As the person most responsible for harnessing the power of the
microchip, Andrew Grove revolutionized the way we work and live
today.
Grove came to the United States as a refugee from Soviet-occupied
Hungary and earned his PhD in chemical engineering from UC
Berkeley in 1963. After working for Fairchild Semiconductor, he
participated in the founding of Intel Corporation in 1968, became
president in 1979, and later served as CEO and chairman.
Whether serving as an attorney, a California governor, or a
United States senator, Hiram Warren Johnson placed principles
solidly above politics. His progressive vision of a better
society became the stepping-off point for California’s journey
through the 20th century.
Johnson studied law in his father’s office in Sacramento, was
admitted to the bar in 1888, and moved to San Francisco in 1902.
In 1908 he was appointed Assistant District Attorney, beginning
his long career in public service.
From humble beginnings in the California cotton fields, Rafer
Johnson rose to become one of the world’s greatest athletes.
Johnson developed a passion for track and field while in high
school in Kingsburg, California. At UCLA, where he served as
student body president, he played basketball under legendary
coach John Wooden and was captain of the varsity track team. In
1955 he competed in the Pan American Games, winning gold in
perhaps the most grueling sporting event, the decathlon.
Entrepreneur and industrialist Henry John Kaiser’s innovations in
shipbuilding and in healthcare changed the course of history.
In 1913, Kaiser bought a failing road-building company, and over
the next fifteen years built dams in California, levees in
Mississippi, highways in Cuba and he was just getting started. In
the 1930s, his company played a leading role in the construction
of some of the 20th century’s most massive projects, including
Hoover Dam and the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge.
Joan Kroc’s giving spirit has benefited people the world over.
One of the most generous philanthropists in history, Kroc gave
away billions of dollars to causes she believed in, from hospice
care to peace advocacy to providing children with safe places to
play.
As the wife of McDonald’s Corporation founder Ray Kroc, she had
the means to support all her favorite charities. The couple moved
to San Diego from Chicago in 1976 after purchasing the San Diego
Padres baseball team, and Kroc quickly embraced her new hometown,
becoming involved in various local causes.
George Lucas’ devotion to timeless storytelling and cutting-edge
innovation has resulted in some of the most successful and
beloved films of all time.
The Modesto native’s genius was becoming evident by the time he
was a student at the University of Southern California, where he
created a short film that took first prize in a national
competition. In 1971, with friend Francis Ford Coppola as
executive producer, Lucas transformed that student project into
his first feature film, THX-1138.
With one of America’s most recognized voices, John Madden has
been a dominant force in professional football for more than half
a century as a broadcaster, an unrivaled coach and outstanding
athlete.
As a player at California Polytechnic University, Madden was
twice voted to the All-Conference team in 1957 and 1958 for his
outstanding performance on both the offensive and defensive
lines. A knee injury in his rookie season with the Philadelphia
Eagles ended his career as a player, but not his life in
football.
The first openly gay person elected to a significant public
office in the United States, Harvey Milk put the dream of equal
rights within reach for all.
Milk encouraged lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
citizens to live their lives openly, believing that was the only
way they could achieve social equality.
Wielding bold colors and abstract shapes, Fritz Scholder forever
changed the way the world saw American Indians in art.
Scholder was one-quarter Luiseño, a Southern California tribe,
but was raised as white, a dichotomy that later would inform the
themes of his artwork. Interested in art from an early age, he
moved to Sacramento in 1957 and enrolled first at Sacramento City
College, where he studied under Pop artist Wayne Thiebaud, and
then at Sacramento State College.
Remarkable for her success as an author and for her business
savvy, Danielle Steel has written 108 books, a majority of which
have earned bestseller status.
Raised in Paris and New York, Steel began writing short stories
and poetry as a child and had completed her first manuscript by
the time she was nineteen. After moving to San Francisco she took
up writing full time, and published her first book, Going Home,
in 1973. Since that debut, she has continued to turn out novels
whose mix of intrigue, suspense, and romance appeal to readers
worldwide.
A pioneer of the modern health and fitness movement, Joe Weider
brought strength, fitness and healthy living to the public’s
consciousness around the globe for the last 70 years.
At age twelve, Weider purchased two used weight-lifting magazines
for a penny, built a set of barbells from surplus railroad parts,
and began training.
The most accomplished test pilot of all time, Chuck Yeager earned
a permanent place in history when he became the first person to
fly faster than the speed of sound.
His aviation career got its start when, just out of high school,
he enlisted in the Army Air Corps to serve in WWII. Entering
combat in December 1942, he shot down his first enemy plane in
March 1944. The next day he was shot down over enemy territory,
but with help from the French resistance, escaped to Spain.
