This list of Oberlin College and Conservatory People contains links to Wikipedia articles about notable alumni of and other people connected to Oberlin College, including the Conservatory of Music.
Stanley Cohen (M.A. zoology, 1945), Nobel (Physiology and Medicine, 1986), for "discoveries of growth factors"
Robert Millikan (B.A. 1891), Nobel laureate (Physics, 1923) "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect"
Roger Wolcott Sperry (B.A. English 1935, M.A. psychology 1937), neurobiologist who studied split-brain research, Nobel laureate (Medicine, 1981), "for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres"
Carl Dennis (transferred to University of Chicago, University of Minnesota), Pulitzer prize-winning poet of Practical Gods; Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
Michael Dirda (BA 1970), Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reviewer, author
Emily Nussbaum (BA 1988), winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
Vijay Seshadri (BA 1974), winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for 3 Sections
George Walker (1941, honorary degree 1983), composer, first African American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music (1996, for Lilacs)
Thornton Wilder (transferred to Yale), playwright and novelist; three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for two plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth; U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day
Franz Wright (BA 1977), recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Walking to Martha's Vineyard
Academy, Grammy, Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe awards
Mark Boal (1995), screenwriter, recipient of two Academy Awards (Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for The Hurt Locker, 2009)
James Burrows (1962), producer and creator of Cheers and Emmy award-winning director of Will & Grace, Wings, News Radio
Dr. Francois S. Clemmons (1976), sang the role of Sportin' Life in Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, recipient of a company Grammy Award Best Classical Recording
Marc Cohn (1981), singer-songwriter, recipient of a Grammy Award (1991, Best New Artist)
Lena Dunham (2008), recipient of the 2013 Golden Globe Awards for Best TV Series - Music or Comedy, and Best Actress in a TV Series, the HBO series Girls
Alex Klein (1987), oboist, recipient of a Grammy Award (2002, Best Solo Instrumentalist with Orchestra)
Rhiannon Giddens (2000), member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops; Grammy winner (2010, Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album)
William Goldman (1952), novelist (The Princess Bride) and recipient of Academy Awards for the screenplays of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and All the President's Men (1976)
Charles Harbutt (1983), classical recording engineer, Grammy recipient (2000 and 2003)
Bill Irwin (1973), actor and clown, 1984 MacArthur Fellow, recipient of a Tony Award for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2005)
Natasha Katz (1981), lighting designer, recipient of four Tony Awards for The Glass Menagerie (2014), Once (2012), The Coast of Utopia (2007), and Aida (2000)
Michael Maguire (1977), (1987) recipient of Tony Awards for Les Misérables, A Little Night Music (New York City Opera), Kismet (Royal Canadian Opera), Annie Get Your Gun (Miami Opera), currently prominent Beverly Hills divorce attorney; voted Super Lawyer/Rising Star (2011–13)
Gregory Mosher (1971), director, recipient of Tony Award for revivals of Anything Goes (1984) and Our Town (1989)
Julie Taymor (1974), director, filmmaker, screenwriter, recipient of Emmy and Tony awards (Frida, Titus, Broadway's The Lion King, Across the Universe)
The following alumni are fellows of the MacArthur Fellows Program from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As this is an interdisciplinary award, they are listed here in addition to their listing in their field of accomplishment.
