Wilbur (1867–1912) and Orville Wright (1871–1948) were American aviation pioneers who achieved the first successful powered airplane flight in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, developing the three-axis control system that became fundamental to modern aircraft design.

Tiger Woods (born 1975) is an American professional golfer widely regarded as one of the greatest in history. A multiple major champion, he dominated world golf rankings and transformed the sport’s global popularity and commercial success.

Nicholas Wolterstorff (born 1932) is an American philosopher known for work in epistemology, philosophy of religion, justice, and aesthetics. A longtime Calvin College professor, he later taught philosophical theology at Yale Divinity School.

James DeWolf (1764–1837) was a Rhode Island merchant, slave trader, and politician who served as a U.S. senator and state legislator. He amassed great wealth through maritime trade and slavery while also investing in early American cotton manufacturing.k.

Simeon De Witt (1756–1834) was New York State’s long-serving Surveyor General, a Revolutionary War army geographer, planner of New York City’s grid street system, Erie Canal commissioner, and an early founder and land developer of Ithaca, New York.

Peter Van Winkle (1808–1872) was a Unionist U.S. Senator from West Virginia during the Civil War and one of the state’s first senators after its 1863 admission, previously serving in Virginia politics and constitutional conventions.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (1899–1992) was an American businessman, aviation investor, film financier, government official, and philanthropist who helped found Pan American World Airways, built mining enterprises, served in federal posts, and supported major American arts institutions.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942) was an American sculptor, patron of the arts, and founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art, whose philanthropy and support of emerging artists shaped twentieth-century American art.

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was an American poet, journalist, and essayist whose landmark work Leaves of Grass revolutionized modern poetry and established him as one of the most influential voices in American literature.

Janwillem van de Wetering (1931–2008) was a Dutch-born novelist and Zen memoirist known for his Amsterdam police detective series and philosophical writings inspired by Zen Buddhism and international experiences.

Charles Warner Wendell (1930–2015) was an American professor, historian, and genealogist whose scholarship and leadership helped advance the study of Dutch American history through organizations such as the Holland Society and the New Netherland Institute.

Barrett Wendell (1855–1921) was an American literary scholar and Harvard professor whose teaching and writings on English composition, American literature, and figures such as Cotton Mather shaped late nineteenth-century literary studies.