The people listed below were all born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, U.S.
Notable people
(B) denotes that the person was born there.
Academics and educators
Lois Green Carr (1922–2015), American historian whose work primarily focused on Chesapeake Bay; daughter of Constance McLaughlin Green (B)[1]
Joseph Ellis (born 1943), Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian best known for his work on the founders of the United States[2]
Henrietta Hooker (1851–1929), botanist and educator, among the first women to receive a doctorate in botany from an American university[3]
Constance McLaughlin Green (1897–1975), Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian best known for her history of Washington, D.C.; her dissertation and first major published work was a comprehensive history of Holyoke
Edward Pinkowski (1916–2020), writer, journalist, and historian whose focus was Polish-American history; best remembered as re-discoverer of the bones of Casimir Pulaski(B)[5]
Ervin Staub (born 1938), professor emeritus of psychology, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; founding director of the doctoral program on the psychology of peace and violence[7]
Ray D'Addario (1920–2011), photographer best known for his work as the chief photographer of the Nuremberg trials, whose portraits are found in all contemporary news reports and history books covering the postwar trial of Nazi leadership (B)[14]
Mitch Epstein (born 1952), fine-art photographer, director, cinematographer, and production designer (B)
Michael J. Kittredge II (1952–2019), businessman, founder of the Yankee Candle Company; alumnus of Holyoke Community College; opened his first factory in a Holyoke mill before relocating to South Deerfield[17]
J. Lewis Wyckoff (1864–1931), businessman and cofounder of stationery manufacturer White & Wyckoff, golf promoter, and credited with Holyoke's 1909 annexation of Smith's Ferry[20][21]
Maurice A. Donahue (1918–1999), Massachusetts state representative and President of the Massachusetts Senate (B)[26]
Eileen Donoghue (born 1954), former member of Massachusetts Senate, city manager of Lowell, Massachusetts (B)[27]
Donald Dwight (born 1931), newspaper executive of Holyoke Telegram-Transcript Dwight family, 64 Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts during Governor Francis Sargent's administration (B)[28]
Jeffrey "Smitty" Smith (born 1985), hip hop artist, record producer, instrumentalist and member of Track Bangas (B)
Scientists and engineers
Thaddeus Cahill (1867–1934), electrical engineer and inventor of the first electromechanical musical instrument, known as the teleharmonium, which he first demonstrated to a public audience at his laboratory in Holyoke, and which contained components that filled 30 boxcars on shipment to New York City[48]
Michael Dacey (1842–1930), geographer known for his contributions to mathematical models in quantitative geography (B)[49]
Joan Newton Cuneo (1876–1934), race car driver, known for her competence and winning races against drivers both male and female; her successful career influenced a subsequent ban on women in racing (B)[61]
Jack Doyle (1869–1958), Irish American baseball player who settled in Holyoke and served as police commissioner 1908–09[62]
Jeff Eisenberg (born 1956), professional hockey and advertising executive, whose first position as a general assistant manager of a sports team began with the Holyoke Millers in the summer of 1980[63]
Tommy Tucker (1863–1935), Major League Baseball first baseman who spent most of his career with the Boston Beaneaters, precursor to the Boston Braves (B)[84]
Nelson Vargas (born 1974), Major League Soccer forward for the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion, recipient of 4 caps with the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team, member of 1996 US Olympic soccer team (B)[85]
Mickey Welch (1859–1941), Major League Baseball pitcher, nicknamed "Smiling Mickey"; spent most of his professional career with the New York Giants[86]
Rachel Maddow (born 1973), television host, political commentator, and Rhodes Scholar; got her first broadcasting job in 1999 at WRNX (100.9 FM) in Holyoke[96]
Steve Porter (born 1978), award-winning music video producer, remixer and DJ, owning and operating Porterhouse Media
Eva Tanguay (1879–1947), the "I Don't Care Girl", vaudevillian[98]
Writers
Polly Adler (1900–1962), madam connected to Lucky Luciano, ran a bordello frequented by celebrities and a New York mayor, known for work A House Is Not a Home, posthumously made into a film by the same name[99]
Jacques Ducharme (1910–1993), writer and historian, wrote The Delusson Family, a story of a French-Canadian family in Holyoke, and the first Franco-American novel in the English language to be nationally published (B)[103]
Bartholomew Gill (1943–2002), crime fiction and mystery novelist, newspaper features writer, and columnist writing on nature and outdoor recreation for The Star-Ledger(B)[104]
John Clellon Holmes (1926–1988), author best known for Go, the first published novel depicting the Beat Generation (B)[105]
Raymond Kennedy (1934–2008), novelist; set many of his books in a fictionalized Holyoke that he called "Ireland Parish" and "Hadley Falls"[13]: 31
Stanley Reynolds (1934–2016), journalist, author, and critic who spent most of his life in the United Kingdom, and was a regular contributor to The Guardian(B)[107]
^Shmurak, Carole B.; Handler, Bonnie S. (1992). "Castle of Science: Mount Holyoke College and the preparation of women in chemistry, 1837-1941". History of Education Quarterly. 32 (3): 320. doi:10.2307/368548. JSTOR368548. S2CID146910131.
