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Famous people from
the state of New Jersey.
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New Jersey does not strike fear into the hearts of vampires or rouse legions of adoring fans on the Internet but as one of America's oldest states it has a special place in history. The United States Congress owes a great deal to New Jersey. Were it not for the New Jersey plan, whereby each state would have had one vote in Congress, there would have been no Great Compromise. When US independence was assured leaders in the Continental Congress began debating how to structure the government for future generations. Virginia delegates proposed that the legislature award votes by population. The smaller states objected and New Jersey proposed that each state have one vote. The Great Compromise combined the two plans and established the House of Representatives and the Senate.
But New Jersey has given us so much more. It's not fair to the other 49 states to exclude them from the halls of fame, but sometimes I feel as though small states like New Jersey and Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont are pushed aside by the big states like California, Florida, Texas, and Virginia. They say that one county in California has more people than most states in the nation. That's not just insane, it correlates well to how we overlook contributions by our smaller neighbors.
If you ask someone on the street to name a famous New Jersey native, they might mention Chris Christie (the disgraced ex-governor) or Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss on television. Valastro inherited Carlo's Bakery from his father and turned it into a multimedia powerhouse with his Cake Boss reality TV show. Valastro and his family shared their ups and downs with millions of viewers. They also make amazing cakes.
I don't want to be unfair to other bakeries around the country. You will find a lot of great chefs who make fantastic, awesome cakes in every major city and many small ones. But we know the Cake Boss best because of the TV show. So my hat is off to you, Buddy Valastro. You made life a little sweeter in a wholesome way for millions of us.
There are other New Jersey citizens whom people know quite well. We just don't always know where they came from. One of the long-lasting legacies of New Jersey is that it is the home of the modern electrical revolution. Two men, one whose family lived in New Jersey for generations, and one who emigrated to New Jersey from Europe, changed the world with electricity.
But New Jersey has given us so much more. It's not fair to the other 49 states to exclude them from the halls of fame, but sometimes I feel as though small states like New Jersey and Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont are pushed aside by the big states like California, Florida, Texas, and Virginia. They say that one county in California has more people than most states in the nation. That's not just insane, it correlates well to how we overlook contributions by our smaller neighbors.
If you ask someone on the street to name a famous New Jersey native, they might mention Chris Christie (the disgraced ex-governor) or Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss on television. Valastro inherited Carlo's Bakery from his father and turned it into a multimedia powerhouse with his Cake Boss reality TV show. Valastro and his family shared their ups and downs with millions of viewers. They also make amazing cakes.
I don't want to be unfair to other bakeries around the country. You will find a lot of great chefs who make fantastic, awesome cakes in every major city and many small ones. But we know the Cake Boss best because of the TV show. So my hat is off to you, Buddy Valastro. You made life a little sweeter in a wholesome way for millions of us.
There are other New Jersey citizens whom people know quite well. We just don't always know where they came from. One of the long-lasting legacies of New Jersey is that it is the home of the modern electrical revolution. Two men, one whose family lived in New Jersey for generations, and one who emigrated to New Jersey from Europe, changed the world with electricity.
Of course I speak of Thomas Alva Edison, whose family boasted Dutch origins under the surname Edeson. They settled in New Jersey and gave the state several notable people. Edison himself was born in Ohio but his family moved to Michegan. In fact, the Edison family were Loyalists during the Revolutionary War and they fled to Nova Scotia before migrating to Ohio. Ironically, Thomas Edison himself passed away in New Jersey.
As the father of the light bulb Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and scientist. His experiments with carbon granules led to improvements in microphone technology. But Edison also founded the first electric utility company to make it possible for people to use his electrical devices. Unfortunately, Thomas Edison championed Direct Current distribution of electricity. This low voltage system was less dangerous than Alternating Current distribution, which relied on high voltage and transformers, but the AC distribution model proved to be more cost effective over time.
Nikola Tesla emigrated to the United States in 1884, leaving behind the ill-fated Austrian Empire. Tesla came from a Serb family and he was a brilliant engineer. His experiments with electricity have inspired generations of engineers, scientists, and writers. Tesla learned about electricity while working for the Continental Edison Company in Paris, France. Charles Batchelor, who had been in charge of the project, brought Tesla with him to the United States to work in the Edison Machine Works, a factory that made equipment for the Edison utility in New York.
