Hundreds of folks throughout the region
shaped our century.

Pittsburgh magazine wanted to end the year by naming the 100 people from and in this region who had the most significant impacts on our
lives in the 20th century.

We started by putting together this list of some 450 people gleaned from state historical plaques, sports halls of fame, Nobel Prize laureates, Academy Award winners, historical "firsts," local books and news clippings (primarily from the Pennsylvania Department at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and from the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center), and our own memories.

The results, the Pittsburghers of the Century, were featured in the December 1999 issue of Pittsburgh magazine, and are published here in their entirety.

How They
Were Chosen

A five-member panel of outside judges and three of the editors independently ranked each person from the original list on a 1-10 scale, based on his/her relationship to the Pittsburgh region and his/her impact on this region, the United States, and/or the world in the 20th century.

After the results were compiled, the judges and editors met to resolve tie votes and to complete the order of the final list, plus plan various smaller "sidebar" lists.

The number of Pittsburghers in the published story is well over 100, and there were still many that we hated to have to leave out. But you'll find them all here.