List of Oberlin College alumni

The people listed alphabetically below studied at Oberlin College. Most are listed with a year of graduation. Those without years studied but did not graduate.

Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

A

• Jad Abumrad, American radio host and producer. Currently hosts and produces Radiolab on WNYC.
• William Ament, controversial missionary to China, criticized by Mark Twain.
• Hobart Baumann Amstutz studied at the Conservatory 1914–15 before graduating from Oberlin High School in 1915. Later served as a Bishop for The Methodist Church.

B

• Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl
• Benjamin Bagby (1974), vocalist, harpist, scholar, and founder of early music ensemble Sequentia.
• Peter Baker (1988), New York Times journalist and author.
• Ishmael Beah (2004), author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.
• Alison Bechdel (1981), cartoonist (Dykes To Watch Out For) and graphic novelist (Fun Home)
• Arthur L. Benton (1931), neuropsychologist.
• Paul Bergstraesser (1989), author of several short stories and professor at the University of Wyoming.
• Joani Blank (1959), founder of Good Vibrations.
• Jackson Bliss (1998), novelist, author of BLANK and A Travel Guide to the Broken World.
• Geoffrey Blodgett (1953), historian and author of Cass Gilbert: The Early Years.
• Alex Blumberg (1989), producer, This American Life.
• Mark Boal (1995), screenwriter, The Hurt Locker.
• Eric Bogosian (1976), novelist, playwright (Talk Radio, suburbia (play)|subUrbia), and actor (Law and Order: Criminal Intent).
• Wendy Brenner (1987), author of Phone Calls From the Dead.
• Noah Bopp (1996), founder and director, School for Ethics and Global Leadership.
• Chris Brokaw (1986), rock drummer for Codeine, Come, Consonant.
• Avery Brooks (1970 and an additional honorary degree in 1996), actor in Uncle Tom's Cabin, American History X, Spenser: For Hire, best known for Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• Chris Broussard (1990), ESPN sports analyst.
• Antoinette Brown (1847), the first ordained female minister in the U.S.
• Paul Brown, newscaster/reporter for NPR; from 2001 to 2003 Brown was NPR's executive producer for weekend programming, also served as acting executive producer and acting senior producer of NPR's Talk of the Nation, and as acting senior producer at NPR's Morning Edition.
• Christopher Browning (1968), historian of the Holocaust.
• Blanche K Bruce, second African-American Senator from Mississippi, serving 1874–1881.
• Peter Buchman (1989), screenwriter for Jurassic Park III and Che.
• Alice Rowe Burks (1942), author of Who Invented the Computer?: The Legal Battle that Changed Computing History.
• James Burrows (1962), producer and creator of Cheers and Emmy award-winning director of Will & Grace, Wings, News Radio, among other series.
• Michael Byers (1991), novelist and author of The Coast of Good Intentions, Long for This World, and Percival's Planet.

C

• Marc Canter (1980), co-founder of MacroMind (later Macromedia).
• Ben Calhoun (2001), radio journalist, producer for This American Life.
• Gail Carriger (1998), fantasy novelist of Soulless.
• John Mark Carroll (1984), historian and author of A Concise History of Hong Kong.
• John Cazale (1954), actor in The Godfather and The Deer Hunter.
• Lewis Sperry Chafer (1891), theologian, one of the prominent proponents of Christian Dispensationalism, founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary.
• Brian Chase (2000), drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
• Amy Chen (1979), Director, Office of Investments, Smithsonian Institution, independent filmmaker, Oberlin College trustee (2009-present).
• Tracy Chevalier (1984), novelist and author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Angels, and The Lady and the Unicorn.
• Kevin Clarke (1991), renowned political methodologist, currently Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester.
• Yvette Clarke (transferred to Medgar Evers College, did not earn degree), Democratic representative for New York's 11th congressional district, 2007–present.
• 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.
• Stanley Cohen (1945), Nobel Physiology and Medicine laureate in 1986.
• Marc Cohn (1981), Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter.
• Johnnetta B. Cole (1957), first female African-American president of Spelman College, president of Bennett College 2002–07.
• John R. Commons (1888), well-known institutional economist and labor historian.
• Anna J. Cooper (1884), African-American author and teacher, fourth African-American woman to receive a PhD.
• Fanny Jackson Coppin (1865), influential African-American educator and missionary.
• Richard Cowan, posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II.
• Jacob Dolson Cox, politician and author.
• Paul Drennan Cravath (1882), famous lawyer, partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, creator of the "Cravath System" and founding Vice-President of the Council on Foreign Relations.
• Alev Lytle Croutier, a Turkish-American author.

