List of Famous people born in Akron, United States of America

Ryan Patrick Armour is an American professional golfer.

Judith Arlene Resnik was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the launch of mission STS-51-L. Resnik was the second American woman in space and the fourth woman in space worldwide, logging 145 hours in orbit. She was the first Jewish woman of any nationality in space. The IEEE Judith Resnik Award for space engineering is named in her honor.

Jack Robert Lengyel is a software executive and former American football coach, lacrosse coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the College of Wooster from 1966 to 1970 and at Marshall University from 1971 until 1974, compiling a career college football record of 33–54. At Marshall, he took over the Thundering Herd football program after the Southern Airways Flight 932 plane crash that killed nearly the entire team in 1970. Lengyel was the athletic director at California State University, Fresno from 1983 to 1986, at the University of Missouri from 1986 to 1988, and at the United States Naval Academy from 1988 to 2001. He served as the interim athletic director at Temple University in 2002, at Eastern Kentucky University from 2002 to 2003, and at the University of Colorado Boulder from 2004 to 2005.

Richard Duane Goddard was an American television meteorologist, author, cartoonist, and animal activist. From 1966 until his retirement in 2016, he was the evening meteorologist at WJW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio, initially affiliated with the CBS Television Network, from 1994 onward with the Fox Broadcasting Company. Goddard holds the Guinness World Record for longest career as a weather forecaster after passing Canadian meteorologist Peter Coade.

Ronald Ray "Ron" Phillips was an Ohio death row inmate who was sentenced to death and executed for the 1993 rape and murder of Sheila Evans, the 3-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, Fae Amanda Evans, after an extended period of physical and sexual abuse against the child. Fae Evans was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangering for her involvement and sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison. She died of leukemia on July 8, 2008, aged 41, at the state prison hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Jani Lane was an American recording artist and the lead vocalist, frontman, lyricist and main songwriter for the glam metal band Warrant. From Hollywood, California, the band experienced success from 1989 to 1996 with five albums reaching international sales of over 10 million. Lane left Warrant in 2004 and again in 2008 after a brief reunion. Lane also released a solo album, Back Down to One, in 2003, and the album Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner with a new group, Saints of the Underground, in 2008. Lane contributed lead vocals and songwriting to various projects throughout his career.

Lola Jean Albright was an American singer and actress, best known for playing the sultry singer Edie Hart, the girlfriend of private eye Peter Gunn, on all three seasons of the TV series Peter Gunn.

Lawrence Joseph Bader, also known as John "Fritz" Johnson, was an American cookware salesman from Akron, Ohio who disappeared on a fishing trip on Lake Erie on March 15, 1957. Declared dead in 1960, Bader was found alive five years later as John "Fritz" Johnson, a local TV personality living in Omaha, Nebraska. The incident is described by author Jay Robert Nash as "one of the most baffling amnesia disappearances on record, a weird story forever unanswered."

Carol Lynn Folt is an American academic administrator who is the 12th President of the University of Southern California. She assumed her duties on July 1, 2019. She was previously the 11th chancellor, and the 29th chief executive, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was previously provost and interim president of Dartmouth College and was the first woman to lead UNC. On January 14, 2019, she announced her resignation as UNC chancellor.

Melina Eleni Kanakaredes Constantinides is an American actress. She is widely known for her roles in U.S. primetime television dramas as Dr. Sydney Hansen in Providence (1999–2002) and as Detective Stella Bonasera in CSI: NY (2004–2010), and on the American daytime television drama series Guiding Light as Eleni Andros Cooper (1991–1995).