People from Gary

Arthur Hill Cash (February 4, 1922 – December 29, 2016) was an American scholar of 18th-century English literature.Cash is best known as the author of the definitive two-volume biography of Laurence Sterne, published between 1975 and 1986. He also wrote a popular biography of the 18th-century politician John Wilkes, who was influential in developing ideas concerning civil liberties in England and the United States. The book, titled John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty, was one of three finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for biography.
Cash taught university literature courses for forty-five years, including popular classes in the Bible and Greek and Roman literature. He retired from the State University of New York at New Paltz as one of a handful of faculty with the title of Distinguished Professor. Before that he taught at the University of Colorado, the University of New Mexico, and Colorado State University.
Cash was born in Gary, Indiana, and lived in or near Chicago for many years. Starting work as a stage actor, at the beginning of American involvement in the Second World War, he joined the 108th General Hospital unit. After the war, he enrolled at the University of Chicago on the G.I. Bill, and completed his graduate education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Columbia University.
He married Dorothy Moore Cash (later Romni Cash) and they had two children before their divorce. Their eldest son was killed in El Salvador in 1992. He married novelist Mary Gordon and they had two children together, now adults.

Gerald Douglas Hines (August 15, 1925 – August 23, 2020) was an American real estate developer based in Houston. He was the founder and chairman of Hines, a privately held real estate firm with its headquarters in that city. At the time of his death, the company had assets in 25 countries.

Benjamin James Aronov (October 16, 1932 – May 3, 2015) was an American jazz pianist, professionally known as Ben Aronov or Benny Aronov.

Geraldine Warrick-Crisman (May 22, 1930, Gary, Indiana – February 12, 2007, Scottsdale, Arizona) was a television executive.
She began her broadcasting career in the standards department of NBC's affiliate in Chicago. She became one of the first African-American executives at NBC Television in New York City, holding various positions over two decades. She was the first black president of American Women in Radio and Television. In 1981, she left NBC to become president and general manager of WNJR Radio in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey. New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean soon appointed her assistant state treasurer.
In the 1990s, Warrick-Crisman moved to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she worked in public affairs and survived the 1993 World Trade Center explosion, which killed six people.
She retired to Scottsdale with her husband, Bruce Crisman, in 1997, and became a member of Tanner African Methodist Episcopal Church in Phoenix. She also served on the board of the New School for the Arts in Tempe.
Warrick-Crisman died on February 12, 2007, aged 76, following a 10-year battle with breast cancer, survived by two sisters, a daughter, a son and a stepdaughter. Her husband died in 1998.

Captain Robert C. Truax (USN) (September 3, 1917 – September 17, 2010) was an American rocket engineer in the United States Navy, and companies such as Aerojet and Truax Engineering, which he founded. Truax was a proponent of low-cost rocket engine and vehicle designs.

Kenje Ogata (Japanese: 緒方 健二, June 1, 1919 – January 18, 2012) was an American soldier and one of five documented people of Japanese descent to serve in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II.

Calvin Tollie Carter (May 27, 1925 – July 9, 1986) was an American record producer, record label manager and songwriter of jazz and pop songs.
Calvin Carter was born in Gary, Indiana, in 1925. He joined Vee-Jay Records, founded by his sister Vivian Carter and her husband James Bracken, in 1953 and became its principal A&R man and producer, in charge of recording sessions. According to AllMusic, he was responsible for giving "direction and vision" to the company, which mainly recorded R&B acts such as Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Billy Emerson and Jimmy Reed. In the 1960s, Vee Jay Records was the first American company to sign The Beatles and helped to establish The Four Seasons as a major-selling group.
After Vee Jay was forced to close by financial problems, Calvin Carter worked at Liberty Records, running their soul subsidiary, Minit Records, for a while and working with Canned Heat. He produced leading blues artist, Little Milton for Chess Records in the late 1960s and Betty Everett for Fantasy Records in the early 1970s. He had first signed her for Vee Jay a decade earlier, producing several hits for her including "The Shoop Shoop Song". He recorded jazz musicians such as Eddie Harris and Gene Ammons while with Vee Jay.His best-known song, "I Ain't Got You", was recorded by both Jimmy Reed and Billy Boy Arnold in 1955 and later covered by The Yardbirds in 1964 (as the B-side to their "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" single), by The Animals on their 1965 UK release Animal Tracks, by Aerosmith in 1978 on their Live! Bootleg album, by Blue Öyster Cult in 1975 on their On Your Feet or on Your Knees album (as "Maserati GT (I Ain't Got You)"), by The Blues Brothers in 1980 on their Made in America album, by Molly Hatchet on their The Deed Is Done album, and by the Belgian band The Baboons in 2011 (on their Back Scratch album).
Burt Bacharach has stated that it was Calvin Carter who really gave him his first big break when Carter, who was head of A&R at Vee Jay Records, called him to say that Jerry Butler wanted to do his song 'Make It Easy On Yourself'. Carter asked him to fly out to New York and to basically take charge of the recording session. Bacharach said that was the first time anyone had allowed him to be in control. He said "I just went from there".Carter died in Oak Forest, Illinois, in 1986, aged 61.

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.

Anthony DeSantis, KStJ (January 5, 1914 - June 6, 2007) was an American entrepreneur and theater owner in Chicago, Illinois. He is most well known for the foundation of the area's Drury Lane theatres. During DeSantis' lifetime, his empire included six separate theaters.