D

• Charles D'Ambrosio (1982), essayist, short story writer.
• Rennie Davis, a prominent anti-Vietnam war activist and one of the Chicago Seven.
• Carl Dennis, Pulitzer prize-winning poet of Practical Gods.
• Michael Dirda (1970), Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reviewer, author.
• John Langalibalele Dube, first President of the African National Congress

E

• Chris Eldridge (2004), Guitarist, Punch Brothers; former guitarist, the Infamous Stringdusters.
• John Millott Ellis (1851), acting President of Oberlin College and abolitionist.
• Josh Emmons (1995), novelist (The Loss of Leon Meed, Prescription for a Superior Existence).

F

• George Fairchild (1862), third President of Kansas State University.
• Adrian Fenty (1992), former Mayor of Washington, D.C..
• Joan Feynman (1948), Solar astrophysicist who created a method to predict sun spot cycles and made original studies on the interactions between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere JPL, Pasadena, CA.^[1][2] Sister of Richard Feynman.
• Lee Fisher (1973), former Lieutenant Governor and former Attorney General of Ohio.
• Jim Fixx (1957), author of The Complete Book of Running.
• Peter Tyrrell Flawn (1947), geologist and former President of the University of Texas at Austin.
• Kim France (1987), editor of Lucky magazine.
• Darcy Frey (1983), non-fiction writer.
• Su Friedrich (1975), experimental filmmaker.
• Alan Furst (1962), novelist, author of Blood of Victory.

G

• Robert Galambos (1914-2010), researcher who discovered how bats use echolocation.^[3]
• Chester Gillette, an American convicted murderer, the basis for the fictional character Clyde Griffiths in the Theodore Dreiser novel, An American Tragedy, which in turn was the basis of the 1951 Academy Award-winning film A Place in the Sun.
• John Gofman (1939), a scientist involved in the Manhattan Project and an activist concerning issues with nuclear power and radiation danger.
• Myla Goldberg (1993), novelist (Bee Season, Wickett's Remedy).
• William Goldman (1952), novelist (The Princess Bride) and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men).
• Jason Myles Goss (2003), singer-songwriter.
• Elisha Gray, an inventor of the telephone who was beaten to the patent office by Alexander Graham Bell. The records of his invention still remain in the Oberlin Archive.
• Denyce Graves, an accomplished American opera singer, sang the American Anthem during the 44th Presidential Inauguration for President Barack Obama.
• Joseph L. Graves, Jr. (1977), Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Biological Studies at the Joint School for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.
• Melissa Fay Greene (1975), author (There Is No Me Without You).
• Jerry Greenfield (1973), co-creator of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
• Linda Gregerson (1971), award-winning poet (Waterborne, Magnetic North).
• Erwin Griswold (1925), lawyer, Solicitor General of the United States and dean of Harvard Law School.

H

• Richard N. Haass (1973), president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State.
• Al Haig, jazz pianist.
• Charles Martin Hall (1885), co-discoverer of the electrolytic process of producing aluminium, founder of Alcoa, Inc. (and contributor to the American spelling of "aluminum").
• David Halperin (1973), author (One Hundred Years of Homosexuality).
• Jon Hamilton (1983), NPR science correspondent.
• William Hamilton (1944), theologian affiliated with Death of God controversy
• Philip Hanawalt (1954), scientist, co-discoverer of DNA excision repair.
• Ellen Hayes (1878) astronomer and mathematican
• Philip C. Hayes (1860), American Civil War general.
• Edward Haskell (1929), scientist and educator who dedicated his life to the unification of human knowledge into a single discipline.
• Walter Heller (1935), economist and educator
• Ed Helms (1996), actor (The Office, The Hangover), comedian, correspondent on The Daily Show.
• Bill Henderson (novelist) (1965) author of Stark Raving Elvis, I Killed Hemingway, I, Elvis: Confessions of a Counterfeit King.
• Corin Hewitt (1993), American sculptor
• Joe Hickerson (1957), American folklorist.
• Ralph F. Hirschmann (1922–2009), biochemist who led synthesis of the first enzyme.^[4]
• Richard Hodges (1986), Member, Ohio House of Representatives 1993-1999
• Cynthia Hogan (1979), Counsel to the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, under President Barack Obama.
• Moses Hogan (1978?) Composer, conductor, pianist. Director of the Moses Hogan Chorale.
• Jonathan Holden (1963), poet (Knowing: New and Selected Poems).
• Michael Hollinger (1984), playwright (Red Herring)
• Cathy Park Hong (1998), poet (Translating Mo'um).
• Paul Horn (1952), jazz flutist.
• Edward Everett Horton (1909; honorary degree 1953), actor (The Front Page (1931 film), Top Hat, Holiday (1938 film)), voice actor (Rocky & Bullwinkle). {Left his junior year}
• Ralf Hotchkiss (1969), co-founder and current (2006) Whirlwind Chief Engineer of Whirlwind Wheelchair International, 1989 MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
• Hsiao Bi-khim (1993), Member of the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) of Taiwan , representing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the 1st Electoral District of Taipei City, and Vice President of Liberal International
• Tim Hurson (1967), speaker, writer, creativity theorist, author of Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking
• Robert Hutchins, educational philosopher, president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago

