Walter Tewksbury, Five-Medal Olympian from Tunkhannock

Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania gave the world one of the most decorated track and field athletes of the early Olympic era. Walter Tewksbury competed at the nineteen hundred Paris Games and returned home with five medals: two gold, two silver, and one bronze. He co-held the world record in the one hundred meter dash that year, a staggering achievement for a dentist-athlete from northeastern Pennsylvania.

At the University of Pennsylvania, he had already dominated collegiate sprinting, winning the one hundred ten and two hundred twenty yard events as intercollegiate champion in both eighteen ninety-eight and eighteen ninety-nine, graduating with a dental degree in eighteen ninety-nine. After his athletic career, he settled here in Tunkhannock, practicing dentistry, coaching track and field, and becoming a fixture of community life until his death in nineteen sixty-eight. He is a member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.