Notable Natives of Columbus, Indiana
Columbus may be best known as an architecture destination and the site of the global headquarters for Cummins Inc, a manufacturer of diesel engines, but it is also the home of the notable natives listed below.
Susan Brackney
SUSAN was raised in Columbus and has written books on the artistic life, organic gardening, and bee-keeping. You might have seen her on Good Morning America, taking Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie to task. The avid gardener and green-living guru has writings in The New York Times, Organic Gardening, Beekeeping, and more.
Tyler Duncan
TYLER won a playoff with Webb Simpson in November 2019 in the RSM Classic for his first PGA Tour title. He has also had top five finishes at the Honda Classic, AT&T Byron Nelson Open, and the Safeway Open. Duncan was medalist in the 2007 Indiana High School state tournament and played for Purdue University.
Tim Grimm
TIM went to Hollywood to be in movies and on TV, with roles alongside Harrison Ford, Russell Crowe, and F. Murray Abraham. For the past twenty years, he has blended songwriting with storytelling. His recent album, Gone, included the number one song of 2020 and was the most played album of the year for 2021 on Folk radio. Tim performs throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Four Freshmen
THE FOUR FRESHMEN got their start in 1948, creating a sound that changed vocal jazz harmony forever. They were nominated for six Grammy awards. The group was started by two brothers from Columbus, Don and Ross Barbour, cousin Bob Flanigan, and friend Hal Kratzsch. Beach Boy Brian Wilson was inspired by their harmonies and emulated Flanagan’s falsetto in songs like Good Vibrations.
Tim Hittle
Tim graduated from North High School in 1976 and is an animator living in San Francisco and the creator of The Jay Clay Trilogy. His other Stop-Motion work include the New Adventures of Gumby, The Fridge on Pee Wee’s Playhouse, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach.
As a CG animator, he has worked on several films for Pixar, including The Incredibles, Wall-e, and Toy story 3.
JAMIE HYNEMAN
JAMIE HYNEMAN, co-host of the popular show Mythbusters, graduated from Columbus North High School in 1974. He owned and operated the Fur, Fin, and Feather Pet Center on Central Avenue in Columbus for three years before attending Indiana University. He is currently Professor of Practice at LUT University in Finland.
Photo from Wikipedia.
KEN MAYNARD
KEN MAYNARD became a movie star cowboy in the early days of film making, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Ken was a trick rider with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and later with Ringling Brothers and was also a champion rodeo rider.
J.I. & Xenia Miller
J IRWIN and XENIA were locals who were visionaries and major benefactors to the Columbus community as well as being active in multiple national causes, including The March on Washington. Their Columbus home (designed by Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche, Dan Kiley, and Alexander Girard) has become a must-see destination for fans of mid-century modern architecture.
Daniel Orr
CHEF DANIEL was born and raised in Columbus and lives there with his family. A graduate of Johnson and Wales University for restaurant management, Orr was an executive chef at Gustavino’s and Le Grenouille in New York City. He worked in Paris, London, and opened several luxury restaurants in the Caribbean. Orr has also appeared on the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of America television series. He has written cookbooks based on his adventures and has owned and operated the restaurant FARM in Bloomington since 2008.
MIKE PENCE
MIKE was born and raised in Columbus. He graduated from Columbus North High School, Hanover College in 1981, and earned his J.D. from Indiana University School of Law in 1986. Pence was elected to Congress in 2000 and served six terms before becoming Governor in 2012, then Vice-President in January 2017.
STEPHEN SPROUSE
STEPHEN moved to Columbus when he was nine years old. The New York Times wrote he was “the fashion designer and artist who in the early 1980s pioneered that decade’s revolutionary idea of mixing uptown sophistication in clothing with a downtown punk and pop sensibility.” New York magazine wrote, “Sprouse wedded downtown cool with uptown luxury and space-age fabrics.” Sprouse worked with Halston, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, and Blondie’s Debbie Harry, among others.
See the Sprouse exhibit at Newfields in Indianapolis through April 2, 2023.
Photo by Untapped Cities
Tony Stewart
TONY, NASCAR Hall of Famer, credits a return to his hometown when he found renewed success on the NASCAR circuit. Tony Caraviello of Nascar.com said, “Sometimes, we forget how immensely talented Stewart is,” and we couldn’t agree more! See a mural of Tony at the downtown Dairy Queen, where the owner was an early Tony fan and sponsor.
Chuck Taylor
CHUCK, for whom the Converse All Star is named, was a basketball player, salesman, and shoe endorser from Columbus. He played on the Columbus High School Bulldogs team from 1914 to 1918. Until the mid-1970s, the beloved shoe design, nicknamed “Chucks,” comprised fifty percent of the athletic shoe market.
Columbus Connections
COLUMBUS CONNECTION
Colonel Sanders
“COLONEL SANDERS” lived and worked in Columbus for a time before he founded Kentucky Fried Chicken. Among many jobs he had between the ages of fifteen and forty, he “worked as the secretary of the Columbus, Indiana, Chamber of Commerce” and “manufactured acetylene lighting systems for farmers in Columbus,” as noted in a 1970 New Yorker magazine article.
COLUMBUS CONNECTION
Jonathan Nesci
JONATHAN NESCI is a designer known for his furniture, lighting, and exhibition design who relocated from Chicago to Columbus over ten years ago. His work has appeared in Architectural Digest, Surface, Wallpaper, Cultured, Cultured, Dwell, Chicago Tribune, Metropolitan Home, and many others.
Photo by Hadley Fruits