Jad Abumrad (1995), radio producer, known for the NPR-distributed Radiolab
Alison Bechdel (1981), pioneering LGBT cartoonist, author of Dykes to Watch Out For and Fun Home
Claire Chase (2001), flautist and arts entrepreneur
Jeremy Denk (1990), pianist and writer
Ralf Hotchkiss (1969), engineer and businessman
Bill Irwin (1973), actor
Richard Lenski (1977), biologist
Diane E. Meier (1973), doctor, MacArthur Fellowship awarded 2008
Thylias Moss (1981), poet and playwright
Julie Taymor (1974), director, MacArthur Fellowship awarded 1991
Paul Wennberg (1985), chemist
Tracy B. Strong (1963), Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy at the University of Southampton
Louisa Lydia Alexander (1856), schoolteacher
Joshua Angrist (1982), labour market economist
Lauren Berlant (1979), feminist, queer cultural studies scholar
Christopher Browning (1968), historian of the Holocaust
Dr. Francois S. Clemmons (1997-2013), Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence, now Emeritus Professor at Middlebury College
Johnnetta B. Cole (1957), first female African-American president of Spelman College, president of Bennett College 2002–07
John R. Commons (1888), institutional economist and labor historian
John Millott Ellis (1851), acting President of Oberlin College and abolitionist
George Fairchild (1862), third President of Kansas State University
Peter Tyrrell Flawn (1947), geologist and former President of the University of Texas at Austin
Jeffrey I. Gordon (1969), biologist and Professor
Joseph L. Graves, Jr. (1977), Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Biological Studies
James Monroe Gregory (transferred to Howard University), Dean of Collegiate Department at Howard University
Erwin Griswold (1925), lawyer, Solicitor General of the United States and dean of Harvard Law School
Walter Heller (1935), economist and educator
Robert Hutchins, educational philosopher, president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago
Charlene Drew Jarvis (1962), president of Southeastern University
Robert Jervis (1962), International Relations professor
Barbara Johnson (1969), literary critic, professor
Edward O. Laumann (1960), George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the College; editor of the American Journal of Sociology (1978-1984, 1995-1997); Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago; Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago; Provost of the University of Chicago; director of the Ogburn Stouffer Center for Population and Social Organization at the University of Chicago
Sarah Cowles Little (1838–1912), educator
Anne Eugenia Felicia Morgan (1845-1909), professor, philosopher, writer, and game inventor
Tom Novak (1977), Denit Trust Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Marketing, The George Washington University
David Novak (1977), Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Laurence Perrine, author and professor
Paul Pierson (1981), professor of political science
Roger Montgomery (1949), Dean of Architecture, City Planning, and Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley
Edward F. Mooney (1962), Professor of Religion at Syracuse University
L. L. Nunn, founder of Telluride Association and Deep Springs College
Willard V. O. Quine (1930), philosopher and logician
Albert Rees - former University of Chicago and Princeton economics professor, former Provost at Princeton, advisor to President Gerald Ford
Charles A. Reich (1949), legal and social scholar
William Sanders Scarborough (1875), classical scholar
John E. Schwarz (1961), political scientist and author
Robert E. Scott, (1965), law professor
Donald S. Strong (1912-1995), political scientist.
Kenneth Waltz, (1948), political science professor
Barbara Wertheimer, (1946), historian and labor organizer
C. Martin Wilbur (1931), historian, Sinologist
Garnet C. Wilkinson (1902), educator and administrator
Warren Wilson, namesake of Warren Wilson College in North Carolina
Sheldon S. Wolin (1944), political theorist
William Gautier (1902), educator at Lawrenceville School
Joani Blank (1959), founder of Good Vibrations
Marc Canter (1980), co-founder of MacroMind (predecessor company of Macromedia)
Jerry Greenfield (1973), co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
John Gutfreund (1951), executive, former CEO of Salomon Brothers Inc.; Business Week named him "King of Wall Street" in the 1980s
Charles Martin Hall (1885), co-discoverer of the electrolytic process for producing aluminium; founder of Alcoa, Inc. (and contributor to the American spelling of "aluminum")
Ralf Hotchkiss (1969), co-founder of Whirlwind Wheelchair International; 1989 MacArthur Foundation Fellow
Nova Spivack (1991), entrepreneur
Horatio McClean Jones (1849), Territorial Supreme Court Justice for the Territory of Nevada, 1861-1863; Circuit Court Judge in St. Louis, Missouri, 1870-1876
H. H. Kung (1906), banker and Premier of the Republic of China (1938–39)
Blanche K Bruce, second African-American Senator from Mississippi, serving 1874–1881
Yvette Clarke (transferred from Medgar Evers College), Democratic representative for New York's 11th congressional district, 2007–present
Jacob Dolson Cox, politician and author, governor of Ohio (1866-1888), US Secretary of the Interior (1869-1870)
Paul Drennan Cravath (1882), lawyer, partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore; creator of the "Cravath System"; founding Vice President of the Council on Foreign Relations
Heather Deal, (BA, 1983) City Councillor 2005-present, Vancouver City Council
John Langalibalele Dube, first (founding) President of the African National Congress
Myron T. Herrick, 42nd Governor of Ohio
Richard Hodges (1986), member of the Ohio House of Representatives, 1993-1999
Hsiao Bi-khim (1993), member of the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) of Taiwan, representing the Democratic Progressive Party and the 1st Electoral District of Taipei City; Vice President of Liberal International
Alfred A. Laun, Jr., Wisconsin State Senator
Eduardo Mondlane (1953), Mozambican political leader
Edward Schwartz, (BA, 1965), at-large City Councilman 1984-87, Philadelphia City Council; first Councilman with a Pd.D (doctorate in political theory, Rutgers University); first Philadelphia Councilman to computerize his constituent services
Harrison A. Williams (1941), U.S. senator and congressman from New Jersey
Stephanie Rawlings Blake (1992), Mayor of Baltimore
Adrian Fenty (1992), former Mayor of Washington, D.C.
Bruce Cole (1964), chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under George W. Bush
Erwin Griswold (1925), solicitor general under presidents Johnson and Nixon
Richard N. Haass (1973), president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State
Cynthia Hogan (1979), Counsel to the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, under President Obama
Martha N. Johnson (1974), former official in the Clinton administration; Administrator of the United States General Services Administration
Anne O. Krueger (1953), award-winning economist; Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund; Oberlin trustee (1987–95)
Robert Kuttner (1965), co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect; one of five co-founders of the Economic Policy Institute
Charles Sawyer (1908), Secretary of Commerce to Harry S. Truman
Kenneth J. Fairfax (1977), U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan (July 2011–present)
John Mercer Langston (1849), U.S. Congressman representing Virginia's 4th Congressional District; US minister to Haiti under president Rutherford B. Hayes
Steven Robert Mann (1973), U.S. Ambassador to Republic of Turkmenistan (1998–2001)
Edwin O. Reischauer (1931), U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 1961–1966
Marcie Berman Ries (1972), U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria (October 1, 2012–present)
Carl Rowan (1947), U.S. ambassador to Finland (1963); deputy assistant Secretary of State under President Kennedy; director of U.S. Information Agency under President Johnson
John S. Service (1931), foreign service officer, China Hand
Durham Stevens (1871), assassinated diplomat to Japan
Tsiang Tingfu (1918), ambassador from Republic of China to Russia (1936–1938), United Nations (1947–1962), and USA (1962–1965)
Tom Balmer (1974), Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
Lee Fisher (1973), former Lieutenant Governor and former Attorney General of Ohio
John Jay McKelvey, Sr. (1884), Attorney, Founder of Harvard Law Review.
Ruth A. Parmelee (1907), Christian missionary
Todd Portune (1980), former member of Cincinnati City Council (1993-2000); current (2013) Hamilton County Commissioner (2001–)
Albert Rees (1943), advisor to President Gerald Ford, former University of Chicago and Princeton economics professor, former Provost at Princeton
Moses Fleetwood Walker, first African American major league baseball player
Sylvia Williams (1957), former museum director for National Museum of African Art at Smithsonian Institution; pioneer in African art history
Nan Aron (1970), founder and president of Alliance for Justice
Kathleen Neal Cleaver (transferred to Barnard College), Senior Research Associate at Yale Law School known for her involvement in the Black Panther Party
Henry Roe Cloud, Native American political leader
Rennie Davis, anti-Vietnam war activist and one of the Chicago Seven
Matilda Evans (1891), first African American woman to practice medicine in South Carolina; community health advocate
John Mercer Langston (1849), early civil rights activist
James Lawson (Graduate School of Theology, 1950s), theoretician and tactician of nonviolence in US civil rights movement
Caroline F. Putnam (1848), abolitionist and educator
Jerry Rubin, anti-Vietnam war activist and one of the Chicago Seven
William F. Schulz (1971), former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA
Barbara Seaman (1956), principal member of the women’s health feminism movement
Peter Staley (1983), AIDS activist, founding director of the Treatment Action Group
Lucy Stone (1847), feminist and abolitionist
Anna Louise Strong (1905), activist and author
Mary Church Terrell (1884/1888), author, activist
John Todd (1841), abolitionist, conspirator with John Brown, founder of Tabor College
Wayne Bidwell Wheeler (1894), attorney, prohibitionist
Mary Evans Wilson (ca. 1897), civil rights activist
Jad Abumrad, radio journalist, host and producer of Radiolab
Alex Blumberg (1989), producer, This American Life
Chris Broussard (1990), ESPN sports analyst
Ben Calhoun (2001), radio journalist, producer for This American Life
Zoe Chace (2004), reporter, NPR's Planet Money
David Greene (1982) radio producer, NPR's Car Talk
Jon Hamilton (1983), NPR science correspondent
Chana Joffe-Walt (2003), radio journalist, reporter for NPR and Planet Money
Aleks Krotoski, television and radio presenter ("Digital Human" on BBC Radio 4)
Robert Krulwich (1969), television and radio journalist (RadioLab on WNYC)
Roman Mars, radio producer and host, 99% Invisible on 91.7 KALW in San Francisco
Seth Rudetsky (1988), radio host, Broadway actor, pianist, writer
Alix Spiegel (1994), co-host of NPR's Invisibilia; producer for This American Life
Print and online
Peter Baker (1988), New York Times senior White House correspondent and author
Michael Duffy (1980), writer, Washington Bureau Chief and editor of Time magazine
Kim France (1987), founding editor of Lucky magazine
Lisa Jervis (1993), creator and editor of Bitch magazine
Fred Kaplan (1976), journalist and Slate columnist
James Kim (1992), senior CNET editor and technology analyst
Michelle Malkin (1992), writer (Los Angeles Daily News, The Seattle Times), author (In Defense of Internment), political commentator
James McBride (1979), journalist (Boston Globe, The Washington Post), author (The Color of Water), musician
Adam Moss (1979), editor of New York magazine
Jane Pratt (1984), creator of Sassy and Jane magazines
Tim Riley (1983), NPR critic; author (Tell Me Why, Lennon: Man, Myth, Music); Emerson College journalism professor (aka Tim Mikesell)
Joshua Rothkopf (1993), Film editor and senior film critic of Time Out New York magazine. Chair of New York Film Critics Circle (2012–14)
Carl T. Rowan (1947), journalist
David Schlesinger (1982) Editor-in-Chief, Reuters news, Thomson Reuters
Steve Silberman (1982), science writer for Wired
Sonia Shah (1990), investigative journalist
Sophia Yan (2009), reporter for Bloomberg News
Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl
Ishmael Beah (2004), author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Bruce Beasley, poet, author of Theophobia, The Corpse Flower, Signs and Abominations, Loard Brain
Alison Bechdel (1981), cartoonist (Dykes To Watch Out For) and graphic novelist (Fun Home)
Geoffrey Blodgett (1953), historian and author of Cass Gilbert: The Early Years
Wendy Brenner (1987), author of Phone Calls From the Dead
Alice Rowe Burks (1942), author of Who Invented the Computer?: The Legal Battle that Changed Computing History
Michael Byers (1991), novelist and author of The Coast of Good Intentions, Long for This World, and Percival's Planet
Gail Carriger (1998), fantasy novelist of Soulless
Tracy Chevalier (1984), novelist and author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Angels, and The Lady and the Unicorn
Anna J. Cooper (1884), author and teacher, fourth African-American woman to receive a PhD
Alev Lytle Croutier, Turkish-American author
Charles D'Ambrosio (1982), essayist, short story writer
Josh Emmons (1995), novelist (The Loss of Leon Meed, Prescription for a Superior Existence)
Darcy Frey (1983), non-fiction writer
Alan Furst (1962), novelist, author of Blood of Victory
Myla Goldberg (1993), novelist (Bee Season, Wickett's Remedy)
Melissa Fay Greene (1975), author (There Is No Me Without You)
Linda Gregerson (1971), award-winning poet (Waterborne, Magnetic North)
David Halperin (1973), author (One Hundred Years of Homosexuality)
Bill Henderson (1965) author of Stark Raving Elvis, I Killed Hemingway, I, Elvis: Confessions of a Counterfeit King
Joe Hickerson (1957), American folklorist
Donovan Hohn (1972), author of Moby-Duck
Jonathan Holden (1963), poet (Knowing: New and Selected Poems)
Michael Hollinger (1984), playwright (Red Herring)
Cathy Park Hong (1998), poet (Translating Mo'um)
Tim Hurson (1967), speaker, writer, creativity theorist, author of Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking
Kiese Laymon (1997), professor and author of "Long Division" and "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America"
David Maine (1985), novelist (The Preservationist)
Megan McDonald (1981), writer of children's literature (Judy Moody, The Great Pumpkin Switch)
J. Hillis Miller (1948), literary critic (The Ethics of Reading, On Literature)
Naeem Mohaiemen (1993), writer and artist whose projects research histories of the 1970s international left
Martha Moody (1977), author of Best Friends, Office of Desire, and Sometimes Mine
Thylias Moss (1981), poet, playwright, and 1996 MacArthur Fellow
Josh Neufeld (1989), cartoonist (A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, A Few Perfect Hours, The Influencing Machine)
Thisbe Nissen (1994), novelist (Out of the Girls' Room and Into the Night, Osprey Island)
Peggy Orenstein (1983), author (Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture)
Rich Orloff (1973), playwright (Big Boys)
Dzvinia Orlowsky (1975), poet (Except for One Obscene Brush Stroke)
Jena Osman (1985), poet (The Character)
Suzanne Paola (1980), memoirist and poet (Lives of The Saints)
Lia Purpura (1986), poet (Stone Sky Lifting), essayist (Increase, On Looking)
David Rees (1994), cartoonist (My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, Get Your War On)
S. J. Rozan (1972), novelist (Reflecting the Sky), Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Award Winner, 2003
John C. Russell (1985), playwright (Stupid Kids)
Kathy Lou Schultz (1990), poet (Some Vague Wife)
Elizabeth Searle (1983), novelist (Celebrities in Disgrace)
Stephen W. Sears (1954), author (Gettysburg)
Vijay Seshadri (1974), poet (The Long Meadow)
Matthew Sharpe (1984), novelist (Nothing is Terrible, The Sleeping Father, Jamestown)
Gary Shteyngart (1995), novelist (The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, Super Sad True Love Story)
Donald J. Sobol (1948), author of the Encyclopedia Brown series
Matthew Stadler (1981), novelist (Allan Stein)
Jon Swan (1950), playwright, poet, librettist, and journalist
Marcia Talley (1965), novelist, Agatha and Anthony Award Winner, 2002, 2003, 2005
Michael Teig (1990), poet (Big Back Yard)
Geoffrey Ward (1962), author (The West: An Illustrated History and The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945)
Bruce Weigl (1973), poet (Archeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems)
William Drake Westervelt (1871 and 1874; honorary degree 1926), Hawaiian historical writer
Christopher Robin "Kit" Woolsey (1964), writer (Matchpoints), bridge internationalist and backgammon expert
John Wray (1993), novelist (The Right Hand of Sleep, Lowboy)
Franz Wright (1977), poet, Pulitzer Prize winner (Walking to Martha's Vineyard)
Film and television
Eric Bogosian (1976), novelist, playwright (Talk Radio, subUrbia), and actor (Law and Order: Criminal Intent)
Avery Brooks (1970; honorary degree in 1996), actor in Uncle Tom's Cabin, American History X, Spenser: For Hire, best known as Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Peter Buchman (1989), screenwriter for Jurassic Park III and Che
John Cazale (class of 1954, transferred to Boston University), actor in The Godfather (portrayed Fredo Corleone) and The Deer Hunter
Dr. Francois S. Clemmons (1968-1992) actor/singer best known as Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Lena Dunham (2008), actor, director, writer, best known for Tiny Furniture and the HBO series Girls
Su Friedrich (1975), experimental filmmaker
Nancy Giles (1981), actress in China Beach, commentator on CBS News Sunday Morning.
