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