Heroes of my youth

While cleaning out some old files recently I came across a list of people (I’ve always loved making lists) I had put together around the time when I was a freshman in college. I recall at the time I was listing people who I admired or who had influenced my thinking in some way. I wasn’t considering family or friends for my list, just famous people and historical figures. The list was an odd mix of childhood heros and current-day influences from history, entertainment, music, sports and literature. Here is the list in the order it was written:

Mohandas Gandhi
Martin Luther King Jr.
C.S. Lewis
Hans Kung (Catholic theologian)
Paul the Apostle
The Beatles
Bob Dylan
Johnny Bench
Pete Rose
Roger Staubach
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Amadeus Mozart
J.S. Bach
John Wayne
Elvis Presley
J.R.R. Tolkien
Abraham Lincoln
Thomas Jefferson
Davy Crockett
James Bowie
Sam Houston
George Patton
Bruce Springsteen
Don Williams (country singer)
Ronald Reagan
John F. Kennedy
Steve Martin
Humphry Bogart
Dustin Hoffman
Charlton Heston
Gary Gygax (creator of Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game)
Henry Thoreau
Willie Mays
Hank Williams
Harrison Ford
Franklin D. Roosevelt
George Washington
Charles Schultz
Berke Breathed
Alfred Hitchcock
Woody Allen
Edgar Allen Poe
Donald Sutherland
Bobby Jones (Philadelphia 76ers)
Julius “Dr. J” Erving
Moses Malone
Lawrence Sullivan Ross
Cary Grant
Buddy Holly
Kingston Trio
Sting
Walt Disney
Robin Williams
Yul Brynner
Orson Welles
Gene Kelly
Bob Hope
Richard Pryor
Benjamin Franklin
William Shakespeare
Eddie Murphy
Bill Cosby
Mr. T

At some later point (in a different ink color) I made the following additions:

Jesus Christ
Charles Dickens
Mark Twain
William Barrett Travis
Clint Eastwood
Kirk Douglas
Jimmy Stewart
Richard Adams (author of “Watership Down”)
Jackie Sherrill (Texas A&M football coach)
William F. Buckley
Stephen Spielberg
Billy Graham
George Lucas
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Charles Bronson
Paul Newman
William Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
Tom Petty
Sylvester Stallone
Robert E. Howard (author of Conan the Barbarian)
Stevie Nicks
Lucille Ball
Katherine Hepburn
Fritz Lieber (sci-fi/fantasy author)
John Belushi
Dan Akroyd
Prince
Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey)
Chip Young (Blondie)
Cathy Guisewitz (Cathy)
John Adams
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
St. Augustine
Francis Bacon
Winston Churchill
John Denver
Hershel Walker (Cowboys runningback)
Kevin Murray (Aggie quarterback early ‘80s)
Abigail Van Buren
Ann Landers
Mike Scott (Houston Astros pitcher)
Benny Hill
Paul Simon
Billy Joel
Lewis Carroll
Douglas Adams (author of “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”)
Hank Aaron
Mel Brooks
Monty Python
Robert DeNiro
Al Pacino

In a future post I will put together a list of the 100 people I would include on a similar list today.