Todd Rundgren - Musician & Composer

Todd Rundgren - Upper Darby

Todd Rundgren was born in the Stonehurst section of Upper Darby in 1948. He attended Beverly Hills Middle School and performed Bob Newhart routines in the school talent show. He graduated from Upper Darby High School and attended Indiana University.

His career began at Woody's Truck Stop, but he left the band in 1967 with bassist Carson Van Osten to form the garage rock group Nazz. The group gained minor recognition with Rundgren's songs, Open my Eyes and Hello It's Me, a song he later recorded solo.

Rundgren's debut solo album Runt (1970) was strongly influenced by Laura Nyro, a musician he admired and wrote about in the song Baby Let's Swing.

Since 1969, Rundgren has been heavily involved in music production, and has engineered and produced albums for several notable acts such as Ian and Sylvia, Meatloaf, Badfinger, Hall & Oates and Patti Smith.

Rundrgen has always been on the cutting edge of technology and is considered a genius by many in the business including Grammy winning producer Jim Steinman. In 1981, Rundgren developed one of the first computer paint programs for the Apple II. His song, Time Heals was among the first videos aired on MTV. As a composer he has written for the 1986 TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse, Crime Story and the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.

In 2011 he toured with Ringo Star & His All-Star Band for the third time and in 2013 Rundgren performed with the Akron Symphony Orchestra. He continues to explore new and exciting areas of music and technology.

Alvin Sargent - Award Winning Screenwriter

Alvin Sargent - Upper Darby

Alvin Sargent is an American screenwriter who was born in 1927 in Philadelphia and graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1945.

Sargent began writing scripts for television in the 1950s for episodes of Route 66, Ben Casey and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. In 1970s he gained recognition for a collaborative screenplay for  I Walk the Line starring Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld. Then in 1973 he won the WGA Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Source for Paper Moon starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neill. In 1978 he won an Academy Award for the film Julia and another in 1981 for Ordinary People directed by Robert Redford.

His career has spanned 6 decades. In 2002 he collaborated with William Broyles Jr. on the film Unfatithful, and he has worked on all of the Spider-Man films including The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in 2012.

Helen Hope Montgomery Scott - Socialite & Philanthropist

Hope Scott - Villanova

Helen Hope Montgomery Scott was once called "the unofficial queen of Philadelphia's WASP oligarchy”. She is most famous as the inspiration for the main character in Philip Barry's play, The Philadelphia Story, which was made into a film of the same name with Katherine Hepburn playing her character, and a musical, High Society, with Grace Kelly as Hope Scott.

Scott was born in 1904, one of four children of Robert L. Montgomery and Charlotte Hope Montgomery. She married Edgar Scott, an investment banker and heir to a railroad fortune and lived on a 750 acre estate in Radnor, Delaware County, where she entertained notables of society, government and the arts including Cole Porter and Katherine Hepburn. The family portraits on the wall were by notable artists such as Thomas Sully, Gilbert Stuart and Charles Wilson Peale.

Hope Scott was a principle organizer of the Devon Horse Show, which raises funds for Bryn Mawr Hospital. She served as a director of the United States Equestrian Team and of the American Horse Show Association. It is said that she was a warm and welcoming lady who was knowledgeable and enthusiastic on many subjects and had a good sense of humor.

Mares Stellfox - Race Car Driver

Since she was just four years old, Mares wanted to drive race cars.

Her interest in fast cars continued after school, and she often attended the drag races at Maple Grove, Atco and Englishtown. She married Mark Stellfox who shared her interest in drag racing.

In 1984, Mares made her debut with her micro sprint car at Delaware's Airport Speedway. She only ran four races in 1984, but liked racing so much that she bought a new car for the 1985 season. She set as her goal to finish in the top ten in points that year, and she finished out the year in 10th place. Then next year, she set her goal on being in the top five, and she finished 4th. The following year she won the championship – 1st place!

Mares was not crash-free. In fact, she had a crash about one race in ten. These crashes would often damage the car and motor, and it would be up to Mark to put them back together. Even if he had to stay up all night, Mark would always have the car ready for the next day of racing. Mares never missed a start due to a broken car. An interesting difference between male and female racers is how they are treated after a crash. For a male racer, a crash is taken in stride, a "these things will happen..." kind of attitude from the other racers. But whenever Mares would crash, the other male racers would rush to make a big deal out of it. They would hold it as an example of why women should not be allowed to race cars.

