List of people from South Bend, Indiana

The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with the city of South Bend, Indiana.

Government and politics

John Brademas, former House Majority Whip
Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend (2012–2020) and candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
Schuyler Colfax, 17th Vice President of the United States
Alexis Coquillard, founder of South Bend
Noma Gurich, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma
Timothy Howard, 43rd Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice, Indiana State Senator
Larry J. McKinney, United States District Court judge
James Mueller, mayor of South Bend since 2020
Tim Roemer, former U.S. Ambassador to India and U.S. congressman
Joe Kernan, politician and Governor of Indiana (2003-2005)
Clarence Long, U.S. Congressman of Maryland
Jake Teshka, member of the Indiana House of Representatives

Ollie Bejma, baseball player
Nancy DeShone, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) player for the South Bend Blue Sox
Dorothea Downs, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
Mary Lou Graham, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
Frances Janssen, AAGPBL player and Northern Indiana Historical Society researcher
Glenna Sue Kidd, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
Marie Kruckel, AAGPBL player for the South Bend Blue Sox and a 38-year teacher at Clay High School
Betty Wagoner, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
Janet Wiley, AAGPBL player for the South Bend Blue Sox
Craig Counsell, baseball player
Andy Replogle, baseball pitcher

Tom Abernethy, basketball player
Skylar Diggins, WNBA, American Professional Basketball player
Jaden Ivey, NBA player for the Detroit Pistons
Demetrius Jackson, professional basketball player
Jasmine Watson, women's basketball player
John Wooden, basketball coach
John Laskowski, basketball player
Lee Nailon, NBA basketball player and 2007 Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP
Blake Wesley, basketball player

Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger, guitarists, Umphrey's McGee (a progressive rock and jam band from South Bend)
Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue, pioneering rock and roll radio disc jockey, record producer and concert promoter^[1]
Marcie Free, singer, King Kobra, Unruly Child, Signal
Josh Garrels, musician
Sneaky Pete Kleinow, musician
The Rivieras, 1960s garage rock and surf rock band
Jules C. Stein, music industry executive
Student Rick, early 2000s pop punk and emo band
Alexander Toradze, pianist
Junior Walker, 1960s soul singer and saxophonist signed to Motown (with the All Stars)
Beatrice Carmichael, opera singer and director
Ted Leo, musician
Nathan Gunn, opera singer and professor
Traci Paige Johnson, co-creator, Blue's Clues TV show
Merchant Ships, late aughts emo band
Kennedy's Kitchen, traditional Irish band

Elijah Anderson, sociologist and author of Code of the Street^[2]
Tess Gunty, author, winner of the National Book Award
Phillip Hoose, author
Kenn Kaufman, naturalist and author
Bernard Kilgore, journalist, Wall Street Journal
Dylan Krieger, poet
Kenneth Rexroth, poet, translator of the classical Chinese poets, essayist, intellectual, anarchist.

John Birdsell, inventor of the Birdsell Clover Huller and founder of Birdsell Manufacturing Company
James Oliver, inventor and industrialist best known for creating South Bend Iron Works, which was reincorporated as Oliver Farm Equipment Company after his death
Studebaker Brothers, founders of Studebaker Corporation

Jeremy Michael Boorda, Navy admiral
James H. Kasler, Korean War and Vietnam War fighter pilot and POW; only recipient of three Air Force Crosses^[3]
Joseph A. Nolan Medal of Honor Recipient, Philippine Insurrection
Howard G. Bunker, Air Force general
Edward Hale Campbell, Navy admiral

Debra Elmegreen, astronomer
Maclyn McCarty, physician and biochemistry researcher who helped identify DNA as the genetic material, ushering in the era of molecular biology
Robert Fassnacht, researcher killed in bombing
Marcus Ward Lyon Jr., mammalogist, pathologist
Eric F. Wieschaus, evolutionary developmental biologist. Nobel Prize in Medicine

Ivan Meštrović, sculptor, professor at the University of Notre Dame, died in South Bend
Duncan G. Stroik, architect, sacred architecture professor, and founder of Duncan G. Stroik Architect LLC

Michael Alig, co-founder of the Club Kids and convicted murderer
Paul Smith, first African American minister at historic First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York; multicultural consultant, civil rights activist, university administrator, teacher, author
Emerson Spartz, media mogul
William Albert Wack, CSC, Bishop of Diocese of Pensacola–Tallahassee
Owen Klein

^ "Rock Radio Heaven: D". rockradioscrapbook.ca.
^ "Setting the Record Straight: An Interview with Elijah Anderson". Pennsylvania Gazette. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
^ "Col. James Kasler, 'Indiana's Sgt. York,' was fighter, survivor".