The public stage

ECUCATORS

Los Angeles school superintendent who put students and parents first -- and especially looked out for minority children.

1st Amendment professor and a prominent critic of the state court system

NCAA president best remembered as the Indiana University president who fired legendary basketball coach Bob Knight.

Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District for three stormy years, 1987-90.

Photographer and educator who helped document the evolution of Orange County's Laguna Canyon and the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Literature professor who was the father of actor Nicolas Cage and brother of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire.

UCLA football player from 1939 to 1941 who became a football coach and an administrator at Riverside City College.

Longtime president of Thomas Aquinas College defended the school's strict adherence to Catholic teaching.

Longtime director of campus ministry at Loyola Marymount University

Teacher brought attention to folks music.

Longtime chancellor of Vanderbilt University

Attorney for whom Pasadena City College named its library in recognition of his four decades of service on the school's boards.

Started test preparation company.

Educator co-founded Elderhostel program.

Forceful advocate for the right of librarians to stock their shelves without fear of censorship.

Attorney and corporate ethics consultant who relied on the comic strip "Dilbert" to teach ethics awareness.

Founding trustee of Pitzer College and local philanthropist.

President of what is now Cal State Long Beach during a period of rapid growth in the 1960s.

Founded a Los Angeles school to teach the deaf to communicate.

Former vice president at USC who directed fundraising, public affairs and press relations.

Jesuit priest who headed Loyola Marymount University during a period of significant expansion in the 1990s.

Educator was founding director of Whittier College's Center of Mexican American Affairs.

Six-term Democratic senator from Rhode Island best known for his Pell Grants that have helped tens of millions of Americans attend college.

Literary critic helped found the Library of America, which tried to keep literary classics in print.

Philanthropist helped establish UC San Diego.

President of the University of Texas in the 1970s, believed to be the first woman to head a public university in the United States.

A composer, educator and theorist who had a powerful effect on the jazz forms and methods that have evolved from the 1950s to the present.

Composer, conductor and professor at Cal State San Bernardino

Championed the controversial Belmont Learning Complex.

Founded several Episcopal schools and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in San Juan Capistrano.

Educator built enduring reform movement.

Educator and co-founder of groups promoting science education for minority students and advanced degrees for African Americans.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who had a nearly 40-year teaching career.

Philanthropist endowed a chair at the university's Rossiter School of Education.

Associate justice of the California Court of Appeal who taught law at USC for 11 years.

Founding chancellor of UC Merced.

USC professor called on philosophers to engage with the real world, and he lived with his wife in a dorm for nearly a decade.

Educator who turned a Compton school in a model of racial harmony and integrated its faculty years before the court rulings and civil rights protests of the 1960s.

Physicist in the development of the atomic bomb who later became an arms-control advocate and founding chancellor of UC San Diego.

Los Angeles architect helped found school of architecture at Cal Poly Pomona.

HEALERS

English poet inspired by the human tragedy she saw in a neurological hospital.

Nutritionist with a no-nonsense approach to eating right.

Researcher showed that excessive drinking can damage the liver.

UC Irvine neurologist and medical school dean who championed the early treatment of multiple sclerosis patients.

Radiation oncologist who popularized the mind-body connection in fighting cancer.

LABOR LEADERS

Detroit Lions lineman headed NFL players union in first collective bargaining agreement with owners.

An icon of organized labor in California and beyond.

Defiant factory worker inspired Academy Award-winning movie "Norma Rae."

POLICE

U.S. marshal who was appointed by President Nixon and then served two subpoenas on him.

Deputy LAPD chief worked to fix department's image in minority communities.

Paris police chief who played a key role in avoiding major bloodshed during 1968 student uprising.

First black woman to serve as a police commissioner in the U.S. when she stepped into that role in 1971 in Los Angeles.

Die-hard communist and ruthless chief of Romania's Securitate secret police.

Legendary probation officer in East Los Angeles guided more than 5,000 youths to clean up their lives.

Co-developed the Kevlar vest which saved lives of more than 3,000 law enforcement officers.

Chicago homicide detective who played a leading role in the case that resulted in the capture and prosecution of mass murderer Richard Speck.

POLITICS

Oklahoma's first GOP governor since statehood.

