Grover Cleveland, Always a Nominee, Never an Inductee

Caldwell’s native son Grover Cleveland has once again made the list of New Jersey Hall of Fame nominees—but will 2013 finally be the 22nd and 24th U.S. President’s year to be inducted?

The New Jersey Hall of Fame Commission announced this year's 51 nominees on Monday, opening the public voting period for the Class of 2013.

Nominees are divided into five categories, including arts and entertainment, sports, historical figures, enterprise (think business and technology) and general.

Voting is open through Friday, May 3 at www.NJHallofFame.org.

Inductees will be announced later this spring and a formal induction ceremony will take place later in the year.

Cleveland's name often appears with the word "only." He's the only president to be born in New Jersey, and the only one to be buried in the Garden State. He is also the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and the only one to be married in the White House. 

Joining perennial nominee Cleveland in the historical category are: Founding Father Aaron Burr, vice president under Thomas Jefferson; female film pioneer, director and producer Alice Guy Blaché; Revolutionary War era luminaries Thomas Paine, Molly Pitcher, William Paterson, and Richard Stockton; acclaimed African-American business executive Sarah Spencer Washington; renowned activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Irene Hill Smith; and award-winning poet and journalist Joyce Kilmer.

Cleveland's not the only nominee with Essex County ties. The list includes comedian Joe Piscopo, a graduate of West Essex Regional High School, the late Whitney Houston, who was born in Newark and attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy in Caldwell, and make-up mogul Bobbi Brown, a longtime resident of Montclair.