This is a list of notable Swiss Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
Theobald (Diebold) von Erlach (1541–1565), first Swiss person known to have settled in North America.
John Joachim Zubly (1724–1781) of St. Gallen, pastor, planter, and statesman during the American Revolution
John Sutter (1803–1880), born in Germany of a Swiss father, Californian famous for his association with the California Gold Rush (in that gold was discovered by James W. Marshall in Sutter's Mill) and for establishing Sutter's Fort in an area that would later become the capital of California, SacramentoJohn Augustus Sutter, Jr. (1826–1897), his son, a U.S. Consul to Acapulco, Mexico and the founder and planner of the City of Sacramento, California
Peter Luginbill (1818-1886), born in France as the son of Mennonite parents exiled from the Emmental, early settler in Indiana and founder of the city of Berne
Robert Abplanalp (1922–2003), businessman, inventor of the aerosol valve
Steve Ballmer (born 1956), businessman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation
Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), industrialist and art patron, once known as "America's most hated man". as per CNBC one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time".
Meyer Guggenheim (1828–1905), statesman, patriarch of Guggenheim family
Simon Guggenheim (1867–1941), businessman, politician, and philanthropist
Milton Hershey (1857–1945), confectioner, philanthropist, and founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company
Otto Frederick Hunziker (1873–1959), pioneer in the American and international dairy industry
S. S. Kresge (1867–1966), merchant, philanthropist and founder of the S. S. Kresge Company, now Sears Holdings Corporation.
Robert Lutz (born 1932), General Motors Vice Chairman of Product Development and Chairman of GM North America, the world's largest automaker
Mark Spitznagel (born 1971), hedge fund manager
James G. Sterchi (1867–1932), furniture store magnate
Bruce Tognazzini (born 1945), usability consultant in partnership the Nielsen Norman Group
Steve Jobs, information technology entrepreneur and inventor
Actors and directors
René Murat Auberjonois (born 1940), film actor
Theda Bara (1885–1955), silent film actress and sex symbol
Wallace Beery (1885–1949), film actor
Berry Berenson (1948–2001), photographer, actress, and model, mother of part Swiss descent
Amy Brenneman (born 1964), film and TV actress, father of part Swiss descent
Yul Brynner (1920–1985), actor, father of part Swiss descent
James Caviezel (born 1968), film actor, paternal grandfather of Swiss descent
Billie Dove (1903–1997), film actress
Tyler Hoechlin (born 1987), film actor, father of part Swiss descent
Q'Orianka Kilcher (born 1990), singer and actress, of part Swiss descent
George Lucas (born 1944), film director, of part Swiss descent
Bridget Marquardt (born 1975), model, actress
Victor Mature (1913–1999), film actor
Jeremy Maxwell (born 1973), film actor
Jodi Ann Paterson (born 1975), model, actress and former beauty queen
Michelle Pfeiffer (born 1958), film actress, maternal grandfather of Swiss descent
Ryan Seacrest (born 1974), television and radio host, television producer, and entrepreneur, of part Swiss descent
August Schellenberg (born 1936), actor
Liev Schreiber (born 1967), film actor, father of part Swiss descent
Meryl Streep (born 1949), film actress, father of part Swiss descent
William Wyler (1902–1981), film director
Renée Zellweger (born 1969), film actress, Swiss-born father
Jeremiah Theus (1716–1774) of Chur, painter
Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947), portrait and impressionistic still-life painter
Herbert Matter (1907–1984), photographer and graphic designer
Writers and publicists
Fernand Auberjonois (1910–2004), journalist, foreign correspondent of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade
William Frank Buckley (1925–2008), writer
A. C. Frieden (born 1966), novelist
Lorin Morgan-Richards, author and illustrator
Eudora Alice Welty (1909–2001), writer; ancestry can be traced to Emmental Valley of Switzerland; Swiss ancestral name Wälti
Melissa Auf der Maur (born 1972), singer
Rudolph Ganz (1877–1972), pianist, conductor and composer
Jewel (born 1974), singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and author
Cyndi Lauper (born 1953), singer-songwriter and actress
Karina Lombard (born 1969), singer and actress
Elvis Perkins (born 1976), singer-songwriter
Mary Katherine Campbell (1905–1990), only Miss America winner to hold beauty title twice, 1922 & 1923; mother was of partial Swiss ancestry
Gary Gygax (1938–2008), writer and game designer, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons
Governors and presidents
Anthony G. Brown (born 1961), Governor of Maryland
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), 34th President of the United States
Herbert Hoover (1874–1964), 31st President of the United States
Robert B. Meyner (1908–1990), Governor of New Jersey
Barack Obama (born 1961), 44th President of the United States, (Swiss distant ancestors).
