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Since 1953 more than 56,000 babies of U.S. or German-American parents were born in Landstuhl. Primarily at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center or otherwise at Nardini Klinikum/St. Johannis Hospital. According to the Registry Office Landstuhl, there were 761 in 2021, 758 in 2022 and 667 in 2023, averaging a little over two newborns per day.
Some of these children visited Department of Defense Education Activities schools, eventually moved to the U.S. with their parents or remained in country. Many of them later joined the Armed Forces themselves and returned on a tour back to their roots. Others remained in the U.S., pursued civilian lives and careers in politics, the medical field, scientific research, in the broadcasting and show business or as sports stars.
We would like to present a few people born in Landstuhl who eventually became rather famous in their various fields. You may already be familiar with some of them, but take the opportunity to get to know a few more.
A virologist, an anthropologist, a politician and a biologist
To start off, Jeffrey Taubenberger, a prominent virologist was born in 1961. Together with another scientist, he was the first to sequence the genome of the influenza virus which caused the 1918 pandemic called the Spanish Flu. This is a process of determining the entirety of the DNA sequence of an organism’s genome at a single time.
Richard McElreath, born in 1973, became a Professor of Anthropology and is now the Director of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
On the other hand, David Cheston Rouzer, born in 1972, pursued a career in politics and since January 2015 he has represented the State of North Carolina as a Republican.
Joseph Regan was born of American parents in 1965. He spent his early years in Germany, attended schools at Ramstein Air Base to then relocate to the U.S. He became a biologist and worked as a contractor in Heidelberg for several years. He later moved to Kentucky, works as a laser defense specialist for the U.S. government and loves practicing his German while traveling.
Life is a ballgame
Some sports heroes may be better known, such as Rob Awalt, born in 1964. He was a tight end American football player for the National Football League for seven years and then drafted to the Phoenix Cardinals. In 1990 he switched to the Dallas Cowboys, then to the Buffalo Bills and played in the Super Bowls in the years 1992 and 1993.
Reggie Williams is another well-known American football player born in 1983. He played wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars in the National Football League. He had his best professional season in 2007 with 38 catches for 629 yards and 11 touchdowns. In addition to his sports career, he majored in psychology.
Shawn Bradley, born in 1972 as son of a U.S. soldier and German mother, became a prominent basketball player. From 1993 to 2005 he played in 875 games in the National Basketball Association, mainly for the Dallas Mavericks. At a height of 2.29 m (7.5 ft) he is one of the tallest players ever and finally ended his sports career after an accident in 2021.
Josh Wicks, born in 1983, began his soccer career with the Vancouver Whitecaps in the United Soccer League First Division. He then switched to the Portland Timbers. In later years he played in several soccer teams in Finland, Sweden and Iceland, leading the teams to various championships.
The youngest sports star was born in 1991. Aaron Samuel Altherr, was born as the son of an American active-duty mother and a German father, who was a soccer player. Although he had a talent for both soccer and basketball, he opted for baseball in his late high school years. He then played on various U.S. teams and due to his country of origin, Altherr was qualified to successfully compete in the German National Baseball Team in the year 2013.
Landstuhl rocks
On another key, Rob Kelly Thomas was born in 1972. At the age of 13 he decided to become a rock star and visited his first Genesis concert during the “Invisible Touch Tour.” He was the lead singer of the rock band Match Box Twenty. His first success as a solo artist was in 1999 with the single “Smooth” in conjunction with Santana, which made it to first place in the U.S. billboard charts. In 2001 he was entered into the South Carolina Music and Entertainment Award Hall of Fame as the youngest artist ever.
There’s no business like show business
Heather De Lisle, born in 1976, is the daughter of American Armed Forces Network (AFN) DJ Rik De Lisle, and mainly grew up in West Berlin. Her first public moderation was at AFN Berlin at the age of 15 and she was first on television at the age of 18. When AFN Berlin closed in 1995 she worked for “Deutsche Welle” and since the year 2000 she has been a foreign correspondent for ABC News radio New York reporting from Berlin. She also featured in numerous German political talk shows.
The television series “Roots” in the late 1970s and several Star Trek series and movies awarded fame to Le Var Burton, born as Levardis Robert Burton in 1957, as the last of our celebrities. Burton is not only a famous actor, but was also host to the PBS Kids educational television series called “Reading Rainbow“ for more than 23 years (1983 – 2006). Older readers may recall his role as “Kunta Kinte“ in the series “Roots“ in which he played a slave in the southern states in the 1860’s. Younger folks may better know him as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 – 1994) and various other movies.
Landstuhl may well bring about further celebrities and famous people in the future, but in any case every child born in Landstuhl is definitely a genuine shining star for the parents, siblings and friends of the newborn.