I

• Ernest Ingersoll, American naturalist.
• Bill Irwin (1973), actor in numerous plays and movies, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Rachel Getting Married, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, My Blue Heaven, and Eight Men Out, 1984 MacArthur Fellow, clown

J

• Charlene Drew Jarvis (1962), president of Southeastern University.
• Lisa Jervis (1993), creator and editor of Bitch magazine.
• Robert Jervis (1962), International Relations scholar and Columbia University professor.
• Benjamin Joffe-Walt (1980), writer, CNN Africa Print Journalist of the Year
• Barbara Johnson (1969), literary critic, professor at Harvard University.
• Chris Johnson (1990), filmmaker, photographer, PBS – "Voyage of the Odyssey" / earthOCEAN.tv
• Martha N. Johnson (1974), former official in the Clinton administration and Administrator of the United States General Services Administration
• Vernon Johns (1919), African-American preacher, PhD University of Chicago, predecessor of Martin Luther King Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, widely hailed as the father of the civil rights movement.
• J. Richard Judson (1949), Rembrandt, Honthorst, and Terbrugghen scholar and Professor Emeritus at UNC and Smith Colleges.

K

• Dave Kaemmer (1985), founder of the Papyrus Design Group and iRacing.com
• Fred Kaplan (1976), journalist and Slate columnist.
• John Kander (1951), of the musical theater team Kander and Ebb (Cabaret and Chicago, among others).
• 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
• James Kim (1992) , Senior CNET editor and technology analyst.
• Daniel Kinsey (1935), Olympic champion (110 m hurdles).
• Alex Klein (1987), Grammy-winning oboist.
• Jennifer Koh (1997), violinist (1994 International Tchaikovsky Competition winner).
• Anne O. Krueger (1953), award-winning economist, Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund, and Oberlin trustee (1987–95).
• Robert Krulwich (1969), television and radio journalist (RadioLab on WNYC).
• Judy Kuhn (1981), American singer, Broadway performer, and singing voice of Pocahontas
• H. H. Kung (1906), Chinese banker and Premier of the Republic of China (1938–39).
• Robert Kuttner (1965), co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and one of five co-founders of the Economic Policy Institute.

L

• John Mercer Langston (1849), early civil rights activist.
• Alfred A. Laun, Jr., Wisconsin State Senator.
• James Lawson (Graduate School of Theology, 1950s), leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence in US civil rights movement.
• Rex Lee (1990), actor, best known for his role on Entourage.
• Richard Lenski (1977), biologist and 1996 MacArthur Fellow.
• Edmonia Lewis, sculptor.
• Romulus Linney (1953, honorary degree 1994), playwright.
• Daniel London (1995), actor (Minority Report (film), Old Joy, Patch Adams (film)).

M

• John Edward Mack (1951), psychologist, author (A Prince of Our Disorder).
• David Maine (1985), novelist (The Preservationist).
• Michelle Malkin (1992), Philipina writer (Los Angeles Daily News, The Seattle Times), author (In Defense of Internment), political commentator.
• Rollo May (1930), psychologist, author.
• James McBride (1979), journalist (Boston Globe, The Washington Post), author (The Color of Water), musician.
• Catherine McBride-Chang 1989, Psychology. Prominent literacy researcher in the area of cross-cultural development of early literacy skills
• Megan McDonald (1981), writer of children's literature (Judy Moody, The Great Pumpkin Switch).
• John McEntire (1991), drummer (Tortoise).
• William C. McNeil (1966), attorney.
• Josh MacPhee (1996), political artist.
• George Herbert Mead (1883), philosopher, leading figure of American Pragmatism; his theories became the foundation of the symbolic interactionist school of sociology and social psychology.
• J. Hillis Miller (1948), literary critic (The Ethics of Reading, On Literature).
• Robert Millikan (1891), Nobel laureate (Physics, 1923) for measuring the charge of the electron.
• Naeem Mohaiemen (1993), writer and artist whose projects research histories of the 1970s international left.
• Jason Molina (1996), singer/songwriter with Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co.
• Eduardo Mondlane (1953), Mozambican political leader.
• Roger Montgomery (1949), Dean of Architecture, City Planning, and Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley.
• Martha Moody (1977), author of Best Friends, Office of Desire, and Sometimes Mine.
• Edward F. Mooney (1962), noted Kierkegaard scholar and Professor of Religion at Syracuse University.
• Gregory Mosher (1971), Tony Award-winning director.
• Adam Moss (1979), editor of New York magazine.
• Thylias Moss (1981), poet, playwright, and 1996 MacArthur Fellow.
• Julie Atlas Muz, burlesque dancer, actress, stage director