Driving a race car is very hard work. It takes strength and stamina to wrestle a 1200 lb. car around a dirt track, often several times a night. Since Mares is a small woman (about 100 lbs.), the exertion required during the race was, at first, a problem. The G-forces were so great on her helmet that at times she felt "as if my head was being torn off." Most things about these cars, built for men, would not fit Mares' smaller frame. Mark had to create almost everything custom to fit his wife's features. For example, a standard steering wheel is 15" wide, the same width as a man's shoulders. In Mares' race car, the wheel was reduced to 13", the same width as her shoulders. This smaller diameter wheel, in turn, required that the power-assist on the steering be boosted. Her seat had to be smaller, her flame-resistant suit had to be custom made to her size. To counter the extreme G-force on her helmet, Mark installed a bar beside her right ear, so that the helmet would be supported when she went around a turn at 90 MPH.

Back in 1988, when she was still struggling to gain acceptance as a driver, she joined a racing club called The Outlaws. There were 97 men in the club, and she was the only woman. Because of this, she became known in the racing world as "The Lady Outlaw."

Wanda Sykes - Writer, Actress & Comediane

Wanda Sykes - Media

Comedian Wanda Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1964, and now divides her time between L.A. and Media, Delaware County.

She began her comedy career at a Coors Light Super Talent Showcase in Washington D.C. in 1987 while working for the National Security Agency. She moved to New York in 1992 and opened for Chris Rock at Caroline's Comedy Club. By 1997, Wanda had secured a job on the writing team of The Chris Rock Show, also making appearances on the show. In 1999, she won an Emmy Award for writing Rock's show.

Since that time, Sykes has built a successful career in TV and movies and in 2004 was named one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is well known for her role as Barbara Baran on The New Adventures of Old Christine and for her appearances on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. She also has appeared in the films Monster-in-Law, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Evan Almighty, and License to Wed, and has voiced characters in Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Brother Bear 2, Rio, and Ice Age:Continental Drift.

Sykes also played the role of Miss Hannigan in the Media Theatre production of Annie in 2010. She commented that Media is so small of a town compared to L.A., that she even knows the Media police officers.

She commented, "I know most of the police officers in town, not because I've been arrested, but because it's a small town.”

Michael Tollin - Television & Film Producer

Michael Tollin - Havertown

Michael Tollin grew up in Havertown, Delaware County. He graduated from Haverford High School in 1973 and Stanford University in 1977.

Only one year after graduating, Tollin started a company making sports documentaries, kid shows and entertainment specials. He moved to California and with Brian Robins started Tollin/Robbins Productions.

Tollin was the producer of the weekly highlights show for the United States Football League, and branched out into other areas including many TV series. These included All That (1997-2005), One Tree Hill (2003-2012), and the cult favorite Smallville (2001-2011).

Tollin was also the  producer for several big screen films, notably Radio (2003), Coach Carter (2005) and Wild Hogs (2007).

Emlen Tunnell

Emlen Tunnell, Radnor

Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on March 29, 1925, Emlen Tunnell grew up in the Main Line suburb of Radnor in the multi-ethnic Garrett Hill neighborhood.

Tunnell was an outstanding all-around athlete at Radnor High School, where he was All-State in both football and basketball, and was given a scholarship to the University of Toledo to play football. As a freshman, he suffered a neck injury so severe that when he awoke in the hospital, a priest was administering Last Rites. He returned to Garrett Hill in a neck brace that he wore for several months, and was told that he would never play football again. He played basketball for Toledo instead, but like many young men during the war he wanted to enlist, but the US Army and US Navy both rejected his attempts. He was eventually accepted by the US Coast Guard, and spent two years of service there before returning to play football for the University of Iowa.

While in the service he saved the lives of two of his shipmates on two different occasions and was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Silver Lifesaving Award.

Tunnell played 14 years in the National Football League. He played his first 11 years with the New York Giants and the last three years with the Green Bay Packers. Tunnell was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection. He moved from the Giants to the Packers when Giants offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi took over the head coaching duties at Green Bay and in 1961 assisted the Packers in winning the NFL Championship against his old team, the Giants. He retired after that season with a record that included leading the NFL in punt return yards twice, in 1951 and 1952 and playing a then-NFL record of 143 consecutive games.