Nikola Tesla soon had a falling out with the Edison company (the nature of which historians argue over) and he set out to form his own company. He invented arc lighting and retained Thomas Edison's patent attorney. One of his first inventions was an induction motor that used AC to generate a rotating magnetic field which turned the motor. However one of his first contributions to New Jersey engineering came when his Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing installed improved DC generation in Rathway, New Jersey.
When you see old pictures of grand New York City buildings, you may be looking at the designs of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. Born in New Brunswick, his family also boasted Dutch origins. Hardenbergh apprenticed under architect Detlef Lienau, a German-born architect who brought the French Style of architecture to America. Henry Janeway Hardenbergh eventually established his own practice and began designing buildings in New York City. Among his projects you will find famous landmarks like the Plaza Hotel and Hotel Martinique.
Hardenbergh made a lasting impression on the hospitality industry, especially the American hospitality industry. One of his lasting contributions to hospitality design was the addition of green space to enhance the appearance and atmosphere of the buildings. Today we take open walkways and garden paths for granted at many luxury hotels but in Hardenbergh's day that was still a rare innovation.
The next time you book a plane or hotel reservation you may not think about New Jersey. But did you ever wonder who took the first step toward creating a truly online booking system? American Airlines developed the world-spanning Sabre System to allow airlines and travel agents to book and modify flight reservations via computer network. Although the network is world-class by today's standards, in the 1950s the idea of a massive computer infrastructure to manage flight bookings was almost unfathomable. The Sabre system grew out of a chance encounter between IBM salesman Blair Smith and then AA president C.R. Smith.
But though the project eventually bore fruit and led to the incredible service, for decades consumers were frustrated by the slow pace at which reservations were made and changed. It was also still an expensive process. Recognizing the need for a new system, AMR Travel Services (a subsidiary of American Airlines) partnered with Budget Rent-A-Car, Marriott Hotels, and another company in the late 1980s to develop a new reservation system. The project ultimately failed but New Jersey son Nicholas Bredimus, former president of AMR, took the idea with him when he started his own computer software company.
Thanks to the innovations of Bredimus and his partners, a new ticketing reservation system, Quiktix, appeared on the market in the 1990s. It speeded up reservations and reduced costs. Travel agents and airlines around the world quickly adopted the system. Bredimus had spent more than two decades working in the airline and hotelier industries, especially in Information Technology. His career helped launch several important inventory and reservation systems. He was uniquely qualified to lead a ground-breaking development team that revolutionized how consumers travel, book hotels, and rent cars around the world.
When you think of men walking on the moon, whose names come to mind first? Probably guys like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. But before Neil could take that one giant leap for mankind he had to get to the moon safely. To prepare for that momentous occasion, NASA developed a careful space program in which various technologies were designed and tested in the field. The first seven astronauts in the American space program were chosen from experienced military test pilots, men who understood the dangers of flying newly designed craft under extreme conditions.
One of the Freedom Seven was Wally Schirra, a New Jersey son who had flown for many years in the US Navy. Schirra wasn't just another astronaut. He was the astronaut's astronaut. He ventured into space three times: as part of the Mercury program, as part of the Gemini program, and as part of the Apollo program. Although we think of the Apollo missions as all going to the moon, that was not the case. Early Apollo missions had to test and prove the reliability and safety of the systems.
On January 27, 1967 Schirra's friend and fellow Freedom Seven astronaut Gus Grissom died in the horrific fire that destroyed the Apollo 1 mission during a pre-launch test. The mission's purpose was to test the newly designed Apollo module. As leader of the next Apollo mission, Schirra was instrumental in overseeing the redesign and construction of the Apollo module system. He was also strong and bold enough to have his own way in numerous details surrounding the Apollo missions, including his insistence that Guenter Wendt be hired as pad leader. Wendt had worked as pad leader on prior missions for McDonell Aircraft but he was replaced when North American Aviation won the contract. After Schirra lobbied for his return, Wendt stayed with NASA until his retirement in the 1980s, working on Apollo, Skylab, and space shuttle launches.
Although the successful Apollo 7 mission (there were no 2-6 missions) made him more famous than ever, Wally Schirra had already decided to retire. That was his last space mission and he was the only astronaut to participate in all three historic space programs. Schirra went on to become a popular television commentator for future space missions, sitting beside the highly esteemed Walter Cronkite.