N

• Amy X. Neuburg (1984), classical and pop singer.
• Josh Neufeld (1989), cartoonist (Keyhole) and graphic novelist (A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge).
• Jim Newman (1955), founder of Dilexi Gallery and Other Minds New Music Festival, San Francisco.
• Thisbe Nissen (1994), novelist (Out of the Girls Room and Into the Night, Osprey Island)
• L. L. Nunn, Founder of Telluride Association and Deep Springs College.

O

• 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.
• Peggy Orenstein (1983), author (Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love, and Life in a Half-Changed World).
• Rich Orloff (1973), playwright (Big Boys).
• Dzvinia Orlowsky (1975), poet (Except for One Obscene Brush Stroke).
• Jena Osman (1985), poet (The Character).

P

• Suzanne Paola (1980), poet (Lives of The Saints) and memoirist.
• Alexander Perls (1998), songwriter, music producer.
• Laurence Perrine, best-selling author and professor at Southern Methodist University.
• Liz Phair (1989), singer/songwriter.
• Paul Pierson (1981), well known political scientist, professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley.
• John Wesley Powell, geologist and Civil War soldier.
• Jane Pratt (1984), creator of Sassy and Jane magazines.
• Nancy Priddy, singer-songwriter, perhaps best known for providing back-up vocals on Leonard Cohen's debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen.
• Lia Purpura (1986), poet (Stone Sky Lifting), essayist (Increase, On Looking).

Q

• Willard V. O. Quine (1930), philosopher and logician.

R

• Stephanie Rawlings Blake (1992), Mayor of Baltimore, MD
• Daniel Radosh (1991), journalist, blogger, writing staff of The Daily Show.
• David Rees (1994), cartoonist (My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, Get Your War On).
• Edwin O. Reischauer (1931) Ambassador to Japan, 1961–1966
• Tim (Mikesell) Riley (DD 1983), author of LENNON: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE MUSIC -- THE DEFINITIVE LIFE (Hyperion, 2011), praised by the New York Times as "a critical tour-de-force..." (also, Tell Me Why: The Beatles: Album by Album, Song by Song, the Sixties and After, "Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary," "Madonna Illustrated," and "Fever: How Rock Transformed Gender"), NPR critic, campus speaker, Emerson College Journalism professor.
• Josh Ritter (1999), singer/songwriter.
• Anita Roberts (1964), molecular biologist (made pioneering observations of TGF beta).
• Lucy Wainwright Roche (2003), musician, half-sister of Rufus Wainwright.
• Wilfred Roberts (1963), musician, principal bassoonist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
• Martha Root (1890s), Hand of the Cause in the Bahá'í Faith.
• Eli Rose (1993), the man behind the mystery. The Missing Man urban legend is based around him.
• Carl T. Rowan (1947), journalist.
• S. J. Rozan (1972), novelist (Reflecting the Sky).
• John C. Russell (1985), playwright (Stupid Kids).
• Oren Rudavsky (1979), filmmaker (Hiding and Seeking, And Baby Makes Two, The Treatment).
• Seth Rudetsky (1988), Broadway actor, pianist, writer, radio host
• Michael Rudman (1960), award-winning theater director