Longtime California legislator was best known for consumer protection legislation.

Longtime Hawthorne councilman and aide to then-Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke.

Conservative political activist and philanthropist and the ex-wife of brewery magnate Joseph Coors.

Wisconsin Democrat was one of only two Roman Catholic priests to serve as voting members of Congress.

Los Angeles community activist who with his wife documented a series of allegations that pushed City Councilman Louis R. Nowell to leave his post in the late 1970s.

Head of data storage company and contributor to Bush campaign became ambassador to Ireland.

Republican candidate for California secretary of state in 1970 who was the first black person nominated by either major party for a partisan statewide office.

Longtime West Hollywood city councilman.

Cook County state's attorney in Illinois whose political career was ruined when Chicago police assigned to his office killed two members of the Black Panther Party in 1969.

Former governor and senator from Wyoming.

Pacoima activist backed San Fernando Valley secession.

Radio pioneer was known for his flag-waving conservatism.

First woman elected to the Senate without family connections.

Former 12-term Democratic congressman from North Carolina, Southern Baptist gospel singer and radio station owner.

Teacher, California Democratic Party activist

In 1987 became Alabama's first Republican governor since Reconstruction but then was removed from office for a criminal conviction.

Justice Department official who helped write the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the federal government with the approval of a special court to spy on foreigners suspected of espionage in the United States.

Former professional football star and Republican Party stalwart who advocated tax cuts and supply-side economics.

Massachusetts Democrat and icon of American liberal politics who was the last surviving brother of a legendary political family.

Folksy cattle rancher who served three terms as New Mexico governor over three decades.

Farmer and perennial candidate who tried to get "None of the Above" on Louisiana's ballot by legally adding it to his name.

Conservative essayist and editor.

Activist registered 47,000 Californians to vote.

Republican activist was one of first African-Americans to serve on GOP national committee.

Mayor of Jackson, Miss., died less than two days after losing a reelection bid in a contentious Democratic primary.

Lawyer brokered pardon for former president Nixon.

Centrist Republican who became speaker of the California Assembly in 1969.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter helped raise L.A. Times to national prominence.

Leading intellectual of the Christian right who helped build an influential coalition of conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics.

Los Angeles city councilman who resigned in the 1970s, days after coming under fire for taking a trip to Mexico funded by billboard companies with a vested interest.

Prominent landowner and Democratic Party activist transformed the landscape of Orange County by developing Rancho Mission Viejo.

Progressive Republican represented Kansas in U.S. Senate for 17 years.

Chinese soprano's affair was inspiration for "M Butterfly."

Michigan congressman was leader of GOP faction that opposed Reagan-era budget cuts for social programs.

Key Republican fund-raiser served as U.S. Ambassador to France.

Liberal Democrat from Los Angeles who served 24 years in the California Legislature.

Former speechwriter for President Nixon won Pulitzer Prize for New York Time columns

The father of Terri Schiavo, who became a national symbol in a closely watched right-to-die case.

State senator was among first Latino politicians to fight for environmental protection.

Civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X before launching successful careers as a political power broker and media mogul.

Former Assemblyman and Oxnard mayor was held in internment camp during World War II.

In 1979 became the first Republican governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction.

California assemblyman and congressman was an early advocate for impeaching President Nixon.

Former first lady of Alabama.

A well-connected political power broker who founded the first major Washington lobbying firm to be led by a woman.

Riverside County supervisor who recently retired because of illness.

Represented Oregon in Congress for a decade.

Rocket scientist helped establish JPL at Caltech but was deported on suspicion of being a Communist.

Three-time gubernatorial candidate in Texas during the 1960s.

Democratic party activist whose unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1948 bolstered Richard Nixon's political aspirations.

SPIES

A former general who headed Israel's famed Mossad intelligence agency.

A Cuban-born CIA operative who participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion and was later a Watergate burglar.

Former CIA operative who became a syndicated newspaper columnist, liberal co-host of the CNN talk show "Crossfire" and author of "Eight Is Enough," a 1975 memoir that spawned the popular television series.

Statistician helped break the Nazi Enigma code during World War II.

South Korean spy chief.

