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, see the List of Columbia University people.

Founding Fathers of the United States

• John Jay (King's 1764), President of the Continental Congress; first Chief Justice of the United States; author of five of The Federalist papers; first Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation; architect of Jay Treaty with Great Britain
• Robert Livingston (King's 1764), a writer of the Declaration of Independence; first United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs; negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase
• Egbert Benson (King's 1765), delegate to the Continental Congress, U.S. Representatives, first New York State Attorney General, chief justice of the New York Supreme Court
• Gouverneur Morris (King's 1768), represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress; authored much of the United States Constitution; United States Ambassador to France; United States Senator from New York
• Alexander Hamilton* (King's 1776), American Revolutionary War officer, aide-de-camp to George Washington; most prolific writer of The Federalist Papers; first United States Secretary of the Treasury, portrayed on the ten-dollar bill; founder of the Bank of New York

Scholars

• John Vardill (1766), American loyalist educator, pamphleteer, spy
• Clement Clarke Moore (1798), son of bishop Benjamin Moore; professor of Oriental and Greek literature; attributed author of The Night Before Christmas
• John Anthon (1801), jurist
• John Church Hamilton (1809), son of Alexander Hamilton, American historian
• Charles Anthon (1815), classical scholar and translator known for the Anthon Transcript
• Henry Drisler (1839), classical scholar and acting president of Columbia College
• John Howard Van Amringe (1860), mathematician and Dean of Columbia College
• William Milligan Sloane (1868), historian, president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and founder of the United States Olympic Committee
• Felix Adler, (1870), professor of political and social ethics, founder of the Ethical Culture movement and the Ethical Culture Fieldston School
• Brander Matthews (1871), first professor of dramatic literature in the United States
• Richard T. Ely (1876), American economist, founder and president of the American Economic Association
• Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman (1879), American economist
• William Archibald Dunning (1881), founder of the Dunning School of Reconstruction
• James Chidester Egbert, Jr. (1881), classical scholar and educator
• Richard James Horatio Gottheil (1881), American Zionist scholar, founder of the first Jewish fraternity Zeta Beta Tau
• Harry Thurston Peck (1881), literary critic and editor of The Bookman
• William Robert Shepherd (1893), American cartographer, historian
• Joel Elias Spingarn (1895), professor of comparative literature
• Alfred L. Kroeber (1896), pioneering cultural anthropologist
• Frederick Paul Keppel (1898), American educator, former president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York
• John Erskine (1900), Great Books pioneer
• Robert Livingston Schuyler (1903), scholar on American history, president of the American Historical Association
• Carlton J. H. Hayes (1904), pioneering cultural historian; former United States Ambassador to Spain
• Edward Sapir (1904), linguist and co-creator of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
• Armin K. Lobeck (1911), American cartographer
• Arthur MacMahon (1912), American political scientist, president of the American Political Science Association
• Parker LeRoy Moon (1913), professor and managing editor of the Political Science Quarterly
• Benjamin Graham (1914), economist who pioneered value investing
• Irwin Edman (1916), philosopher
• John Herman Randall, Jr. (1918), philosopher
• Kenneth Burke* (1920), American literary theorist and philosopher
• Richard McKeon (1920), philosopher
• Mortimer Adler* (1923), philosopher and Great Books pioneer
• Leslie White (1923), American anthropologist known for his theories of the evolution of culture and for the scientific study of culture
• Meyer Schapiro (1924), art historian
• Joseph Campbell (1925), mythologist
• Lionel Trilling (1925), literary critic
• Jacques Barzun (1927), cultural historian
• Robert C. Schnitzer (1927), arts teacher and administrator
• Francis Steegmuller (1927), Flaubert scholar
• Leon Keyserling (1928), head of the Council of Economic Advisers under Harry S Truman
• Edgar Lorch (1928), mathematics department chairman at Columbia University
• Eli Ginzberg (1930), professor of economics at Columbia University
• Joseph Leon Blau (1934), professor of religion at Columbia University
• Alan Gewirth (1934), American philosopher, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, author of Reason and Morality
• David Crook (1935), Communist ideologue who resided in China; professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University
• Joseph Greenberg (1936), prominent linguist known for work in linguistic typology and genetic classfication of languages
• Carl E. Schorske (1936), cultural historian and winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for History
• Quentin Anderson (1937), cultural historian and literary critic
• Charles Frankel (1937), political philosopher
• Barry Ulanov (1939), English professor and scholar of jazz and religion
• Ted de Bary (1941), East Asian studies expert and provost of Columbia University
• Donald Keene (1942), scholar of Japanese culture
• Robert Lekachman (1942), economist
• Philip Yampolsky (1942), scholar of Zen Buddhism
• 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)