Emanuel L. Philipp (1861–1925), Governor of Wisconsin
Congressmen and senators
James L. Buckley (born 1923), Senator of New York
Albert Gallatin (1761–1849), U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Senator of Pennsylvania, diplomat
James William Good (1866–1929), Congressman Iowa
Amy Klobuchar (born 1960), Senator of Minnesota
James S. Negley (1826–1901), Congressman Pennsylvania
Robert Portman (born 1955), Senator of Ohio
Benjamin F. Welty (1870–1962), Congressman from Allen County, Ohio; ancestry traced back to Emmental Valley, Switzerland; Swiss ancestral name Wälti
William Wirt (1772–1834), author and statesman who is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney General into one of influence; Swiss father.
J. Edgar Hoover (1935–1972), first Director of the FBI
Warren E. Burger (1907–1995), Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986
August Claessens (1885–1954), politician, best known as one of the five New York Assemblymen
Albert Gallatin (1761–1849), politician, ethnologist, linguist, founder of New York University, diplomat, and United States Secretary of the Treasury
Fred Iklé (1924–2011), Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Wally Schirra (1923–2007), astronaut, only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo)
Samuel F. Snively (1859–1952), Mayor of Duluth, Minnesota
Peter Staub (1827–1904), Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee
William Wirt (1772–1834), US Attorney General
Dan Zumbach (1960-present), Iowa Senator
Henry Bouquet - prominent Army officer in the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War
Edward Walter Eberle (1864–1929), admiral in the United States Navy, served as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy and third Chief of Naval Operations
Felix Zollicoffer (1812–1862), newspaperman, three-term US Congressman from Tennessee, officer in the United States Army, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War
Henry Wirz (1822–1865), the only Confederate soldier executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War for war crimes
Daniel Kumler Flickinger (1824–1911), Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
Martin Marty (1834–1886), Benedictine priest
Philip Schaff (1819–1893), Protestant theologian and a historian of the Christian church
Scientists and engineers
Alexander Emanuel Agassiz (1835–1910), geologist and zoologist
Louis Agassiz (1807–1873), zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists
Berni Alder (born 1925), physicist
David Alter (1807–1881), inventor, almost discovered spectroscopy
Othmar Ammann (1879–1965), civil engineer
Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (1840–1914), archeologist
Felix Bloch (1905–1983), physicist
Armand Borel (1923–2003), mathematician
Florian Cajori (1859–1930), mathematician
Eddie Rickenbacker (1890–1973), automobile race car driver and automotive designer, hero of World War I, government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation
Robert Frank (born 1924), important figure in American photography and film
Hans R. Camenzind (1934–2012), inventor of the 555 timer IC
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), theoretical physicist widely regarded as the most important scientist of the 20th century and one of the greatest physicists of all time
Edmond H. Fischer (born 1920), biochemist
Walter Gautschi (born 1927), mathematician
Otto Frederick Hunziker (1873–1959), dairy educator and technologist
Josias Joesler (1895–1927), architect
John Kruesi (1843–1899), inventor and close associate of Thomas Edison
Adolf Meyer (1866–1950), psychiatrist
Jean Piccard (1884–1963), scientist and high-altitude balloonist
Louis François de Pourtalès (1824–80), naturalist
Max Theiler (1899–1972), virologist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a vaccine against yellow fever
Robert Julius Trumpler (1886–1956), astronomer
Etienne Wenger (born 1952), educational researcher
Orville and Wilbur Wright, Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867-1912), aviation pioneers, inventors
Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974), astronomer
Adolph Rickenbacker (1886–1976), pioneer of the electric guitar; founder of the Rickenbacker guitar company, whose products would be an important influence on 1960s music through, among others, The Beatles, The Who and The Byrds
Martin Buser (born 1958), champion of sled dog racing
Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941), racing driver; founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company, now the most famous brand of General Motors
Phil Dalhausser (1980 -), Olympic beach volleyball champion; born in Baden to German father and Swiss mother
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008), controversial world chess champion
William "Pudge" Heffelfinger (1867–1954), first professional football player
Jeff Hostetler (born 1961), quarterback in the NFL for the New York Giants, Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, and Washington Redskins.
Fred Merkle (1888–1956), baseball player
Ben Roethlisberger (born 1982), quarterback in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone (1913–1996), perhaps the best known pool player in the United States
Ben Zobrist - second baseman in Major League Baseball
Helen Keller (1880–1968), author, political activist and lecturer; first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree
Christoph Meili (born 1968), whistleblower
Chesley Sullenberger (born 1951), airline transport pilot who successfully carried out the emergency ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River, saving the lives of the 155 people on the aircraft
List of Swiss Americans Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA