Word or phrase for someone claimed as one of a city's own

What is a word that captures not merely that a person was considered great, but also in some sense belongs to a place?

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsmouth, and lived much of his life in London, where he died, and yet the city of Bristol hosts many of his most famous feats of engineering. Accordingly, Bristol often claims Brunel as one of its own. Not a resident, not a citizen, but… a luminary? A celebrity? Something like adopted son, but with added reverance?

Example sentence:

"The famous engineer Brunel was one of Bristol’s _________"?