Ed Helms (1996), actor (The Office, The Hangover), comedian, correspondent on The Daily Show
Edward Everett Horton (1909; left his junior year; honorary degree 1953), actor (The Front Page, Top Hat, Holiday), voice actor (Rocky & Bullwinkle)
Maggie Keenan-Bolger (2006), actress and writer, wrote From the Inside, Out; co-founder of 4th Meal Productions; The Will Rogers Follies and The Music Man national tours
Judy Kuhn (1981), singer, Broadway performer, and singing voice of Disney's Pocahontas
Rex Lee (1990), actor, best known for his role on Entourage
Daniel London (1995), actor (Minority Report, Old Joy, Patch Adams)
Jim Newman (1955), founder of Dilexi Gallery and Other Minds New Music Festival, San Francisco
Daniel Radosh (1991), journalist, blogger, writing staff of The Daily Show
Oren Rudavsky (1979), filmmaker (Hiding and Seeking, And Baby Makes Two, The Treatment)
Corey Stoll (1998), stage and screen actor (Intimate Apparel, Law & Order: LA, Midnight in Paris, House of Cards)
Nick Wauters, television writer, creator of the NBC series The Event
Alexander Whybrow (2003), professional wrestler under the name Larry Sweeney
John Kander (1951), of the musical theater team Kander and Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago)
Romulus Linney (1953, honorary degree 1994), playwright
Albert Marre (1944), Tony Award-winning director and producer
Julie Atlas Muz, burlesque dancer, actress, stage director
Richard Tatum (1988), stage and voice actor; Associate Artistic Director of the ARK Theatre Company, Los Angeles
Benjamin Bagby (1974), vocalist, harpist, scholar, and founder of early music ensemble Sequentia
MaVynee Betsch, piano and voice
Chris Brokaw (1986), rock drummer for Codeine; guitarist for Come, Consonant
Brian Chase (2000), drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Claire Chase, flautist
Will Chase, Broadway actor
James David Christie, organist and pedagogue
Dr. Francois S. Clemmons, (1980-2000) conductor, arranger, and founder/director of The Harlem Spiritual Ensemble
Stanley Cowell, jazz pianist
Corey Dargel, composer and electronic musician
Dorothy DeLay, violinist
Jeremy Denk, pianist
R. Nathaniel Dett, conductor, pianist, composer, arranger
Eighth Blackbird (all members), contemporary music sextet
Chris Eldridge (2004), guitarist in Punch Brothers, formerly in the Infamous Stringdusters
Peter Evans, trumpeter
James Feddeck, Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra; Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
John Ferguson, organist and composer
Sullivan Fortner, jazz pianist
Rhiannon Giddens (2000), founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops
Judith Gordon, pianist
Jason Myles Goss (2003), singer/songwriter
Denyce Graves, opera singer
Al Haig, jazz pianist
Natalie Hinderas, professor, pianist and composer
Moses Hogan, conductor, composer, and arranger
Paul Horn (1952), jazz flautist
Matt Hubbard, Willie Nelson's producer; member of 7 Walkers
International Contemporary Ensemble, contemporary music ensemble
Steven Isserlis (1980), British cellist, director of the International Musicians' Seminar
John Jang (1978), American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader
John Kander, composer of the musicals Chicago, Cabaret, and Curtains
John Kennedy, composer and conductor
Carla Kihlstedt, violinist, singer
Alex Klein, oboist
Jennifer Koh (1997), violinist, 1994 International Tchaikovsky Competition winner
Judy Kuhn, actress, singer
Scott Lawton, conductor
Sylvia Olden Lee, vocal coach and accompanist
Dave Lerner (1998), bassist (2000-2007), (Ted Leo & The Pharmacists), songwriter
Michael Maguire, actor/singer, best known for playing Enjolras in the original Broadway production of Les Misérables
David Maslanka, composer
James McBride, saxophonist, composer, author of New York Times best-seller The Color of Water
John McEntire (1991), drummer (Tortoise)
John T. "Jack" Melick, Jr., bandleader, pianist, and arranger
David Miller, tenor, member of the multi-platinum operatic pop quartet Il Divo
Jason Molina, singer-songwriter and guitarist
Amy X. Neuburg (1984), classical and pop singer
Karen O, singer, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Milt Okun (1948), arranger, producer and musical director for popular 1960s singers such as Peter Paul and Mary, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and John Denver
Bob Ostertag, composer, performer, instrument builder, journalist, activist, historian
Doe Paoro (2006), singer-songwriter
James Paul, conductor
Alexander Perls (1998), songwriter, music producer
Liz Phair (1989), singer/songwriter
William Porter, organist and pedagogue
Nancy Priddy, singer-songwriter, back-up singer on Leonard Cohen's debut album
Derek Lee Ragin, countertenor
Josh Ritter (1999), singer/songwriter
Lucy Wainwright Roche (2003), musician, half-sister of Rufus Wainwright
Thomas Rosenkranz, pianist
Ned Rothenberg, woodwind multi-instrumentalist, composer
Christopher Rouse, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer
Michael Rudman (1960), award-winning theater director
Jonathan Sacks, orchestrator for films including Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.
