List of Columbia College people

The following list contains only notable graduates and former students of Columbia College, the undergraduate liberal arts division of Columbia University, and its predecessor, from 1754 to 1776, King's College. For a full list of individuals associated with the university as a whole, please see the List of Columbia University people.

Notable alumni and former students

An asterisk (*) indicates a former student who did not graduate.

Founding Fathers of the United States

• John Jay (King's 1764), President of the Continental Congress; first Chief Justice of the United States; Federalist Papers contributor; first US Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation; architect of Jay's Treaty with Great Britain
• Robert Livingston (King's 1764), a writer of the US Declaration of Independence; second US Secretary of Foreign Affairs; negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase
• Egbert Benson (King's 1765), delegate to the Continental Congress and United States Congressman
• Gouverneur Morris (King's 1768), represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress; authored large sections of the United States Constitution; United States Ambassador to France; author of phrase "We, The People" [[1]]
• Alexander Hamilton* (King's 1776), Revolutionary War officer and aide de camp to George Washington; Federalist Papers architect and most prolific contributor; first United States Secretary of the Treasury

Academics

Art Historians

• Meyer Schapiro (1924), art historian
• Barry Bergdoll (1977), chief curator of Architcture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art

Classicists

• Charles Anthon (1815), classical scholar and translator
• Henry Drisler (1839), classical scholar and acting president of Columbia College

Historians

• William Milligan Sloane (1868), historian, president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and organizer of first U.S. Olympic team
• William Archibald Dunning (1881), founder of the Dunning School of Reconstruction
• Carlton Hayes (1904), pioneering cultural historian
• Jacques Barzun (1927), cultural historian
• Carl E. Schorske (1936), cultural historian and winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for History
• Fritz Stern (1946), Seth Low Professor of History Emeritus; pre-eminent in German studies
• Eric Foner (1963), pre-eminent historian of Reconstruction
• Mike Wallace (1964), historian and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History for Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
• Jay Winter (1966), World War I specialist at Yale University
• Paul Berman (1971), historian and social critic
• Sean Wilentz (1972), historian and winner of the Bancroft Prize; chair of American Studies at Princeton University
• Thomas Sugrue (1984), historian of the 20th century United States
• David Eisenbach (1994), historian

Legal scholars

• Jack Greenberg (1945), counsel for the NAACP (1949-84), in which capacity he argued Brown v. Board of Education (1954); professor at Columbia Law School (1984-present)
• Richard Epstein (1964), libertarian law scholar
• Paul Gewirtz (1967), constitutional law scholar
• Karl Klare (1967), Critical Legal Studies theorist
• Michel Rosenfeld (1969), constitutional law scholar
• Saul Levmore (1974), commercial law scholar
• Charles E. Rounds, Jr. (1969), trusts and property scholar, author, professor at Suffolk Law School

Literary scholars

• Harry Thurston Peck (1881), literary critic and editor of The Bookman
• Joel Elias Spingarn (1895), professor of comparative literature
• John Erskine (1900), Great Books pioneer
• Lionel Trilling (1925), literary critic
• Francis Steegmuller (1927), Flaubert scholar
• Quentin Anderson (1937), cultural historian and literary critic
• Stephen Orgel (1954), Shakespeare and Renaissance literature scholar
• Joel Black (1972), literature and film scholar
• James S. Shapiro (1977), Shakespearean authority
• Michael Bérubé (1982), professor of literature and cultural studies

Mathematicians

• John Howard Van Amringe (1860), mathematician and Dean of Columbia College
• Joel Moses (1962), mathematician and provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Noam Elkies (1985), mathematician

Philosophers

• Irwin Edman (1916), philosopher
• Richard McKeon (1920), philosopher
• Mortimer Adler* (1923), philosopher and Great Books pioneer
• Charles Frankel (1937), political philosopher
• Jerry Fodor (1956), philosopher
• Robert Nozick (1959), libertarian philosopher
• Raymond Geuss (1966), specialist in Jurgen Habermas

