Residents may vote for new Hall of Fame class

The New Jersey Hall of Fame has announced 30 nominees in five categories as the organization launched voting for the class of 2008. These leaders and legends, from presidents to poets, in the categories of Historical, Arts and Entertainment, Sports, Enterprise and General, hail from all corners of New Jersey and share a close relationship to the state.

The second annual Hall of Fame nomination process began in early summer when a panel of experts, comprised of university professors, scientists, editors, authors and other authorities, reviewed and critiqued a list of more than 160 potential Hall of Fame members.

That list, compiled over the past three years, was culled to the top 125 and presented to the Voting Academy, which is the voting steering committee for the Hall of Fame. The VotingAcademy is made up of approximately 100 of the state’s most prominent organizations as well as former governors, with Gov. Jon Corzine serving as honorary chair, according to a press release.

The Voting Academy then voted to determine the top six nominees in each category:

• In the Historical category, the nominees are Grover Cleveland, Molly Pitcher, Paul Robeson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Walt Whitman and Woodrow Wilson.

• In the field of Arts and Entertainment, the nominees are Abbott and Costello, Count Basie, Jon Bon Jovi, Jerry Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Sarah Vaughn.

• In Sports, the list includes Larry Doby, Althea Gibson, Carl Lewis, Shaquille O’Neal, Phil Rizzuto and Joe Theismann.

• In Enterprise, the nominees are Milton Friedman, Guglielmo Marconi, Mary Roebling, Carl Sagan, David Sarnoff and Wally Schirra. Schirra.

• In the General category, the nominees are Justice William Brennan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Admiral William Halsey, Dorothy Parker, Philip Roth and William Carlos Williams.

“As with our first class of nominees presented in 2007, this assemblage of New Jersey Hall of Fame nominees is indeed impressive,” said Bart Oates, chairman of the New Jersey Hall of Fame Board of Commissioners. “The people of our state should be proud of these New Jerseyans and can find great role models from all walks of life.”

Now through Nov. 30, all New Jerseyans can vote online at the Hall of Fame Internet Web site which is www.NJHallofFame.org.

In addition to announcing the start of the voting, the New Jersey Hall of Fame also introduced an interdisciplinary instructional unit, created by a panel of teachers under the leadership of the New Jersey Education Association, which draws upon the Hall of Fame to teach students about New Jersey history and the voting process.

While the Hall of Fame currently exists on the Web, it was announced that several satellite museums would be opening in locations in northern, central and southern New Jersey. According to officials, the first to open will be a Hall of Fame display at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands and there will be a museum exhibit in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

Members of the public can vote for their selections to the New Jersey Hall of Fame online at NJHallofFame.org. The winners will be announced in early January.