Some Famous Pittsburghers

Pittsburgh is more than the boundaries of its city limits. Within Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh's influence has long encompassed "the Pittsburgh District." So, in creating a list of "famous Pittsburghers," we take the liberty of including a number of individuals, like Gertrude Stein, whose association may have been ever so brief (actually, she was born in old Allegheny and not in Pittsburgh) or like August Wilson, who has, in his adulthood, moved elsewhere. Whatever their connection with the city at the Point, Pittsburgh has, in some way, a claim upon these men and women, these sons and daughters.

Likewise, "fame" is relative. Few outside the region could identify Richard Caliguiri as the late mayor of Pittsburgh; yet, ten years after his death, his greatness, his humanity, still form the substance of an overheard conversation at Wholey's in The Strip. And the Pittsburgh of today would not be the Pittsburgh of today were it not for its mayor, David Lawrence. Thus, the technology of the World Wide Web builds upon the dictum of Andy Warhol--himself a Pittsburgh native--about everybody's fifteen minutes of fame by making that fame available virtually world-wide and in a flash.