He ended his career with a record 79 interceptions (since surpassed by Paul Krause, another University of Iowa Hawkeye), which he returned for 1,282 yards and 4 touchdowns, and 16 fumble recoveries, along with another 3,506 return yards and 6 touchdowns on special teams. He was elected as the first African-American in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967. Tunnell became a scout and assistant coach with the Giants, and died from a heart attack in Pleasantville, New York during a practice session in 1975.

For more information, visit EmlenTunnell.com

Andrew Turner - Painter

Andrew Turner (with painting Piano Man)
Chester

Andrew Turner was born in Chester, Delaware County in 1944 and was a graduate of Chester High School. He received his BA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art.

Turner's oils of city life have been widely acclaimed and collected throughout the country. His paintings are in the collections of Woody Allen, Prince and Bill Cosby, and in the homes and corporations of many dignitaries.

Turner who chronicled and documented the cityscape once said, "My paintings are vignettes of city life, depicting the joy and pathos of ordinary people in their daily pursuits. There are no embellishments or decorative additions. I am reporting what I see. But my people become heroic just by being, just by living from day to day."

Turner taught in the Chester Schools, was a lecturer and guest artist at Widener University, and lectured at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania.

He died of lung cancer at the age of 58 in 2001.

Mickey Vernon - Professional Baseball Player & Manager

Mickey Vernon - Marcus Hook/Media

Mickey Vernon was born in Marcus Hook in 1918. He attended Villanova University before making his major league debut with the Washington Senators in 1939. Service in World War II interrupted his baseball career, as it did for many players including Ted Williams.

In 14 seasons, Vernon batted .335 twice, over .300 five times, and over .290 nine times. He had two outstanding seasons: 1946 and 1953, and his career high in home runs was in 1954.

Vernon became one of the games best-liked players, through his quiet style and his unique, charismatic personality.

Over the course of his career, Vernon played for the Washington Senators (twice), Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Braves, and the Pittsburgh Pirates as a coach and as a player. He later managed the expansion Senators and coached for Montreal, the Yankees and also served as a batting instructor in the Kansas City Royals’ and Yankees' farm systems before retiring from baseball,

A life-long Delaware Countian, Vernon died at his home in Media, Pennsylvania at the age of 90 in 2008.

Ethel Waters - Singer and Actress

Ethel Waters - Chester

Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1896. She was raised in poverty and never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She said of her difficult childhood, "I never was a child. I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family."

Her career began in Baltimore when she was 17, and she toured on the black vaudeville circuit. As she described it later, "I used to work from nine until unconscious."

At the age of 25 she traveled to Harlem where she got her first job at Edmond's Cellar, a club with black patronage, and became a noted figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

Waters performed and recorded all types of music: blues, jazz, gospel, pop and even big band, and was known for her songs Dinah, Stormy Weather, Heat Wave, Cabin in the Sky and her version of the spiritual His Eye is on the Sparrow.

She had several acting roles and was the second African American to be nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky. She also was nominated for an Emmy, received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and has been approved for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star has not yet been funded.

From 1950-51 she wrote her autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow with Charles Samuels, in which she wrote candidly about her life.

She died in California in 1977.

Benjamin West - Painter

Benjamin West - Springfield/Swarthmore

Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in a house that is now in the borough of Swarthmore on the campus of Swarthmore College, as the tenth child of an innkeeper and his wife. The family later moved to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where his father was the proprietor of the Square Tavern, still standing at the corner of Goshen Road and Route 252.

Ben West was an autodidact, a self-taught person.  While excelling at the arts, "he had little formal education and, even when president of the Royal Academy, could scarcely spell". As a child he learned to mix paint from watching the Native Americans mixing clay from the riverbank with bear grease.

From 1746 to 1759 West worked in Pennsylvania, mostly painting portraits, but he was sponsored by wealthy patrons William Smith and William Allen, to travel to Italy to expand his abilities by copying works of the Italian painters.

He never returned to America, traveling to England and remaining there. He received Royal patronage from King George III becoming the Court painter. Two of his most famous paintings are: The Death of General Wolfe (1770) and Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (1816). The latter work resides at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

He died in London in 1816.