Longtime CIA operative in Asia who served as ambassador to China during the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Member of the Slovakian underground who helped a small group of American and British intelligence agents evade the German Army during World War II.

Onetime CIA lawyer handled high-profile prisoner negotiations.

Soviet spy who worked undercover with her husband in the West, including a posting in Los Angeles in the 1940s.

One of the few female OSS operatives, she launched one of the most successful psychological campaigns of World War II.

TECHNOCRATS

IRS chief refused to audit Nixon's foes.

State Department spokesman became advocate for refugees

Former attorney general under President Jimmy Carter.

Crusty ex-cowboy and longtime mayor of Palm Springs helped turn the desert outpost into a destination for Hollywood's elite.

Former Union Oil executive was nation's third transportation secretary.

Orange County supervisor who advocated mass transit in the 1970s and helped move the Rams football team to Anaheim.

Russian economist thrust by the Soviet collapse into the thankless task of molding a plausible free market from the wreckage of communism.

Library of Congress expert on space law and policy who helped shape legislation creating NASA.

Child model for Daisy air rifle was later a U.S. diplomat.

Physician who spent more than two stormy years in the late 1960s as head of the Food and Drug Administration.

First surgeon to treat President Kennedy after he was shot in Dallas.

Career foreign service led U.S. delegation to Paris peace talks.

New York Times reporter became State Department specialist on Vietnam War.

Wartime stenographer to Winston Churchill.

He gained attention when President Reagan nominated him for a human rights post with the State Department. Lefever later withdrew his bid.

Aide to Sen. Thomas J. Dodd accused his boss of impropriety and led to Senate censure.

Longtime community volunteer who served on Los Angeles' Affordable Housing Commission and other city panels.

Los Angeles County assessor appointed in 1978 who faced the challenge of implementing the property tax roll-backs newly mandated by Proposition 13.

White House press secretary and trusted advisor to President Carter.

Advisor to President Carter helped plan Camp David summit.

FDIC chairman led the federal response to S&L crisis in the 1980s.

Journalist and personal aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Former general manager of San Francisco Public Utility Commission and a leading expert on infrastructure development.

State senator was among first Latino politicians to fight for environmental protection.

Economic advisor to President Reagan.

Former head of the Transportation Security Administration and the first federal security director at Los Angeles International Airport in the critical months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Chairman of the Crow Tribe.

Top economic advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

First U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and member of Reagan's kitchen cabinet.

WARRIORS

Co-pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II.

World's oldest man and a World War I veteran.

Adapted the "Caisson" into the official song of the Army.

Retired Air Force major general was one of the last surviving members of the Flying Tigers.

Celebrity columnist for Parade magazine and author who wrote about tycoons of the fashion industry and the Marine "grunts" of the Korean War.

Writer whose 1976 book "Friendly Fire" about the accidental death of a soldier in Vietnam struck a chord with disillusioned Americans.

A retired Navy vice admiral who commanded the nuclear-powered submarine Skate, the first vessel to surface at the North Pole.

Navy admiral during Vietnam war.

French author, fighter for France's World War II Resistance movement and writer of one of its anthems.

Medal of Honor winner killed 9 German soldiers, most while he was wounded.

The last surviving leader of the ill-fated 1943 Warsaw ghetto revolt against the Nazis.

Friend of President Kennedy, he became an undersecretary of the Navy and then wrote a book about their friendship.

Fighter pilot who became one of the top Air Force aces of the Korean War before being shot down by the enemy and imprisoned for more than two years by the Chinese.

Lockheed engineer who played a central role in the creation of the Polaris and Poseidon missiles before rising to the top of the aeronautics and aerospace giant.

World War II pilot from New Hampshire who went on a quest to find his buried pilot's wings in Germany 65 years after his B-24 bomber was shot down.

World War II veteran designed iconic POW/MIA flag.

One of the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War and a Medal of Honor recipient.

Marine Corps brigadier general who led the first official ground combat troops into Vietnam.

Military leader in Hungary's short-lived 1956 uprising against Soviet Union.

Sailor was among 317 crew members who were rescued after nearly five days in shark-infested waters after the Navy cruiser Indianapolis was sunk by two Japanese torpedoes.

Decorated Marine Corps officer, screenwriter, pulp-novelist, movie stuntman and co-founder of Gun World magazine.

