JC#1
Famous people · Powassan, Ontario
4 famous people were born in Powassan
At the top of the list is the long-distance runner James Corkery, covered in 6 languages. Second place goes to the Canadian ice hockey player Peter Driscoll, third to Gerry Odrowski. James Corkery (1889) and Peter Driscoll (1954) mark the two ends of the list. For every 10,000 residents the town has 10.9, while at least half the towns in Ontario list nobody born there.
Born here
4
confirmed by Wikipedia
Best known
James Corkery
6 Wikipedia and sister-site articles
First
1889
James Corkery
Youngest
1954
Peter Driscoll
Most common field
Sports
4 people
The best known
Born in Powassan
The three best known are all athletes.
PD#2
Sports
Peter Driscoll
born 1954Canadian ice hockey player
4 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
#3Sports
Gerry Odrowski
born 1938Canadian ice hockey player
2 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
Through the years
When Powassan’s famous people were born
Births peak in the 1930s, with 2 people born in that decade.
Sports
One dot per person, piled up by decade of birth.
Everyone
Everyone else born in Powassan
1 more, best known first.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
Questions about famous people from Powassan
Who is the most famous person from Powassan?
The top name is James Corkery (long-distance runner), going by Wikipedia coverage. Next come Peter Driscoll and Gerry Odrowski.
What is Powassan known for?
100% here, set against 38% for Canadian towns.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Powassan?
James Corkery (1889). At the other end, the youngest was born in 1954.
Who counts as from Powassan?
What counts is a birth that Wikidata places inside Powassan’s municipal boundary (Statistics Canada’s 2021 census subdivision), its hospitals and districts too, and that the person’s English or French Wikipedia article repeats. Adult performers, people known chiefly for crimes and those who only lived here are not on the list.
Why is someone missing?
Some have no birthplace below the province on Wikidata, some were born in a hamlet without a page here, and some have an article that names another place or none at all. The page lists only what Wikidata and Wikipedia agree on, and it follows their corrections at each refresh.
Birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations and the count of Wikipedia and sister-site articles come from Wikidata (CC0). Each birthplace is checked against the person’s English Wikipedia article, or the French one where English says nothing or has no article; the articles are linked, never quoted. Wikidata’s Statistics Canada code, the place’s name or its point inside the 2021 census outline puts a birth in a town, and a birth given only as a split city stays on that city’s page. Fields are read from the description and occupations, and the list runs by number of articles. “The usual town” is everyone listed across Canadian towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (2)
- Gerry Odrowski: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Taylor Milne: Citizen59, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).