S

• William Sanders Scarborough (1875), classical scholar.
• David Schlesinger (1982) Editor-in-Chief, Reuters news, Thomson Reuters.
• Kathy Lou Schultz (1990), poet (Some Vague Wife).
• William F. Schulz (1971), former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.
• Robert E. Scott, (1965), law professor and notable contract law scholar at Columbia Law School, Board of Visitors at College of William and Mary
• Elizabeth Searle (1983), novelist (Celebrities in Disguise).
• Stephen W. Sears (1954), author (Gettysburg).
• John S. Service (1931) Foreign Service Officer, China Hand
• Vijay Seshadri (1974), poet (The Long Meadow).
• Sonia Shah (1990), investigative journalist.
• Andrew Shapiro (1998), composer
• Matthew Sharpe (1984), novelist (Nothing is Terrible, The Sleeping Father, Jamestown).
• Gary Shteyngart (1995), novelist (The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan : A Novel, Super Sad True Love Story ).
• George Smith (1987), ESPN investigative reporter, Division III Track & Field All-American.
• Lorenzo Snow, Mormon prophet, fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Donald J. Sobol (1948), author of Encyclopedia Brown series.
• Robert Spano (1983), music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
• Roger Wolcott Sperry (1935 and 1937), neurobiologist and Nobel laureate (Medicine, 1981).
• Larry Squire (1963), Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at University of California, San Diego, a world expert in the field of memory, Past President of the Society for Neuroscience.
• Matthew Stadler (1981), novelist (Allan Stein).
• Durham Stevens (1871), assassinated diplomat to Japan.
• William Grant Still, composer.
• Corey Stoll (1998), stage and screen actor (Intimate Apparel, Law & Order: LA, Midnight in Paris).
• Lucy Stone (1847), feminist and abolitionist.
• Anna Louise Strong (1905), activist and author.
• *** Sudhalter (1960), jazz musician and critic
• William (Bill) Svanoe (1959), member of the The Rooftop Singers
• Jon Swan (1950), playwright, poet, librettist, and journalist.
• Larry Sweeney (Alexander Whybrow) (2003), professional wrestler.

T

• Richard Tatum (1988), award-nominated stage and voice actor, Associate Artistic Director of the ARK Theatre Company, Los Angeles.
• Julie Taymor (1974), Emmy and Tony award-winning theatrical and cinematic director, filmmaker, screenwriter (Frida, Titus, Broadway's The Lion King, Across the Universe).
• Jon Theodore (1996), Ex-drummer for the Mars Volta.
• Michael Teig (1990), poet (Big Back Yard).
• Jen Trynin (1986), rock singer/songwriter.
• Mary Church Terrell (1884/1888), author, activist
• John Todd (abolitionist) (1841), abolitionist, conspirator with John Brown, founder of Tabor College (Iowa)
• Patrick Tully (1997), actor, best known for playing the role of Noah Tannenbaum on HBO's The Sopranos

U

• Emory Upton studied at Oberlin for two years before being admitted to West Point in 1856.

V

• John Vinocur (1961), senior correspondent for The International Herald Tribune.

W

• George Walker (1941, honorary degree 1983), composer, Pulitzer Prize for Music 1996.
• Moses Fleetwood Walker (1881), first African-American player in baseball's major leagues.
• Geoffrey Ward (1962), author (The West: An Illustrated History and The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945).
• Nick Wauters, television writer, creator of the NBC series The Event.
• Bruce Weigl (1973), poet (Archeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems).
• Paul Wennberg (1985), chemist and 2002 MacArthur Fellow.
• William Drake Westervelt (1871 and 1874; honorary degree 1926), Hawaiian historical writer.
• Wayne Bidwell Wheeler (1894), attorney, American prohibitionist.
• John W. Whitcomb (1987), civil rights attorney,Chicago.
• C. Martin Wilbur (1931), historian, Sinologist.
• Thornton Wilder, novelist (The Bridge of San Luis Rey), playwright (Our Town).
• Garnet C. Wilkinson (1902), educator and administrator^[5]
• Harrison A. Williams (1941), U.S. senator and congressman from New Jersey.
• Warren Wilson, namesake of Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.
• Christopher Robin "Kit" Woolsey (1964), bridge internationalist and writer (Matchpoints) and backgammon expert.
• John Wray (1993), novelist (The Right Hand of Sleep, Lowboy).
• Franz Wright (1977), Pulitzer prize winning poet (Ill Lit: Selected & New Poems, Walking to Martha's Vineyard).
• Katharine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright.
• Willard Warch (1931), Oberlin professor of music and theory.
• Felisa Wolfe-Simon, Geomicrobiologist at the US Geological Survey and a Fellow of the NASA Astrobiology Institute

+ Sheldon S. Wolin (1944, honorary degree 1994), political theorist, author (Politics and Vision)

Z

• David Zinman (1958), music director of the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
• Stephen Zunes (1979), University of San Francisco professor of politics, and political activist.

Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z

References