Alex Scally (Guitarist) Indie-Pop band Beach House
Jenny Scheinman, jazz violinist
Andrew Shapiro (1998), composer
Arlene Sierra, composer
Robert Sims
Neal Smith (jazz drummer), jazz drummer, Berklee assoc. professor
Robert Spano (1983), music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
William Grant Still, composer
Dick Sudhalter (1960), jazz musician and critic
Jon Theodore, drummer, The Mars Volta
Pyeng Threadgill, blues, soul blues and jazz singer (daughter of Henry Threadgill)
Jen Trynin (1986), rock singer/songwriter
David Zinman, conductor
Cory Arcangel (2000)
Julia Vogl (2007)
William Ament, controversial missionary to China
Hobart Baumann Amstutz, bishop in the The Methodist Church
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, abbot of a Buddhist monastery in California
Antoinette Brown (1847), first ordained female minister in the U.S.
John M. Brown Bishop of the AME Church
Lewis Sperry Chafer (1891), theologian; one of the prominent proponents of Christian Dispensationalism; founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary
Fanny Jackson Coppin (1865), influential educator and missionary
Marcus Dale, Early African-American preacher in New Orleans
Vernon Johns (1919), African-American preacher, widely hailed as the father of the civil rights movement
Martha Root (1890s), Hand of the Cause in the Bahá'í Faith
Lorenzo Snow, fifth president and a prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Henry Benjamin Whipple, Episcopal Bishop and advocate for the Native Americans, First Bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota
See also: Nobel laureates
Arthur L. Benton (1931), neuropsychologist
Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Civil War nurse and hospital administrator, post-war veteran advocate
Thaddeus Cahill (1889), physicist; inventor of the teleharmonium, the first electromechanical musical instrument
Kenneth Stewart Cole (1922), biophysicist, best known for creating the concept of the voltage clamp
Joan Feynman (1948), solar astrophysicist at JPL in Pasadena, California Sister of Richard Feynman
Thomas Ebbesen (1966), physical chemist, pioneer in the field of nanoscience for which he received the Kavli Prize
Jim Fixx (1957), author of The Complete Book of Running
Thomas Frieden (1982), Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Robert Galambos (1914–2010), researcher on bat echolocation
John Gofman (1939), scientist in the Manhattan Project; activist on issues with nuclear power and radiation danger
Elisha Gray, inventor of the telephone beaten to the patent office by Alexander Graham Bell; credited with invention of the electromechanical oscillator
Philip Hanawalt (1954), scientist, co-discoverer of DNA excision repair
Robert Aimer Harper (1886), botanist, president of the Botanical Society of America
Edward Haskell (1929), scientist and educator
Ellen Hayes (1878) astronomer and mathematician
Donald Henderson (1928-2016), epidemiologist
Ralph F. Hirschmann (1922–2009), biochemist who led synthesis of the first enzyme.