University presidents

• Seth Low (1870), president of Columbia University and Mayor of New York City
• Nicholas Murray Butler (1882), president of Columbia University, chairman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Nobel Peace Prize winner
• James C. Fletcher (1940), president of the University of Utah and head of NASA
• Martin Meyerson (1942), president of the University of Pennsylvania
• Mario Laserna Pinzón (1948), Colombian diplomat and educator; founded the Universidad de Los Andes
• Michael I. Sovern (1951), president of Columbia University
• Stephen Joel Trachtenberg (1959), president of the University of Hartford and of George Washington University

Other academics

• Brander Matthews (1871), first professor of dramatic literature in the United States
• Alfred L. Kroeber (1896), pioneering cultural anthropologist
• Edward Sapir (1904), linguist and co-creator of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
• Parker Thomas Moon (1913), professor and managing editor of the Political Science Quarterly
• Benjamin Graham (1914), economist who pioneered "value investing"
• Joseph Campbell (1925), mythologist
• Robert C. Schnitzer (1927), arts teacher and administrator
• Wm. Theodore de Bary (1941), East Asian studies expert and provost of Columbia
• Donald Keene (1942), scholar of Japanese culture
• Robert Lekachman (1942), economist
• Richard Heffner (1946), professor and host of The Open Mind
• Marshall Berman (1961), urbanologist
• Paul Starr (1970), sociologist; co-founder of The American Prospect and winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
• Jerome Groopman (1972), Harvard Medical School professor and medical writer for The New Yorker
• Angelo Falcón (1973), political scientist, President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP)

Actors

• Ralph Morgan (1904), co-founder of Actors Equity and first president of the Screen Actors Guild
• James Cagney* (1922), winner of the Academy Award for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy
• Cornel Wilde* (1933), star of The Greatest Show on Earth, Beach Red, and Academy Award nominee for A Song to Remember
• Sorrell Booke (1949), played Boss Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard
• George Segal (1955), star of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Ship of Fools and Just Shoot Me!
• Brian Dennehy (1960), winner of the Tony Award for Death of a Salesman
• William Finley (1963), film actor
• Ben Stein (1966), host of Win Ben Stein's Money; speechwriter for former US President Richard M. Nixon
• Richard Thomas* (1973), star of The Waltons
• Mario Van Peebles (1978), star of Heartbreak Ridge and Sonny Spoon
• Robert Maschio (1988), actor on Scrubs
• Matthew Fox (1989), star of Party of Five and Lost
• Dan Futterman (1989), actor and screenwriter, starred in The Birdcage and wrote Capote
• Gerrit Graham (1970), film actor and songwriter
• Jean Louisa Kelly (1994), star of Mr. Holland's Opus
• Amanda Peet (1994), star of the TV series Jack and Jill and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and the film The Whole Nine Yards
• Cara Buono (1995), star of Third Watch
• Casey Affleck (1998), Golden Globe and Academy Award-nominated actor for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and actor in Good Will Hunting and Ocean's Eleven
• Maggie Gyllenhaal (1999), Golden Globe-nominated actress, Secretary, and star in Stranger than Fiction and The Dark Knight
• Liza Weil (1999), actress, The Gilmore Girls
• Jake Gyllenhaal* (2002), Academy Award-nominated actor for Brokeback Mountain, star of Jarhead and Donnie Darko
• Anna Paquin* (2004), winner of the Academy Award for The Piano
• Rider Strong (2004), star of Boy Meets World
• Julia Stiles (2005), star of Save the Last Dance and Mona Lisa Smile
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt* (2006), actor in 3rd Rock from the Sun and Ten Things I Hate About You
• Kate McKinnon (2006), actress and comedian
• Jeremy Blackman (2009), appeared in Magnolia
• Max Minghella (2009), appeared in Syriana and Art School Confidential
• Spencer Treat Clark (2010), appeared in Gladiator, Mystic River, and Unbreakable