• Murray Rothbard (1945), leading exponent of the Austrian School of economics
• Richard Heffner (1946), professor and host of The Open Mind
• Fritz Stern (1946), Seth Low Professor of History Emeritus; pre-eminent in German studies
• Eric McKitrick (1949), professor of history at Columbia University
• Marvin Harris (1949), American anthropologist famous for developing cultural materialism
• Arthur Melvin Okun (1949), chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, proposed Okun's law
• Lambros Comitas (1948), anthropologist
• Steven Marcus (1948), professor of English and Freudian studies
• Burton Watson (1950), American scholar and translator of Chinese and Japanese literature
• Immanuel Wallerstein (1951), sociologist who defined world-systems theory
• Andrew P. Vayda (1952), professor emeritus of anthropology and ecology at Rutgers University
• Demetrios James Caraley (1954), editor of Political Science Quarterly and president of the Academy of Political Science
• Peter Kenen (1954), provost, Columbia University
• Stephen Orgel (1954), Shakespeare and Renaissance literature scholar
• David Rosand (1954), Art historian, Columbia University
• Jerry Fodor (1956), philosopher
• Erich S. Gruen (1957), American classicist and ancient historian; president of the Society for Classical Studies in 1992
• Joachim Neugroschel (1958), prolific multilingual translator
• Robert Nozick (1959), libertarian philosopher
• Isser Woloch (1959), historian of the French Revolution
• Marshall Berman (1961), urbanologist
• Zvi Gitelman (1962), Jewish scholar at the University of Michigan
• Harvey Goldschmid (1962), professor at Columbia Law School, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2002 to 2005
• Joel Moses (1962), mathematician, Institute Professor at and provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Lawrence S. Wittner (1962), historian on peace movements
• Eric Foner (1963), pre-eminent historian of Reconstruction
• Jonah Raskin (1963), American writer, professor on counterculture
• Howard Spodek (1963), American historian specializing in urban studies; professor at Temple University
• Jonathan R. Cole (1964), American sociologist and provost of Columbia University from 1989 to 2003
• Richard Epstein (1964), libertarian law scholar
• Richard Kayne (1964), professor of linguistics at New York University
• John H. Langbein (1964), Sterling Professor at Yale Law School
• Mike Wallace (1964), historian and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History for Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
• Michael M. Gunter (1964), professor at Tennessee Technological University, authority in Kurds
• Richard Taruskin (1965), American musicologist
• Raymond Geuss (1966), specialist in Jürgen Habermas
• Steven Handel (1966), restoration ecologist, professor at Rutgers University
• Ira Katznelson (1966), American political scientist and historian, professor at Columbia University
• Jay Winter (1966), World War I specialist at Yale University
• Paul Gewirtz (1967), constitutional law scholar
• Karl Klare (1967), Critical Legal Studies theorist
• Norman Friedman (1967), American author and naval analyst
• Lawrence Susskind (1968), urban planner and mediator; professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jerry Avorn (1969), professor at the Harvard Medical School
• Michel Rosenfeld (1969), constitutional law scholar
• Steven M. Cohen (1970), sociologist, director of Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
• Lennard J. Davis (1970), professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, specialist in disability studies
• Peter Grossman (1970), professor of economics at Butler University; columnist, The Indianapolis Star
• Paul Starr (1970), sociologist; co-founder of The American Prospect and winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
• Paul Berman (1971), historian and social critic
• Joel Black (1972), literature and film scholar
• Jerome Groopman (1972), Harvard Medical School professor and medical writer for The New Yorker
• Sean Wilentz (1972), historian and winner of the Bancroft Prize; chair of American Studies at Princeton University
• Angelo Falcón (1973), political scientist, President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP)
• Saul Levmore (1973), commercial law scholar, former dean of the University of Chicago Law School
• James R. Russell (1974), professor of Ancient Near Eastern studies at Harvard University
• Haruo Shirane (1974), professor of Japanese literature of Columbia University
• Jonathan Crary (1975), art critic, essayist, professor of art at Columbia University
• David Albert (1976), professor of philosophy at Columbia University
• Barry Bergdoll (1977), chief curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art
• James S. Shapiro (1977), Shakespearean authority
• Peter Christopher (1978), writer and professor at Georgia Southern University
• Steve Fuller (1979), American philosopher, sociologist in the field of science and technology studies
• Michael Bérubé (1982), professor of literature and cultural studies
• David Makovsky (1982), Middle East Scholar
• Thomas Sugrue (1984), historian of the 20th century United States
• Noam Elkies (1985), mathematician, youngest full professor at Harvard
• William Deresiewicz (1985), literary critic
• Ritu Birla (1987), historian of modern South Asia
• David Eisenbach (1994), historian on media and politics; narrator, 10 Things You Don't Know About
• Jesús Escobar (1989), professor of Art History at Northwestern University, expert in early modern art of Spain and Italy
• Rohit Aggarwala (1993), American environmental policy advisor, transport planner, historian, professor of Columbia University