^Cooke, Jon B. (November 15, 2001). "The Art of Arthur Adams". Comic Book Artist. Retrieved October 31, 2012 – via Twomorrows. - George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Weathington. Modern Masters Volume Six: Arthur Adams, 2006, TwoMorrows Publishing.
^Coffey, Thomas M. Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay. Random House, 1986. ISBN0-517-55188-8
^Kozak, Warren (2014). Curtis LeMay: Strategist and Tactician. Regnery History. p. 70. ISBN9781621572992. LeMay was in his car, halfway between Westover Air Force Base and his home in nearby Holyoke, Massachusetts, when the football game on his car radio was interrupted
^"World War Hero Dies in Holyoke; John MacKenzie Was Awarded Congrssional Medal". Boston Herald. Boston, Mass. December 27, 1933. p. 9.
^Bass World: The Journal of the International Society of Bassists. 31. Dallas: International Society of Bassists: 28. 2007. OCLC36039436. Chuck Andrus was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on November 17, 1928{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^Jacobi, Bonnie Schaffhauser (October 2015). "'In Burst of Fresh Song': William Churchill Hammond and His Christmas Caroling Choir at Mount Holyoke College". Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. XXXVII (1). Sage Publications, Inc.: 24–50. doi:10.1177/1536600615608460. S2CID146882086.
^Andreoni, Phyllis (December 25, 1978). "Former little drummer boy makesgood; comes home for the holiday". Springfield Union. p. 13. He began playing drums in the Holyoke Public Schools system. Eventually, Edward Nowak, director of instrumental music sent a note home to Hurst's parents suggesting that he was talented and should have lessons...Hurt who graduated from Holyoke High School
^Schrader, Barry (1982). Introduction to Electro-Acoustic Music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 64. ISBN9780134815152. - Dewan, Brian (Winter 2002). "Thaddeus Cahill's 'Music Plant'". Cabinet Magazine. Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Cahill patented the Telharmonium in 1897 and in 1902 he and his two business partners founded the New England Electric Music Company. The Telharmonium was first publicly demonstrated in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1906, and later that year he had it moved to New York City. It weighed 200 tons and required 30 boxcars to ship.
^"Famous Designer Dies; John B. McCormick Was Water-Wheel Designer Well Known Here". Springfield Republican. Springfield, Mass. August 26, 1924. p. 10.
^"Wednesday, March 2, 1966". Hearings Before the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, United States Senate. Eight-Ninth Congress, Second SEssion on S. 2909. A Bill to Authorize Appropriations to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration... Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1966. p. 275.
Whitehill, Bruce (February 24, 2011). "The Electric Game Company". American Game Collectors Association. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021 – via The Big Game Hunter.
^"In 1895, William Morgan Invents Mintonette". New England Historical Society. Retrieved January 2, 2018. Putting his mind to the challenge, Morgan examined the rules of sports such as baseball, basketball, handball and badminton. Taking pieces from each, he created a game he called Mintonette, deriving the name from badminton
^"About LHF". Living Heart Foundation. Archived from the original on February 8, 2016. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
^"Mt. Tom Golf Club". The American Golfer. Vol. XIII. 1914. p. 136. President Wyckoff remarked that the club and the city of Holyoke are to be congratulated in that Donald Ross, the links expert, has made his permanent home in Holyoke, the club, particularly, in having Mr. Ross as chairman of its green committee - "New England Notes". The American Golfer. Vol. XV, no. 5. New York. March 1916. p. 341.
^Census entry for Albert Steiner and family, including Herman Steiner, born December 1897 in Massachusetts. Ancestry. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Year: 1900; Census Place: Holyoke Ward 3, Hampden, Massachusetts; Roll: 650; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 0537; FHL microfilm: 1240650.
^Okrent, Daniel (1988). The Ultimate Baseball Book. United States: Hilltown Press. p. 35. ISBN0395361451.
^"A Novelist Who Pens Dickensian English And Thinks in Fives". The New York Times. February 21, 1990. p. C13. Retrieved May 7, 2018. A quest for identity and for a sense of belonging, as well as the period in which he lives, are familiar to Mr. Palliser, who was born in Holyoke, Mass., to an American father and an Irish mother and who was sent to England to live with his grandmother after his parents' marriage dissolved.