Artists and architects

• James Renwick, Jr. (1836), Gothic Revival architect who designed St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York and the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, DC
• William Ordway Partridge (1885), sculptor
• Ely Jacques Kahn (1904), commercial architect
• Rockwell Kent* (1907), illustrator
• Isamu Noguchi* (1926), sculptor
• Charles Alston (1929), artist
• Ad Reinhardt (1935), Abstract Expressionist artist and critic
• Charles Saxon (1940), cartoonist
• Robert A. M. Stern (1960), traditionalist architect
• Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (1974), photographer

Athletes

• Eddie Collins (1907), baseball player for the Chicago White Sox and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Lou Gehrig* (1925), legendary first baseman for the New York Yankees and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Cliff Montgomery (1934), led the Columbia Lions football team to victory in the Rose Bowl
• Sid Luckman (1939), legendary Chicago Bears quarterback
• Paul Governali (1943), football player for the Boston Yanks and New York Giants
• Jack Molinas (1953), NBA player for the Fort Wayne Pistons
• Jim McMillian (1968), NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers, Buffalo Braves, New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers
• George Starke (1971), offensive lineman for the Washington Redskins
• Vitas Gerulaitis* (1975), champion tennis player
• Gene Larkin (1984), member of the Minnesota Twins 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams
• Marcellus Wiley (1997), football player for the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys
• Cristina Teuscher (2000), Olympic gold medalist swimmer

Businesspeople

• William Backhouse Astor, Sr. (1811), son of John Jacob Astor
• John Jacob Astor III (1839), son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr.
• William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1849), son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. and husband of Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, co-founder of The Four Hundred
• Stuyvesant Fish (1871), president of the Illinois Central Railroad
• Marcellus Hartley Dodge, Sr. (1903), chairman of the Remington Arms Company
• Ward Melville (1909), creator of Thom McAn shoes
• Armand Hammer (1919), chairman of Occidental Petroleum
• Samuel Rosen (1919), chairman of 20th Century Fox
• Lawrence Wien (1925), real estate magnate and philanthropist
• Nathan S. Ancell (1929), co-founder of Ethan Allen
• Ira D. Wallach (1929), head of Central National-Gottesman
• John Kluge (1937), chairman of Metromedia
• Roone Arledge (1952), former president of ABC News and winner of 36 Emmys
• Alfred Lerner (1955), chairman of MBNA Bank and owner of the Cleveland Browns
• Sid Sheinberg (1955), head of Universal Pictures
• Frank Lorenzo (1961), chairman of Eastern Airlines
• William Campbell (1962), chairman of the board of Intuit
• Kenneth Lipper (1962), financier and deputy mayor of New York City
• Jerry Speyer (1962), founding partner of Tishman Speyer
• Robert Kraft (1963), owner of the New England Patriots
• Cesar Alierta (1970), chairman of Telefónica
• Wayne Allyn Root (1983), business mogul, TV personality and producer, author, sports handicapper, and aspiring politician

Journalism and media figures

Arts critics

• Gustav Kobbé (1877), opera scholar and music critic of the New York Herald
• Clifton Fadiman (1925), book critic for The New Yorker and judge for the Book of the Month Club
• Ralph J. Gleason (1938), music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and co-founder of Rolling Stone
• Andrew Sarris (1951), film critic
• Martin Gottfried (1955), critic, author, and biographer
• David Denby (1965), film critic for The New Yorker
• Tim Page (1979), music critic of The Washington Post and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
• Luc Sante (1976), literary critic
• Neil Strauss (1991), music critic and best-selling author

Broadcasters

• Jim Gardner (1968), broadcast pioneer of Philadelphia
• Robert Siegel (1968), host of All Things Considered on National Public Radio
• James Rubin (1982), Sky News anchorman; State Department official under the administration of US President Bill Clinton; spokesman for the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark and John Kerry
• George Stephanopoulos (1982), ABC News personality; senior advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration
• Claire Shipman (1986), ABC News correspondent
• Alexandra Wallace (1988), executive producer of NBC Nightly News
• Soterios Johnson (1990), host of Morning Edition on National Public Radio
• Alexis Glick (1994), anchorwoman for the Fox Business Network
• Gideon Yago (2000), MTV News correspondent

