Famous Findlayians is a website that features ‘famous’ people who either were born in Findlay, Ohio or Hancock county OR who lived in the area at some point of their lives.
The main list includes those who have photos available. Other pages include people we don’t have photos for yet. We have also included a tribute to the Congressional Medal of Honor winners from Hancock county followed by a listing of members of the US Congress from the area. Where we’ve confirmed people were born in Findlay we note that in their listing.
‘Famous’ is a subjective term here. We decided to include those who are or were known in their field of work if not to the public at large and to be featured with a photo the person would also need to have accomplished something in their field.
We do try to verify the information through online means before featuring the person, however the information might turn out to be wrong or misleading. When that happens we try to make corrections as quickly as possible.
This project is non-political. We don’t care about the featured person’s politics. HOWEVER, we will not feature people who have been proven to have committed a crime or been a terrible person (accused of child abuse for example). In most cases, if we become aware of someone’s history that makes including them here inappropriate we will hide the post and then decide if they will be removed or have a note added to their biography. All decisions for inclusion or removal is up to the editor of this site.
To clarify this point: if someone on this list is still living and is accused of a crime, their entry may be hidden until the result of the legal proceedings are concluded. If the person featured is not living and some new information comes out they they owned slaves for example, that might lead to a note on that entry. The decision on the action to take is up to the editor.
From time to time, we may add an editorial note to an entry either to highlight something about the person or to give some extra information about them. Those notes will be marked accordingly.
This list is a work in progress as we don’t know everything. If you have a suggestion about someone, who was born and/or lived in Findlay or Hancock county, please let us know on the submission form (you can use the form to let us know about any corrections). If you can, please provide some kind of on-line means for us to verify your suggestion.
The Editor
This project was created by and is edited by Doug Berger and he solely responsible for the content.
Doug was born and raised in Findlay and graduated from Findlay High School a long time ago. He has always been interested in the history of Findlay and this project allows him to honor his hometown.
Here is a history of the project, written by Doug, that posted on his personal blog in 2021:
I’m not really sure when I started this list. I know it was before 2010. The WayBack Machine has a page capture from February 2005! Wow! In fact I think that was when I still had a website on Geocities.
Why did I start it?
I’ve always been into history and I love learning about the history of my hometown. Then I knew of a few famous people had been from Findlay like Ben Rothlisberger, Tell Taylor, and Gavin Creel. Then one day I was searching through the Internet Movie Database and put in Findlay as a search term and one of the names that popped up was Mark Metcalf, the actor who played Doug Neidermeyer in the classic comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House. Of course I was a bit disappointed to learn he had only been born in Findlay and didn’t grow up there.
I started doing more internet searches like in Wikipedia and search engines like Google.
The initial criteria to be included was you had to be born or live in Findlay or Hancock county. I also insisted that the claim had to be verified by an online method.
I wanted to include a photo of the person so if I couldn’t find one to use online, I still included the person but put their listing further down the page after the ones with photos.
The first version had 16 people. With the update today (March 1, 2021), the page now includes 57 total individuals (54 with photos), 6 Medal of Honor Winners, and 5 additional people who served in Congress over the years. The listing includes two sets of siblings and while there is a heavy number of sports people, many vocations are represented.
Further Site Notes:
The layout and format of this website is copyright Famous Findlayians. Content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Information and other images on this site are gathered from public websites and used for educational purposes only, however if you own the copyright and would like the item removed please contact us. We would prefer to make sure we properly credit information and images we use, so if you see a missing credit let us know. Information and images created specifically for the website are copyright Famous Findlayians and may not be reused without permission or attribution.
Some items like newspaper clippings used for evidence of the information provided are created and the property of this website and may not be reused without permission or attribution.
All information posted on this site about the persons featured is true and correct at the time of posting. If information is found to be wrong or misleading the editor will make corrections or remove offending material. Feel free to contact the editor if you see a need for a correction.