May 06, 2021
The New Jersey Hall of Fame revealed their 2021 list of nominees on earlier this week.
Among the recognizable names are on the list are Punk icon Patti Smith, pop music group The Jonas Brothers, "Scarface" director Brian DePalma, author Junot Díaz, journalist Gay Talese and former NFL players Ron Jaworski, Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor. Public figures, like Alexander Hamilton, Dorothea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz are among those nominated posthumously.
The public can visit the New Jersey Hall of Fame's website to learn about the nominees and cast votes now through May 31.
Nominees typically were born in New Jersey or spent time living in the state. The 50 nominees include 34 men and 18 women. Those chosen by the public will be announced in June.
The individual receiving the most votes from the public in each category will automatically be add to the state hall of fame. The Hall of Fame's board will deliberate to determine anyone else who should be inducted, as well.
The class of 2021 inductees will be announced in June. Then in October, new members will be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame during a ceremony that will take place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Actress Anne Hathaway, former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, and "The Addams Family" creator Charles Addams, were among those inducted in 2020.
View the full list of 2021 nominees below.
• Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye: Smith is a singer-songwriter, musician, author and poet who was part of the New York City punk rock movement in the 1970s; Kaye is a musician, writer, record producer and guitarist for Smith from her band's inception in 1974
• Bebe Neuwirth: Emmy winning-actress, singer and dancer
• Marilyn McCoo: lead female vocalist of The 5th Dimension
• Buddy Hackett: actor and comedian
• Lesley Gore: singer, songwriter, actress, and activist
• Brian DePalma: film director and screenwriter
• Sarah Dash: award-winning vocalist who co-founded Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles
• David Copperfield: magician
• The Jonas Brothers: pop band made up of brothers Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas
• George Benson: jazz guitarist, singer, and songwriter
• Lawrence Taylor: former NFL linebacker for the New York Giants, Pro Football Hall of Fame member
• Phil Simms, two-time Super Bowl champion and quarterback for the New York Giants
• Bill Parcells, two-time Super Bowl head coach for the New York Giants, member of Pro Football Hall of Fame
• Heather Ann O'Reilly, three-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women's World Cup winner for the U.S. women's national soccer team
• John J. McMullen, naval architect, businessman, marine engineer and former owner of the NewJersey Devils and Houston Astros
• Ron Jaworski, former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and NFL analyst
• Monte Irvin, left and right fielder in the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball, played with the Newark Eagles, New York Giants and Chicago Cubs
• Craig Biggio, seven-time National League all-star second baseman, outfielder and catcher for the Houston Astros; member of National Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Al Attles, longtime basketball player and coach for the Golden State Warriors
• Valerie B. Ackerman, first president of the Women's National Basketball Association
• George Walker: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist and organist
• Gay Talese: writer and journalist
• Alfred Stieglitz: photographer and modern art promoter
• Dorothy Porter Wesley: librarian, bibliographer and curator
• Anne Lindbergh: author and aviator
• John F. Nash Jr., mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, differential geometry, and the study of partial differential equations
• Dorothea Lange: documentary photographer and photojournalist
• Thomas Fleming: historian and author of more than 40 nonfiction and fiction titles
• Junot Díaz: Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who focuses on the immigrant experience in America
• Margaret Bourke-White: the first American female war photojournalist
• Loretta Weinberg: New Jersey Senate majority leader
• Richard Stockton: lawyer, jurist, legislator and a signer of the Declaration of Independence
• George P. Shultz: economist, diplomat, and businessman serving under three GOP presidents
• Antonin Scalia: U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1986 until his death in 2016
• Gustave F. Perna: U.S. Army four-star general and CEO of the federal COVID-19 response for vaccine and therapeutics
• William Paterson: signer of the U.S. Constitution, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and 2nd Governor of New Jersey
• David Mixner: political activist and author
• Richard J. Hughes: 45th Governor of New Jersey, chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court
• Margaret Bancroft: founder of the Haddonfield Bancroft Training School for the multiply disabled
• Alexander Hamilton: founding father and first secretary of the U.S. Treasury
• Paul A. Volcker Jr.: chair of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Carter and Reagan
• Sara Spencer Washington: founder of Apex News and Hair Company named one of the "Most Distinguished Businesswomen" at the 1939 New York World's Fair
• Louise Scott-Roundtree: owned chain of beauty salons in Newark and became city's first African-American female millionaire
• Henry Rowan: engineer and philanthropist, namesake of Rowan University in Glassboro, Gloucester County
• Denise M. Morrison: former president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company
• The Mars family: owners of confectionery company Mars, Inc.
• Madeline McWhinney Dale: first female officer and vice-president of the Federal Reserve Bank
• Clive Cummis: founder of one of N.J.'s largest law firms and influential Democratic fundraiser
• Elizabeth Coleman White: agricultural specialist who developed the first cultivated blueberry
• James E. Burke: former CEO of Johnson & Johnson
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