Editors

• John L. O'Sullivan (1831), journalist who coined the term "Manifest Destiny"
• Francis Pharcellus Church (1859), editorial writer for the New York Sun and author of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
• Simeon Strunsky (1900), literary editor of the New York Evening Post and editorial writer for The New York Times
• Theodore M. Bernstein (1924), assistant managing editor of The New York Times
• Groff Conklin (1927), science fiction anthologist
• James Wechsler (1935), editorial page editor of The New York Post
• Lucien Carr (1946), editor for United Press International
• Robert Gottlieb (1952), editor of The New Yorker
• Max Frankel (1952), Pulitzer Prize winning editor of the New York Times
• Clark Hoyt (1964), public editor of the New York Times
• Leon Wieseltier (1974), literary editor, The New Republic
• Marcus Brauchli (1983), managing editor, The Wall Street Journal
• Franklin Foer (1996), editor, The New Republic
• Marco Roth (1996), one of the editors of n+1
• Matthew Continetti (2003), associate editor and writer, The Weekly Standard

Journalists

• Henry Demarest Lloyd (1867), muckraking journalist, "father of investigative journalism"
• Herbert Matthews (1922), New York Times foreign correspondent who first reported Fidel Castro alive in the Sierra Maestra
• Lars-Erik Nelson (1962), New York Daily News columnist
• Michael Musto (1978), gossip columnist for The Village Voice
• Kevin Baker (1980), freelance journalist and novelist
• Matthew Cooper (1984), Time magazine White House correspondent and defendant in the Valerie Plame investigation
• Anne Kornblut (1994), correspondent for The Washington Post
• Jodi Kantor (1996), writer and former editor on culture and politics for the New York Times
• Nicholas Kulish (1997), Berlin bureau chief for the New York Times and novelist
• Christopher Beam (2006), political blogger for Slate

Pundits

• Arnold Beichman (1934), conservative critic
• Ralph de Toledano (1938), conservative commentator
• Joseph Kraft (1947), political columnist
• Norman Podhoretz (1950), a "father of neoconservatism", editor of Commentary Magazine and author of Making It
• Jules Witcover (1951), columnist, The Baltimore Sun
• David Horowitz (1959), conservative commentator and activist; author of the Academic Bill of Rights

Sports journalists

• Roone Arledge (1952), sportscaster, creator of Monday Night Football and head of ABC News
• Paul Zimmerman (1955), football writer for Sports Illustrated known as "Dr. Z"
• Robert Lipsyte (1957), sports writer for New York Times, correspondent for ABC News and host of The Eleventh Hour.
• Gilbert Rogin (1957), managing editor of Sports Illustrated
• Chet Forte (1957), first director of Monday Night Football
• Gary Cohen (1981), television play-by-play announcer for the New York Mets

Legal and judicial figures

• Samuel Blatchford (1837), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Benjamin Cardozo (1889), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Arthur Garfield Hays (1902), counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union and lawyer in the Scopes Trial
• Louis Nizer (1922), legendary trial lawyer
• Joseph Carmine Zavatt (1922), federal judge for the Eastern District of New York
• Frank Hogan (1924), District Attorney of New York City
• Murray Gurfein (1926), federal judge in the Pentagon Papers case
• Arthur Krim (1930), partner in Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon and co-chairman of United Artists
• Lawrence E. Walsh (1932), independent counsel in the Iran-Contra affair
• Wilfred Feinberg (1940), judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Jack Greenberg (1945), civil rights lawyer who argued the Brown v. Board of Education case before the United States Supreme Court
• Roy Cohn (1946), attorney and counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy
• Bernard Nussbaum (1958), White House counsel under Bill Clinton
• Robert Abrams (1960), Bronx Borough President and New York State Attorney General
• José A. Cabranes (1961), judge on the US Court of Appeals; first Puerto Rican to sit in a US District Court; current Trustee of Columbia University
• Michael B. Mukasey (1963), Attorney General of the United States
• Joel Klein (1967), assistant Attorney General of the United States; Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education
• Nicholas G. Garaufis (1969), U.S. district court judge and former chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration
• William Barr (1971), Attorney General of the United States
• Gerard E. Lynch (1972), United States District Court Judge in the Southern District of New York
• Robert Katzmann (1973), judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Eric Holder (1973), Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton and advisor to Barack Obama
• Miguel Estrada (1983), controversial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Neil Gorsuch (1988), judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Military leaders