Ernest Ingersoll, naturalist
Richard Lenski (1977), biologist and 1996 MacArthur Fellow
John E. Mack (1951), psychologist, author (A Prince of Our Disorder)
Rollo May (1930), psychologist, author
Catherine McBride-Chang (1989), psychologist, researcher in cross-cultural development of early literacy skills
George Herbert Mead (1883), philosopher, leading figure of American pragmatism
Ira Mellman (1973), cell biologist, discoverer of endosomes
John Wesley Powell (1858), geologist and explorer
Anita Roberts (1964), molecular biologist who made pioneering observations of TGF beta
Larry Squire (1963), Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at University of California, San Diego
Lauren V. Wood, allergist, immunologist, and Captain in the US Public Health Service
Paul Wennberg (1985), chemist and 2002 MacArthur Fellow
Felisa Wolfe-Simon, geomicrobiologist at the U.S. Geological Survey; Fellow of the NASA Astrobiology Institute
Geoffrey Blodgett
Jeffrey F. Hamburger, art historian
James Hepokoski, music historian
William Andrew Moffett
Seymour Slive
Robert Soucy
Laurence Thomas
Amasa Walker
Aaron Wildavsky
Pamela Alexander
Kazim Ali
Dan Chaon
Martha Collins
Angie Estes
bell hooks
Toni Morrison
Heinz Politzer
Eugene B. Redmond
Frank Ebersole
John Millott Ellis
Wilson Carey McWilliams
Mike Michalson
Ronald Grigor Suny
James Fairchild
William Weston Patton
Roger Copeland, Professor of Theater and Dance
Pipo Nguyen-duy, Professor of Studio Art, Photography
Ana Cara, scholar of Latin America
Calvin C. Hernton
Susan Kane, archaeologist and Professor of Art History
Albert Howe Lybyer, scholar of the Middle East
Gisela Richter, archaeologist
W. I. Thomas
John Milton Yinger
Thomas Nixon Carver, professor 1894-1902
James Monroe (1846), congressman from Ohio, professor 1883-1896
W. I. Thomas
John Milton Yinger
Mildred Allen
Thaddeus Cahill, composer, physicist and inventor of the Telharmonium
Elisha Grey, inventor of the electromechanical oscillator
George Nelson Allen, first geologist to survey Yellowstone National Park
Bruce Simonson, leading expert on banded iron formations
David W. Orr
John Luther Adams
George Nelson Allen
Daniel Asia
Conrad Cummings
Herbert Elwell
Jonathan Kramer
David Lang, composer and founder of Bang on a Can
Tom Lopez
David Maslanka
Gary Lee Nelson
Lewis Nielson
Curtis Roads
Anna Rubin
Igor Stravinsky, visiting composition professor, 1962-1963
Gwyneth Van Anden Walker
Olly Wilson
John Williams, visiting composer, 1999-2000
Joseph R. Wood
Ryan Anthony, trumpeter with Canadian Brass
David Boe, organ
Stephen Clapp, Violin
Robin Eubanks, trombone
Diana Gannett
Rex Martin, tuba
Hugh Ragin, trumpet
Peter Slowik, viola
John Solum
Robert Spano
Alexa Still, flute
Allen Cadwallader, theorist of Schenkerian analysis
Jeffrey Mumford
Willard Warch
Salvatore Champagne
Marilyn Horne
Richard Miller
William Dawes, trustee and fundraiser
Mildred H. McAfee, Dean of Women
Elizabeth Watson Russell Lord, Assistant Principal, Women's Department (1884-94); Assistant Dean, Women's Department (1894-1900)
Asa Mahan, 1835–50
Charles Grandison Finney, leader in the Second Great Awakening, president 1851–66
James Fairchild, 1866–89
William Gay Ballantine, 1891–96
John Henry Barrows, 1899–1902
Henry Churchill King, 1902–27
Ernest H. Wilkins, 1927–46
William Stevenson, 1946–60
Robert K. Carr, 1960–69
Robert W. Fuller, 1970–74
Emil Danenberg, 1975–82
S. Frederick Starr, 1983–94
Nancy Dye, 1994–2007
Marvin Krislov, 2007–present
C. K. Fauver
Edgar Fauver
Edward Fauver
Moses Fleetwood Walker, first African-American major league baseball player
John Heisman, football coach in 1892 and 1894
T. Nelson Metcalf