William Wharton - Writer, Teacher and Painter

William Wharton - Upper Darby

William Wharton was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1943. He served in World War II and was severely injured in the Battle of the Bulge. His memoir, Shrapnel, tells of the trauma of his role in the killing of German prisoners.

Following his discharge from the army, he attended the University of California where he graduated with an undergraduate degree in art and a doctorate in psychology. Throughout his life he was a teacher and an artist, and did not begin writing until past the age of 50. His first book, Birdy, won the National Book Award for First Novel.

Over the next 25 years he produced 10 additional books in English and nine books released in Polish. Three of Wharton's books became movies: Birdy, a book about a poor boy who raises canaries for sale (the setting is the Stonehurst section of Upper Darby); Dad, starring Jack Lemmon; and Midnight Clear, a fictional account of an American Intelligence unit that finds a German Platoon wishing to surrender to the allies.

Wharton spent his adult life predominately in France. He lived on a houseboat, in an old mill, and painted on the streets of France. He died in 2008 and has a place on the Upper Darby High School Wall of Fame.

Bill Whitaker - CBS New Correspondent

Bill Whitaker - Media

Bill Whitaker grew up in Media, starting his elementary education at Media School and graduating from Penncrest High School. It was Bill’s mother, Marie, along with Dorothy Biddle James, who were the inspiration for the Media Fellowship House, whose mission in Delaware County is to promote tolerance between individuals of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

During Bill's time with CBS, he has covered major news stories throughout the world - stories as varied as the Fukushima tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, the Bernard Goetz New York subway shooting, and the Salt Lake City Olympics. He has provided thoughtful profiles of numerous public figures, including Mike Tyson, Barbra Streisand, Norman Lear and Gladys Knight. And he also reported from both the inauguration, and years later, the funeral of Nelson Mandela.

In 2008, he covered Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. He was the lead reporter covering the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush.

In 2014, Bill Whitaker joined the 60-Minute News Team. His stories have included a feature on Mexico's drug war, a topic he's covered for 21 years, and Swiss Leaks about the most damaging Swiss bank heist in history.

Since 2015, Bill has been a co-anchor on the popular, long-running news program 60 Minutes

Josh Wurman - Atmospheric Scientist

Josh Wulman - Radnor

Joshua Wurman is an atmospheric scientist and inventor noted for tornado, tropical cyclone, and weather radar research.

He grew up in Radnor, Delaware County and graduated from Radnor High School. He earned S.B.s in physic, his S.M. in meteorology and his Sc.D. in meteorology all from M.I.T. After college became a tenured faculty member at the University of Oklahoma.

Wurman founded the Center for Severe Weather Research in 1998 which operates the Doppler On Wheels (DOW) radars.

Wurman has authored and co-authored many scientific publications relating to hurricane and tornado dynamics and weather radar technology including articles in Science, the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, Monthly Weather Review, Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, Monthly Weather Review, and Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology.

He is best known to the public as the "scientist" in The Discovery Channel's reality series Storm Chasers. He has also appeared in many other documentaries including PBS' Nova and NewHour, and on the History Channel and Weather Channel. Articles describing his work have appeared in Discover, Scientific American, The Economist, The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as many other periodicals.

Andrew Wyeth - Painter

Andrew Wyeth - Chadds Ford

Andrew Newell Wyeth was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in 1917. The youngest of 5 children, he was frail and home schooled. Wyeth's father, N.C., had become a celebrated illustrator by the 1920s and the family enjoyed guests such as writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and actress Mary Pickford.

Wyeth started drawing before he could read, and his father brought him into his studio for lessons when Andrew became a teenager. They were the only lessons the boy ever had. Through is father's tutelage, he mastered figure study and watercolor (and later egg tempera). He also studied art history, admiring the masters of the Renaissance and the American schools of painting.

In 1945, Andrew's father, N.C, along with his young nephew, Newell Convers Wyeth II were killed when their car stalled on the railroad tracks near their home.

Andrew is perhaps the most famous of the Wyeth dynasty. Predominately a regionalist, his favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in Chadds Ford and his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Preceded by his father and followed by his son, Jamie, the Wyeth family holds a special place in the leg of American art.

The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford is a testimonial legacy to the Wyeth family and the artists of southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware.