at both Xian Jiaotong University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Larry Mitchell (1939 – December 26, 2012) was an American author and publisher. He was the founder of Calamus Books - an early small press devoted to gay male literature - and the author of fiction dealing with the gay male experience in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s.With Terry Helbing and Felice Picano, he cofounded Gay Presses of New York in 1981. His book of short stories My Life As a Mole won the 1989 Small Press Lambda Literary Award. Mitchell's novel The Terminal Bar, published in 1982, is considered to be the first book of fiction to address HIV/AIDS. In addition to his own work, he was friends with and collaborated with many prominent gay artists working in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s including William "Bill" Rice, David Wojnarowicz, Peter Hujar and Gary Indiana. The feature film Acid Snow (1998) directed by Joel Itman is based on Mitchell's novel of the same name.Mitchell received a PhD in Sociology from Columbia University. At that time, he co-edited the book "Willard Waller on The Family, Education and War" with William J. Goode and Frank Furstenberg published in 1970. He was born in Muncie, Indiana, in 1939 and died on December 26, 2012, in Ithaca, New York, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Ralph Franklin Hefferline (15 February 1910 in Muncie, Indiana – 16 March 1974) was a psychology professor at Columbia University.Hefferline became a patient of Fritz Perls around 1946. He joined a small training group led by Perls in 1948 in New York, and went on to contribute a chapter to the book which defined Gestalt Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality, co-authored by Perls, Paul Goodman and Hefferline, published in 1951. He was the third and junior author and provided the section containing practical exercises.
He went on to join the Behaviourist school of psychology.

Ermal Cleon "Ernie" Fraze (September 16, 1913 – October 26, 1989) was an American engineer who invented the pull-tab opener used in beverage cans.

Mary Jane Croft (February 15, 1916 – August 24, 1999) was an American actress best known for roles as Betty Ramsey on I Love Lucy, Miss Daisy Enright on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks, Mary Jane Lewis on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, and Clara Randolph on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

James Johnson Edwards (March 6, 1918 – January 4, 1970) was an American actor in films and television. His most famous role was as Private Peter Moss in the 1949 film Home of the Brave, in which he portrayed a Black soldier experiencing racial prejudice while serving in the South Pacific during World War II.