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Frank, Bruce and Buzz among first inducted into NJ hall of fame

Tom Hester By Tom Hester
on October 25, 2007 at 10:45 AM, updated October 25, 2007 at 10:59 AM

The Boss, The Chairman of the Board and Yogi are among 15 artists, sports figures, pioneers and business leaders who make up the inaugural class of the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

So is the second man to step foot on the moon.

The inductees were announced this morning in Trenton by Gov. Jon Corzine.

Rocker Bruce Springsteen, crooner Frank Sinatra and actress Merryl Streep are the three entertainment artists named as Jersey Hall of Famers. Baseball legend Yogi Berra, former U.S. senator and New York Knicks star Bill Bradley, and famed football coach Vince Lombardi are the three sports figures named.

Astronaut Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, who stepped on the moon minutes after Neil Armstrong in 1969, was named in the category open to business leaders, scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs and philanthropists. So were business leaders Malcolm Forbes and Robert Wood Johnson II, both of whom were also noted philanthropists.

The Hall of Fame class also includes U.S. Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who gained fame in the Persian Gulf War; award winning novelist Toni Morrison; abolitionst Harriet Tubman, who guided the Underground Railroad of the 1850s and 1860s; inventor Thomas Alva Edison; scientist Albert Einstein; and Red Cross founder Clara Barton.

Corzine said they all share a common denominator: a close relationship to New Jersey.

"Our great state has been fertile ground for amazing individual accomplishments as evidenced by this impressive first class of inductees," Corzine said.

The New Jersey Hall of Fame will hold a gala induction ceremony on May 4 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Supporters are attempting to raise $10 million to finance a Hall of Fame building.