• Stephen Kearny (1812), Conqueror of California in the Mexican-American War
• Charles Wilkes (1818), leader of the United States Exploring Expedition to survey the Pacific Ocean; instigator of the Trent Affair during the American Civil War
• Alfred Thayer Mahan* (1858), president, U.S. Naval War College and author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History

Musicians, composers, and lyricists

• Roy Webb (1910), composer for Notorious and Abe Lincoln in Illinois
• Oscar Hammerstein II (1916), lyricist for Show Boat, Oklahoma! and The King and I, among other Broadway musical hits
• Howard Dietz (1917), director of publicity for MGM and lyricist for "Dancing in the Dark"
• Lorenz Hart (1918), lyricist for Pal Joey and other Broadway musical hits
• Richard Rodgers* (1923), composer and collaborator with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II; wrote music for Carousel, The Sound of Music, and Victory at Sea, among many others
• Elie Siegmeister (1927), composer, music teacher, writer on music
• John La Touche* (1937), lyricist for Cabin in the Sky and The Golden Apple
• Orrin Keepnews (1943), jazz record producer and winner of the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes and Best Historical Album.
• Dick Hyman (1948), musical director for Arthur Godfrey; composer or arranger for Hannah and Her Sisters and The Purple Rose of Cairo; Emmy Award winner
• John Corigliano (1959), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music and Academy Award for Best Original Score
• Edward Kleban (1959), lyricist for A Chorus Line
• Charles Wuorinen (1961), serialist composer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Time's Encomium
• Joel Krosnick (1963), chamber musician and member of the Juilliard String Quartet
• Art Garfunkel (1965), singer of Simon and Garfunkel
• Jon Bauman (1969), "Bowzer" of Sha Na Na
• Cameron Brown (1969), jazz bassist
• Emanuel Ax (1970), concert pianist
• Armen Donelian (1972), jazz pianist
• Jocko Marcellino (1972), member of Sha Na Na
• Phil Schaap (1972), Charlie Parker authority and multiple Grammy Award winner for engineering, production, and album notes
• Gil Shaham (1993), violinist
• R. Luke DuBois (1997), composer
• Lauryn Hill* (1997), Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and songwriter, and member of The Fugees
• Sean Lennon* (1997), singer and songwriter, and son on John Lennon and Yoko Ono
• Orli Shaham (1997), pianist
• Utada Hikaru* (2000), Japanese pop star
• Alicia Keys* (2001), Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and songwriter
• Rostam Batmanglij (2006), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend
• Ezra Koenig (2006), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend
• Chris Tomson (2006), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend
• Chris Baio (2007), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend

Playwrights, screenwriters, and directors

• William C. DeMille (1900), screenwriter, director, playwright, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• George Middleton (1902), playwright and president of the Dramatists Guild of America
• Herman Mankiewicz (1917), drama critic for The New Yorker and co-winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Citizen Kane
• Morrie Ryskind (1917), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with George S. Kaufman for Of Thee I Sing and co-writer of The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, and A Night at the Opera
• Sidney Buchman (1923), screenwriter for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and winner of the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Here Comes Mr. Jordan
• Alvah Bessie (1924), screenwriter for Objective, Burma! and one of the Hollywood Ten
• Joseph Mankiewicz (1928), Academy Award-winning writer and director of All About Eve and A Letter to Three Wives
• Ben Maddow (1930), screenwriter for The Asphalt Jungle
• Albert Maltz (1930), screenwriter for Destination Tokyo and one of the Hollywood Ten
• Martin Manulis (1935), television producer and creator of Playhouse 90
• I.A.L. Diamond (1941), screenwriting partner of Billy Wilder; co-author of Some Like It Hot; co-winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Apartment
• Don M. Mankiewicz (1942), television and film writer
• Steve Krantz (1943), screenwriter and film producer
• Terrence McNally (1960), Tony Award-winning playwright; author of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime (musical)
• Brian DePalma (1962), director of Scarface, The Untouchables and Carrie
• Art Eisenson (1963), television writer
• Jim Jarmusch (1975), writer/director of the Coffee and Cigarettes series
• Bill Condon (1976), winner of the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Gods and Monsters, director of Kinsey and Dreamgirls
• Ric Burns (1978), documentary filmmaker
• Tony Kushner (1978), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Angels in America
• Michael Lehmann (1978), director of Heathers, 40 Days and 40 Nights, The Truth About Cats and Dogs and Hudson Hawk
• Jessica Bendinger (1988), writer of Bring it On and for Sex and the City