University presidents

• John M. Mason (1789), provost of Columbia College and president of Dickinson College
• Philip Milledoler (1793), fifth president of Rutgers University
• Nathaniel Fish Moore (1802), eighth President of Columbia University
• Isaac Ferris (1816), third President of New York University
• John Aikman Stewart (1841), businessman, banker, acting president of Princeton University
• 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
• Frank Pierrepont Graves (1890), former president of the University of Washington, University of Wyoming; Commissioner of Education of the State of New York from 1921 to 1940
• Frank D. Fackenthal (1906), acting president of Columbia University
• Dixon Ryan Fox (1911), Union College president from 1934 to 1945
• James S. Coles (1936), ninth president of Bowdoin College
• James C. Fletcher (1940), president of the University of Utah and administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• 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
• Daniel Gordis (1981), vice president of Shalem College, Israel's first liberal arts college
• Deborah Waxman (1989), president of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Actors

• Ralph Morgan (1904), co-founder of Actors Equity and first president of the Screen Actors Guild
• Nat Pendleton (1916), portrayer of Eugen Sandow in The Great Ziegfeld and silver-medal wrestler in the 1920 Summer Olympics
• James Cagney* (1922), winner of the Academy Award for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy
• Richard Ney (19--), actor, Mrs. Miniver; husband of Greer Garson
• Cornel Wilde* (1933), star of The Greatest Show on Earth, Beach Red, and Academy Award nominee for A Song to Remember
• Dolph Sweet (1948), played Carl Canisky in Gimme a Break!
• Sorrell Booke (1949), played Boss Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard
• Stephen Strimpell (1954), star of Mister Terrific
• 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; co-star of Phantom of the Paradise
• Jared Martin (1965), actor, Dallas (1978 TV series)
• Ben Stein (1966), host of Win Ben Stein's Money; speechwriter for former US President Richard M. Nixon
• Gerrit Graham* (1970), film actor and songwriter
• Richard Thomas* (1973), star of The Waltons
• Mario Van Peebles (1978), star of Heartbreak Ridge and Sonny Spoon
• Matt Salinger (1983), son of J.D. Salinger
• Robert Maschio (1988), actor on Scrubs
• Matthew Fox (1989), star of Party of Five and Lost
• Dan Futterman (1989), Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and actor, starred in The Birdcage and wrote Capote
• Famke Janssen (1992), actress, X-Men, GoldenEye
• Rachel DeWoskin (1994), actress and author, Foreign Babes in Beijing
• Jean Louisa Kelly (1994), star of Mr. Holland's Opus
• Amanda Peet (1994), star of the TV series Jack & 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-winning actress for The Honourable Woman, and star in Secretary, Stranger than Fiction and The Dark Knight
• Liza Weil (1999), actress, The Gilmore Girls
• Jesse Bradford (2002), actor in Flags of Our Fathers and Bring It On
• Jake Gyllenhaal* (2002), Academy Award-nominated actor for Brokeback Mountain, star of Jarhead and Donnie Darko
• Brandon Victor Dixon (2003), Tony Award-nominated broadway actor starring in Scottsboro Boys
• Rachel Nichols (2003), actress, Continuum, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
• Jenny Slate (2004), cast member, Saturday Night Live
• 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
• Kate McKinnon (2006), actress and comedian, Saturday Night Live
• Grace Parra (2006), actress, screenwriter, TV host
• 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, D.C.
• Lockwood de Forest* (1872), American artist, interior and furniture designer
• Devereux Emmet (1883), pioneering golf course architect
• 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
• Burton Silverman (1949), painter
• Edward Koren (1957), cartoonist
• Robert A. M. Stern (1960), traditionalist architect, dean of the Yale School of Architecture
• Scott Burton (1962), urban sculptor
• Greg Wyatt (1971), sculptor-in-residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
• Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (1974), photographer
• Peter Pennoyer (1980), architect
• Jacob Collins (1986), American realist painter, founder of the Grand Central Academy of Art
• Ricardo Cortés (1995), illustrator, It's Just a Plant
• Damon Winter (1997), Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The New York Times

