James Paul Kocsis was an independent American painter and book illustrator. Born in Buffalo, New York, Kocsis moved with his parents to Bethlehem in 1942 at age six and began painting at age 12. He attended the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), where he studied under painter and printmaker Jacob Landau. He graduated in 1958 and enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly thereafter. Kocsis worked as a book illustrator between 1961 and 1968, illustrating more than 20 books under the pseudonym J.C. Kocsis. Feeling constrained by drawing, Kocsis returned to painting full-time in 1968.

Kocsis is best known for his vibrant, expressive artwork style, which he termed "psychic impressionism" in which he said the paintings sprang from his subconscious. Throughout his 30-year career, Kocsis created more than 500 paintings. While his paintings ranged from abstract to realistic, they always focused on a recognizable face, particularly eyes, to depict human emotion. As a sign of his fierce independence, he arranged his private sales and organized his own shows, arranging 42 shows in more than two dozen countries over his career. He is buried in Nisky Hill Cemetery next to his wife, Carol.

William Emile Doster was a Civil War general and long-time president of the Lehigh National Bank. Doster was born in Bethlehem and later studied law and graduated from Yale (1857), then Harvard Law School, and finally the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Upon returning to the U.S., he apprenticed with ex-Governor Andrew H. Reeder and was admitted to practice at the Northhampton County bar. When the war broke out he answered President Lincoln's call for volunteers before eventually being transferred as captain to the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry in 1861.

Doster became a major in October 1861 and was selected for Provost Mashal in February 1862. Later that same year, in October, Doster was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel but continued at his post as Provost Marshal. In 1863, he was approved to return to his regiment and led it during the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns. Doster resigned from service in 1864 and began practicing law in Washington, D.C., before moving back to the Lehigh Valley in 1873. He became the president of the Lehigh National Bank and also of the New Bridge Street Company. On February 12, 1909, Doster delivered an address on Abraham Lincoln at Lehigh University to commemorate Lincoln's 100th birthday, later publishing it as part of his 1915 memoir Lincoln And Episodes Of The Civil War.

Jessie Wilson Sayre was a political activist who worked for women's suffrage and social issues. Born in Gainesville, Georgia, she is the second daughter of US President Woodrow Wilson and wife Ellen Axson Wilson. She studied at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland before working at a settlement home in Philadelphia for three years. Sayre began her work in activism shortly after World War I in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she worked in the interests of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, the League of Nations, and the League of Women Voters.

During her life, Sayre was very active in Democratic politics, serving as a lecturer for the League of Nations Association and the League of Women Voters. She also served as a national board member of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), a nonprofit organization focused on empowerment, leadership, and women's rights. In 1928, she gave the introductory speech for presidential nominee Al Smith at the Democratic National Convention. Two years after her death in 1933, the Boston branch of the Women's Democratic League was renamed the Jessie Woodrow Sayre Women's Democratic League.

Eugene Gifford Grace was the president of Bethlehem Steel from 1916 to 1945, and chairman of the board from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Grace was born in Cape May, New Jersey in 1876 and attended Lehigh University, graduating at the top of his class as valedictorian in 1899. After graduating from Lehigh, he turned down a baseball contract from the Boston Braves and began working as a crane operator for Bethlehem Steel before eventually becoming president of the corporation in 1916 at the age of 37.

Grace led the corporation through World War I, tripling the company's steel output over the course of the war. By 1929, the company was operating nine major steel plants. During World War II, Bethlehem Steel became one of the major steel suppliers of the war and even constructed 1,127 ships for the U.S. Navy during the war years. Grace served as Charmain of Lehigh University's Board of Trustees and provided the funds to construct the university's Grace Hall.

Hilda 'H.D.' Doolittle was an American modernist poet, novelist, and memoirist. H.D. was born in Bethlehem and attended Bryn Mawr College, a private women's liberal arts school to study Greek literature. Some of her earliest poems, including some children's stories about astronomy, were published in New York newspapers and Presbyterian newsletters. H.D. traveled to London in May 1911 to develop a career as a writer. It's here where she and other writers Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington began the Imagist movement, which favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. Her minimalist free verse poems depicting Classical motifs drew international attention.

Over time, H.D. began distancing herself from the Imagist movement and started experimenting with a wider variety of forms, including fiction, memoir, and verse drama. H.D.'s poetic style pivoted towards more complex and longer poems on esoteric and pacifist themes. Following a reappraisal by feminist critics in the 1970s and 1980s, the significance of her work was increasingly recognized. Now, H.D. has come to be seen as a central figure in the history of modernist literature. H.D. was the first woman to be recognized with the Award of Merit Medal for poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

William Radford Coyle was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. As a Congressman, he served three terms in office between 1925 and 1933. Born in Washington, D.C., Coyle attended Columbian College (now George Washington University) before attending Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island in 1900. Coyle later served in the U.S. Marine Corps (rising to the rank of captain) from 1900 to 1906. He attended the law department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1906 and 1907. He moved to Bethlehem in 1908 and was even the school director of the city from 1912 to 1918.

Coyle served as captain of the Fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard, in 1913 and was commissioned a major in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1918. He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1932. After World War I, he served as president of the American Wholesale Coal Association in 1921 and 1922. Coyle was elected and served as a Republican to the 69th (1925-1927), 71st (1929-1931), and 72nd(1931-1933) Congresses. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1936 and 1944. He served as chairman of civilian defense in Bethlehem from 1941 to 1945, and as chairman of Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority from 1953 to 1959.

Archibald Johnston was a mechanical engineer and the first Mayor of Bethlehem. Johnston was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and began working for the Bethlehem Iron Company upon graduating from high school at 15. He left the company to study mechanical engineering at Lehigh University and received his bachelor's degree in 1889. Johnston returned to the company after graduating and was appointed the superintendent of the plant in 1901. During his career with the company (and its successor organizations, the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation), Johnston served at various times as corporate president and vice president. Johnston retired from the corporation in 1927.

Johnston was an advocate of the consolidation of the boroughs of Bethlehem, South Bethlehem, and Northampton Heights, and after a successful consolidation election, the boroughs were merged into the modern city of Bethlehem in 1917. Johnston was elected and served as mayor of Bethlehem from 1917 to 1921 as a Republican. During his time as mayor, Johnston commissioned the Hill to Hill Bridge, a road crossing the Lehigh River that links the southern and northern halves of the city. Johnston was the president of the Central Moravian Congregation (Central Moravian Church), a trustee of Moravian College, and sat on local corporate and non-profit boards of directors.