Famous Johnstown Natives

Check out this list of famous Johnstown natives.

Television actress, Natalia Livingston, was born in Johnstown. The Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress plays Emily Quartermaine on ABC's daytime soap opera, General Hospital.

Steven Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, was born and raised in Johnstown.

Brand names Starbucks Coffee, Cinnabon and Panera Bread are Heckler Associates-named businesses. Terry Heckler is a native of Johnstown suburb, Windber.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler and Super Bowl champion, Jack Ham was born in Johnstown.

Mary Cover Jones, the "mother of behavior therapy" was born in Johnstown.

Pete Duranko played defensive end at Notre Dame and played professionally with the Denver Broncos, is a Johnstown native. Duranko is currently battling Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Frank Benford, Jr., an electrical engineer and physicist, was born in Johnstown. He is best known for "Benford's Law," a statistical statement about the occurrence of digits in lists of data.

Fiction writer Robert T. Jeschonek, who is best known for his Star Trek novels published by Pocket Books, resides in Johnstown, PA.

Dr. Lawrence F. Flick organized the first American tuberculosis society in 1892. He was a pioneer in the antitubercular campaign and among the first to recognize the disease was communicable. He was born near Carrolltown, PA. *The People of Cambria County, by Dave Huber, 2003

Sgt. Michael Strank was raised in Franklin Borough, Johnstown. A Marine, he was the oldest and highest ranking of the six men who took part in the famous raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima, Feb. 23, 1945. The scene was later used in the Marine Corps Memorial at Arlington. *The People of Cambria County, by Dave Huber, 2003

Information courtesy of: http://www.visitjohnstownpa.com/media/did-you-know/johnstown-natives/