Athletes

• John Cox Stevens (1803), founder and first commodore of the New York Yacht Club, won the first America's Cup trophy in 1851
• Reginald Sayre (1881), orthopedic surgeon and Olympic sport shooter
• Leo Fishel (1899), first Jewish pitcher in Major League Baseball
• Harold Weekes (1903), football player for the Columbia Lions, member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Harry A. Fisher (1905), basketball coach for Columbia, United States Military Academy, St. John's; member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
• Eddie Collins (1907), baseball player for the Chicago White Sox and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Marcus Hurley (1908), cyclist who won 4 gold medals in Cycling at the 1904 Summer Olympics
• Ted Kiendl (1911), National Basketball Player of the Year in 1911; corporate lawyer, argued Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins before the Supreme Court in 1938
• George Smith (1916), pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies
• Millard Bloomer (1920), Olympic fencer
• Harold Bloomer (1924), Olympic fencer
• Lou Gehrig* (1925), first baseman for the New York Yankees and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Walter Koppisch (1925), football player for the New York Giants, member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Norman Armitage (1931), Olympic bronze medalist fencer; first person to be inducted into the USFA Hall of Fame
• Lou Bender (1932), pioneer player with the Columbia Lions and in early pro basketball, who was later a successful trial attorney.^[1]
• Hugh Alessandroni (1929), Olympic bronze medalist fencer
• George Gregory, Jr. (1933), first African American basketball player to be selected as All-American
• Cliff Montgomery (1934), led the Columbia Lions football team to victory in the Rose Bowl
• Sid Luckman (1939), Chicago Bears quarterback
• Paul Governali (1943), football player for the Boston Yanks and New York Giants
• Walt Budko (1948), basketball player for Baltimore Bullets and Philadelphia Warriors
• Bruce Gehrke (1948), football player for New York Giants
• Lou Kusserow (1949), football player for Hamilton Tiger-Cats and New York Yanks
• John Azary (1951), basketball player, recipient of the Haggerty Award
• Jack Molinas (1953), NBA player for the Fort Wayne Pistons
• James Melcher (1961), Olympian fencer, president of Fencers Club and hedge fund manager
• Archie Roberts (1965), former football player for the Miami Dolphins and cardiac surgeon
• Jim McMillian (1968), NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers, Buffalo Braves, New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers
• Marty Domres (1969), football player for San Diego Chargers and Baltimore Colts
• George Starke (1971), offensive lineman for the Washington Redskins
• Vitas Gerulaitis* (1975), champion tennis player
• Alton Byrd (1979), basketball player
• John Witkowski (1983), football player for Detroit Lions and Houston Oilers
• Gene Larkin (1984), member of the Minnesota Twins 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams
• Caitlin Bilodeaux (1987), Olympic fencer
• Bob Cottingham (1988), Olympic fencer
• Jon Normile (1989), Olympic fencer
• Marcellus Wiley (1997), football player for the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys
• Dan Kellner (1998), fencer
• Cristina Teuscher (2000), Olympic gold medalist swimmer
• Jedediah Dupree (2001), NCAA Champion fencer
• Veljko Urošević (2003), Serbian Olympic rower
• Fernando Perez (2004), Outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays
• Emily Jacobson (2004), fencer
• Delilah DiCrescenzo (2005), American long-distance runner, inspiration and subject of the Grammy-nominated song Hey There Delilah
• Lisa Nemec (2006), Croatian long-distance runner
• Miloš Tomić (2006), Serbian Olympic rower
• Erison Hurtault (2007), Dominican sprinter
• James Leighman Williams (2007), Olympic fencer
• Sherif Farrag (2009), Egyptian-American Olympic fencer
• Nicholas la Cava (2009), Olympic rower
• Jeff Spear (2010), Olympic fencer
• Daria Schneider (2010), fencer
• Nicole Ross (2011), Olympic fencer
• Nzingha Prescod (2015), Olympic fencer
• Ramit Tandon (2015), professional squash player
• Sasha DiGiulian (2016), world champion climber

