David Crosthwait, Jr. was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1898. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. An exceptional student in high school, he was admitted to Purdue University and received a Bachelor of Science and Master's in Science in mechanical engineering. After college, he took a job with C.A. Dunham Company of Marshalltown, Iowa as the Director of Research Laboratories in 1920. He worked there for ten years.

Crosthwait conducted research in heating and ventilation methods. He held 39 US patents for heating systems, vacuum pumps, refrigeration and temperature regulating devices. He also held 80 international patents for similar devices. He authored a manual on heating and cooling, ventilation, refrigeration, air conditioning systems and heating codes. He invented an improved boiler, thermostat control device and a differential vacuum pump. Most of his devices improved heating systems for large buildings. His most famous project was designing the heating system for Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center in New York.

Crosthwait retired and taught courses on steam heating theory and control systems at Purdue University. In 1975, he received an honorary doctoral degree from Purdue. His hard work and mechanical genius helped change the heating and cooling industry in the United States and the world. His innovations made him a great American.

Marcenia Lyle Stone (a.k.a. Toni Stone) was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1921. She began playing baseball at the age of ten in the Catholic Midget League. Soon, she advanced to the Girls’ Highlex Softball Club in Saint Paul. She showed great athleticism and by the age of 15, she began playing men’s semipro baseball with the St. Paul Giants.

In 1946, Stone moved to San Francisco and began playing for the Wall Post American Legion team. She did so well that she began playing for the San Francisco Sea Lions, a semipro men’s team. In 1949, she moved to New Orleans to play with the New Orleans Creoles. Stone barnstormed across the country playing in many towns against both black and white teams. In 1953, she signed a contract to play with the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro American League. She became the first woman in the history of the Negro Leagues to play.

In July of 1953, Stone was featured in Ebony Magazine. She was considered a very attractive lady who proved herself to be a scrappy infielder. Many believed that she was signed to merely be an attraction to sell tickets. She surprised everyone by working hard and becoming a successful second base player, replacing Hank Aaron who played the position a year earlier. She faced much abuse not only from the men but from whites who had prejudice against black baseball players. After the 1953 season, her contract was sold to the Kansas City Monarchs. After a year in Kansas City, she retired from baseball.

Stone spent the rest of her life as a nurse in California. In 1985, she was inducted into the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1993, she was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame. She passed away in 1996 at the age of 75. Stone broke both many barriers when she became a professional baseball player. Her groundbreaking play in baseball made her a Great American.