Led 1983 U.S. invasion on Grenada.

Cerebral secretary of defense who was vilified for prosecuting America's most controversial war and then devoted himself to helping the world's poorest nations.

Retired admiral known as the "Father of Aegis," the Navy's primary air-defense weapon system.

Veteran of three wars received Medal of Honor.

The last surviving member of a group of central Virginia National Guardsmen from World War II who came to be known as the Bedford Boys.

A germ warfare scientist whose top-secret projects included a mock attack on the New York subway with powdered bacteria in 1966.

Reclusive Tamil Tiger chief who led ethnic militant group on Sri Lanka, killed by government forces.

Army Ranger led World War II assault on Japanese prison camp in the Philippines.

Vietnam War veteran and former president and chief executive of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.

Retired Marine Corps pilot who flew 253 combat missions in three wars and was shot down five times.

World War II veteran received the Medal of Honor

Army lieutenant general who led West Point through the aftermath of a cheating scandal and the introduction of coeducation.

A member of the all-black group of World War II servicemen known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

British veteran fought in two world wars.

Marine Corps pilot awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands.

Tuskegee Airman fought racism and was convicted in Freeman Field Mutiny.

Retired Air Force Colonel won Silver Star for actions at Pearl Harbor.

Navy pharmacist's mate during World War II tended to more than a dozen casualties on Iwo Jima while seriously wounded himself, received the Medal of Honor for his actions.

Army veteran who was honored for retrieving and burying a U.S. flag that had been burned in protest during the 1984 Republican National Convention.

WORLD FIGURES

Member of Italy's powerful Fiat auto dynasty and a former foreign minister.

Former Argentine president helped restore democracy after junta rule.

Former Lebanese prime minister who served a turbulent two-month term in 1973 before being forced to resign.

Iranian lawyer and politician who became the personal attorney of Mohammad Mossadegh, the nationalist prime minister deposed in a U.S.-backed coup in 1953.

Brought democracy to the Philippines as president

"Tomato King" made a fortune in America as an illegal immigrant and returned home to hold office in Mexico.

Gabon president whose 42-year rule was a throwback to an era when Africa was ruled by "Big Men."

Comrade of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Widow of Chilean President Salvador Allende who helped lead opposition to the military dictatorship that ousted her socialist husband in a bloody 1973 coup.

Two-term president of Venezuela.

Honorary consul general of Lithuania in Los Angeles

Former president of South Korea and a Nobel laureate.

Former queen of the western Indian desert kingdom of Jaipur

President led Panama after U.S. invasion

Dachau survivor emerged as tireless activist against Soviet repression of Jews.

Key Algerian resistance fighter was his country's first U.S. ambassador.

Syrian president who was brought to power by a military coup in 1963, only to be overthrown three years later.

One of Iraq's most powerful political leaders and the head of one of its most prominent Shiite religious dynasties.

British diplomat served as ambassador to Washington during Falklands war.

Chicago native was first white and first woman to become president of Guyana.

Israel's fourth president and an internationally recognized biophysicist.

Former Iranian Interior Minister who was dismissed after being accused of faking a law degree from the University of Oxford.

One of the leaders of the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Red Army veteran charged with genocide in Estonia.

Wrote lyrics for the Russian and Soviet national anthems.

Former South Korean president embroiled in a penetrating corruption investigation, leaped to his death.

Former Sudanese president imposed Islamic law in his country.

Last surviving grandson of an Ottoman sultan and regarded as the head of the living members of the former Ottoman dynasty.

Former president of Panama.

Die-hard communist and ruthless chief of Romania's Securitate secret police.

Soviet official tried to oust Gorbachev.

Politician who briefly served as Thailand's prime minister but was ousted for simultaneously getting income as the host of a popular TV cooking show.

Armenian ambassador to Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia from 2000 to 2005, who earlier co-owned Remi restaurant in Santa Monica.

Directed the Soviet war in Afghanistan and joined the rebellion against Mikhail Gorbachev that sped the collapse of the Soviet Union.

India's eighth president, helped draft the country's constitution.

Indonesian president nicknamed Gus Dur who briefly ruled during the nation's first tumultuous years of democracy.