Political and diplomatic figures

United States political and diplomatic figures

• Richard Varick (King's 1776), Mayor of New York City and American Revolutionary War figure; aide-de-camp of Benedict Arnold and private secretary of George Washington
• DeWitt Clinton (1786), Governor of New York who initiated the construction of the Erie Canal
• John Peter Van Ness (1789), United States Congressman from New York and mayor of Washington, DC
• Daniel D. Tompkins (1795), Vice President of the United States; Governor of New York
• Peter Dumont Vroom (1808), U.S. Minister to Prussia and Governor of New Jersey
• John Slidell (1810), Confederate minister to France and a central figure of the Trent Affair during the American Civil War
• Charles G. Ferris (1811), United States Congressman from New York
• William Beach Lawrence (1818), U.S. chargé d'affaires for Great Britain and acting governor of Rhode Island
• William F. Havemeyer (1823), three-time Mayor of New York City
• John McKeon (1825): U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York; United States Congressman from New York
• Hamilton Fish (1827), US Secretary of State; Governor of New York; United States Senator from New York
• Daniel T. Jewett (1830), United States Senator from Missouri
• John Richardson Thurman (1835), United States Congressman from New York
• Abram Stevens Hewitt (1842), Mayor of New York City and father of the New York City Subway system
• Stewart L. Woodford (1854), Lieutenant Governor of New York and U.S. Minister to Spain
• Jacob Augustus Geissenhainer (1858), United States Congressman from New Jersey
• Seth Low (1870), Mayor of New York City and president of Columbia University
• Robert Anderson Van Wyck (1871), first Mayor of New York City to preside over all five boroughs
• William Sulzer (1884), Governor of New York
• J. Mayhew Wainwright (1884), U.S. Congressman and Assistant Secretary of War
• James W. Gerard (1890), United States Ambassador to Germany
• John Purroy Mitchel (1899), Mayor of New York City
• William Langer (1910), United States Senator and Governor of North Dakota
• Arthur F. Burns (1925), Chairman of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Ambassador to West Germany
• Harold Brown (1945), U.S. Secretary of Defense and president of the California Institute of Technology
• Morton Halperin (1958), Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department, and member of Richard Nixon's Enemies List
• Dick Morris (1967), political strategist and advisor to President Bill Clinton and Mexican President Felipe Calderon
• Judd Gregg (1969), United States Senator from New Hampshire; Governor of New Hampshire; United States Congressman
• Jerrold Nadler (1969), United States Congressman from New York
• Dov Zakheim (1970), advisor to the US Presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush
• David Paterson (1977), first African American Governor of New York and current Governor of New York
• Karl Dean (1978), mayor-elect of Nashville
• Christopher Dell (1978), career diplomat; current US ambassador to Zimbabwe
• Jim McGreevey (1978), Governor of New Jersey
• Charles J. O'Byrne (1981), Secretary to the Governor of New York
• James Rubin (1982), State Department official under the administration of US President Bill Clinton; spokesman for the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark and John Kerry; Sky News anchorman
• George Stephanopoulos (1982), senior advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration and ABC News personality
• Barack Obama (1983), United States Senator from Illinois and Democratic candidate for president
• Matt Gonzalez (1987), Green Party San Francisco mayoral candidate and independent 2008 candidate for vice president running with Ralph Nader
• Michael Leiter (1991), Principal Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and former Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
• Eric Garcetti (1992), member of the Los Angeles City Council
• David Segal (2001), member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives

Foreign political and diplomatic figures

• Pixley ka Isaka Seme (1906), founder and president of the African National Congress
• Wellington Koo (1909), President of the Republic of China and China's ambassador to the United States
• Mario Laserna Pinzón (1948), Colombian diplomat and educator; founded the Universidad de Los Andes
• Johan Jorgen Holst (1960), Norwegian Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs; heavily involved with the Oslo Accords
• Dore Gold (1975), Israeli political advisor and diplomat
• Toomas Hendrik Ilves (1975), President of Estonia

Publishers

• Alfred Harcourt (1904) and Donald Brace (1904), founders of Harcourt Brace
• Alfred A. Knopf (1912), founder and chairman of Alfred A. Knopf
• George T. Delacorte Jr. (1913), founder of Dell Publishing
• Arthur Hays Sulzberger (1913), publisher of The New York Times
• Bennett Cerf (1920), founder of Random House
• Richard L. Simon (1920) co-founder of Simon and Schuster
• M. Lincoln Schuster (1921), co-founder of Simon and Schuster
• Robert Giroux (1936), chairman of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Ian Ballantine (1938), founder of Ballantine Books
• Jason Epstein (1949), editorial director of Random House and co-founder of the New York Review of Books
• Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (1951), publisher of The New York Times
• Louis Rossetto (1971), founder and publisher of Wired magazine
• John R. MacArthur (1978), president and publisher of Harper's magazine

Religious figures

• Benjamin Moore (King's 1768), second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and president of Columbia College
• Jackson Kemper (1809), first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
• Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk (1809), fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York
• George Washington Bethune* (1823), theologian and preacher
• James DeKoven (1851), leader of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Episcopal Church
• Stephen Samuel Wise (1892), rabbi and Zionist leader
• Thomas Merton (1938), Trappist monk, writer, humanist; author of The Seven Storey Mountain
• Harold Kushner (1955), rabbi and writer
• Michael Lerner (1964), liberal rabbi and editor of Tikkun magazine

Scientists and inventors

• John Stevens (King's 1768), builder of the first oceangoing steamboat in the United States
• Horatio Allen (1823), imported the Stourbridge Lion, first successful steam locomotive to run in the United States
• Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (1841), chemist
• William Barclay Parsons (1879), chief engineer of the New York City Subway system
• Michael I. Pupin (1879), physicist
• Michael Heidelberger (1909), immunologist
• Hermann Joseph Muller (1910), geneticist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Konrad Lorenz* (1926), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr. (1935), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Robert Marshak (1936), president of the American Physical Society and president of the City College of New York
• Julian Schwinger (1936), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics; posited the Schwinger effect
• Barry Commoner (1937), environmentalist
• Robert Jastrow (1944), astronomer
• Joshua Lederberg (1944), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Robert Neil Butler (1949), president of the International Longevity Center and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
• Leon Cooper (1951), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Gerald Feinberg (1953), physicist who coined the term "tachyon"
• Melvin Schwartz (1953), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Alvin F. Poussaint (1956), professor of psychiatry and dean of freshmen at the Harvard Medical School
• Roald Hoffman (1958), winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Robert Pollack (1961), biologist
• Niles Eldredge (1965), collaborator of Stephen Jay Gould and curator of the Department of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History
• Richard Axel (1967), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studying the operations of the olfactory system

Spies

• William Joseph Donovan (1905), head of the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency
• Whittaker Chambers* (1924), Soviet spy and accuser of Alger Hiss
• Nathaniel Weyl (1931), operative in the Ware group of Soviet spies in the United States
• Victor Perlo (1933), leader of the Perlo group of Soviet spies in the United States
• Frank Snepp (1965), former CIA station chief for Saigon during the Vietnam War

