NEWS RELEASE
City of New Rochelle, New York
KATHY GILWIT, COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER (914) 654-2117 [email protected] ______FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Barbara Davis (914) 632-8254 April 26, 2014
New Rochelle “Walk of Fame” 2014 Induction Interpretive Signs Laud Lives, Accomplishments of Late & Great Residents
The City of New Rochelle inducted fifteen new members into the “Walk of Fame” at Library Green on Saturday, April 26. This year’s luminaries are composers J. Fred Coots & Robert Allen, mathematicians Richard Courant & Kurt Friedrichs, “father of talk radio” Barry Gray, game show host Monty Hall, baseball player Willie Mays, musician Don Mclean, composer Alan Menken, actor Richard Roundtree, playwright Robert Sherwood, transportation magnate and Glen Island Resort developer John Starin, actress Frances Sternhagen, and film pioneers Edwin & Gertrude Thanhauser.
The New Rochelle Walk of Fame, installed in 2011 in Ossie Davis Park at Library Green, is a unique tribute to nationally notable individuals with distinct ties to New Rochelle. Each inductee is memorialized with a 20” x 14” full color historical interpretive sign telling his or her story in words and graphics. The Walk is a micro history of America in a nutshell as reflected in the lives of New Rochelle’s famous sons and daughters, representing the arts, business, politics, education, the media, entertainment and sports. The signs are strategically located in the gardens lining the Library Green pathway and were created and funded by former resident and historian Roderick Kennedy Jr., working in partnership with the City of New Rochelle and the Downtown Business Improvement District. A list of previous inductees follows below.
"The Walk of Fame enlivens one of New Rochelle's great public spaces, and celebrates many of the remarkable individuals who have shaped our City's history,” said New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson.
“Each nice day, dozens of New Rochelle residents and visitors read the Walk of Fame signs with great interest and enthusiasm,” noted City Historian Barbara Davis. “The 2014 inductees – featured on 12 signs that will join the dozens in place to complete the park’s perimeter- will foster an even greater sense of pride and fascination in our community’s remarkable history.”
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2011 NEW ROCHELLE WALK OF FAME INDUCTEES
Madame Beatrice Alexander , Teresa Brewer, Joseph Campbell, Irene Castle, Carrie Chapman Catt, Ellabelle Davis, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Eddie Foy, Lou Gehrig, Don Hewitt, Adrian Iselin, Elia Kazan, Walter Lantz, Joseph Leyendecker, Robert Merrill, Thomas Paine, Jan Peerce, Pearl Primus, Alex Raymond, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Elizabeth Seton, John Stephenson, Buffalo Bob Smith, Whitney M. Young, Jr.
2013 Inductees Jerry Boch, Composer and Joseph Stein, Writer of “Fiddler on the Roof”; Illustrator, Cartoonist Nell Brinkley, Novelist E. L. Doctorow, television Personality and Comedian Jay Leno,; Dr. Frederick Douglass Patterson, founding the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) Carl Reiner, T.V. Writer, Director, and Rob Reiner, T.V. Personality, Actor, Writer, Director; and Mighty Mouse (Paul Terry, Animator).