Writers

• Clement Clarke Moore (1798), purported author of A Visit From St. Nicholas
• Charles Fenno Hoffman (1825), poet, translator, and editor
• Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1835), literary biographer
• George Templeton Strong (1838), noted diarist
• Edgar Fawcett (1867), novelist
• John Kendrick Bangs (1883), author, satirist, editor of Puck magazine
• Melville Henry Cane (1900), poet
• Joyce Kilmer (1908), poet and author of Trees
• Randolph Bourne (1912), essayist and public intellectual
• Paul Gallico* (1919), author of The Poseidon Adventure
• Louis Zukofsky (1922), co-founder and leading theorist of the Objectivist poets
• James Warner Bellah (1923), Western and pulp writer whose stories formed the basis of such John Ford classics as Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande.
• Corey Ford* (1923), humorist
• Henry Morton Robinson (1923), author of The Cardinal
• Cornell Woolrich (1923), mystery writer and author of Rear Window
• Herman Wouk (1934), author of War and Remembrance and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Caine Mutiny
• John Berryman (1936), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• Robert Lax (1938), minimalist poet
• Walter Farley (1941), author of The Black Stallion and its many sequels
• Gerald Green (1942), wrote Holocaust and The Last Angry Man
• Jack Kerouac* (1944), Beat generation author of On the Road
• Walter Wager (1944), mystery writer
• Herbert Gold (1946), novelist
• Allen Ginsberg (1948), Beat generation poet; author of Howl
• John Hollander (1950), poet, MacArthur Fellow and winner of the Bollingen Prize
• Richard Howard (1951), translator and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• Ralph Schoenstein (1953), humorist
• Robert Silverberg (1956), science fiction writer
• Jerome Charyn (1959), novelist
• Phillip Lopate (1964), essayist and fiction writer
• Steven Millhauser (1965), novelist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
• Eric Van Lustbader (1967), espionage and thriller novelist
• Thomas Hauser (1968), author of nonfiction and biographer
• David Shapiro (1968), poet
• Paul Auster (1970), postmodern writer; author of The New York Trilogy, Moon Palace, and the Brooklyn Follies
• David Lehman (1970), poet
• Kevin Baker (1980), novelist and freelance journalist
• Lou Antonelli (1981), science fiction writer
• David Rakoff (1986), comedic essayist
• John Reed (1990), novelist; author of Snowball's Chance
• Maxine Swann (1994), fiction writer
• Megan McCafferty (1995), chick lit writer, plagiarized by Kaavya Viswanathan
• Daniel Alarcón (1999), novelist

Miscellaneous

• Samuel L. Gouverneur (1817), postmaster of New York City and son-in-law of President James Monroe
• James Lenox (1818), bibliophile, founder of the Lenox Library, later incorporated into the New York Public Library
• John Lloyd Stephens (1822), explorer, archaeologist, Special Ambassador to Central America, and president of the Panama Railroad
• William R. Travers (1838), founder of the Travers Stakes
• Arthur B. Spingarn (1897), president of the NAACP
• Robert David Lion Gardiner (1934), owner of Gardiners Island
• John K. Lattimer (1935), urologist, ballistics expert, and inveterate collector
• Vincent Sardi, Jr. (1937), proprietor of Sardi's
• Arnold Friedman, subject of the documentary Capturing the Friedmans
• Richard Ravitch (1955), chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Bowery Savings Bank
• John Giorno (1958), subject of Andy Warhol's first movie, Sleep
• Arthur MacArthur IV (1960), son of Gen. Douglas MacArthur
• David Gilbert (1966), leader of Students for a Democratic Society and participant in Brink's armored car attack with Kathy Boudin
• Edwin Schlossberg (1967), husband of Caroline Kennedy
• Ted Gold* (1968), student activist, leader of the Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weatherman group
• John Jacobs* (1969), student activist, member of Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground
• Mark Rudd* (1969), president of Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground
• David Kaczynski (1970), brother of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski
• Ashrita Furman (1976), holder of the most Guinness Book of World Records records
• Douglas Sadownick (1981), writer and psychologist
• Peter Bacanovic (1984), Martha Stewart's stockbroker involved in the ImClone scandal.
• Annie Duke (1987), professional poker player
• Greg Giraldo (1987), stand-up comedian
• Anna Ivey (1994), admissions counsellor
• Benjamin Jealous (1994), president-elect of the NAACP