Businesspeople

• Henry Rutgers (1766), Revolutionary War hero, businessman, philanthropist, and namesake of Rutgers University
• Leffert Lefferts (1794), first president of Long Island Bank
• William Backhouse Astor, Sr. (1811), son of John Jacob Astor
• Cornelius Roosevelt*, member of the Roosevelt family, one of the founders of the Chemical Bank; great-grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt
• James H. Roosevelt (1819), founder of Roosevelt Hospital
• Bradish Johnson (1831), American industrialist involved in the Swill milk scandal
• Adrian G Iselin* (1837), financier, banker
• John Jacob Astor III (1839), son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr.
• William Henry Vanderbilt* (1841), eldest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt; president of the New York Central Railroad, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, Canada Southern Railway, and Michigan Central Railroad
• Robert Morrison Olyphant (1842), heir to trading company Olyphant & Co. and president of the Delaware and Hudson Railway
• William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1849), son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. and husband of Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, co-founder of The Four Hundred
• Robert Goelet (1860), real estate developer
• William Bayard Cutting (1869), financier, philanthropist, namesake of the Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park
• Stuyvesant Fish (1871), president of the Illinois Central Railroad
• Isaac Newton Seligman (1876), heir to American investment bank J. & W. Seligman & Co.
• William Fellowes Morgan, Sr. (1880), businessman, philanthropist
• George M. La Monte (1884), chairman of Prudential Financial from 1925 to 1927
• Joseph P. Knapp* (1884), businessman, philanthropist, founder of Ducks Unlimited
• Joseph Peter Grace, Sr. (1894), businessman, polo player, heir to W. R. Grace and Company; founder of Pan American-Grace Airways and Grace National Bank
• Marcellus Hartley Dodge, Sr. (1903), chairman of the Remington Arms Company, husband of Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge
• Ward Melville (1909), creator of Thom McAn shoes; helped the establishment of Stony Brook University
• Armand Hammer (1919), philanthropist, chairman of Occidental Petroleum, namesake of Hammer Museum and Armand Hammer United World College of the American West
• George E. Jonas (1919), partner in Pellessier-Jonas-Rivet Manufacturing Co., philanthropist and founder of Camp Rising Sun
• Morris Schapiro (1923), American investment banker, grandfather of painter Jacob Collins '86 and brother of art historian Meyer Schapiro '24
• Lawrence Wien (1925), real estate magnate and philanthropist
• Herbert Hutner (1928), private investment banker, attorney, and philanthropist; fourth husband of socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor
• Nathan S. Ancell (1929), co-founder of furniture company Ethan Allen
• Ira D. Wallach (1929), head of Central National-Gottesman, the largest privately held marketer of paper and pulp products
• Arnold A. Saltzman (1936), businessman, diplomat, art collector, philanthropist
• John Kluge (1937), billionaire, chairman and founder of Metromedia
• Howard Pack (1939), chairman and president of Seatrain Lines
• Daniel Edelman (1940), founder of the world's largest public relations firm Edelman
• Alan Wagner (1951), first president of Disney Channel
• Roone Arledge (1952), former president of ABC News and winner of 36 Emmys; creator of 20/20, Nightline, Monday Night Football, ABC World News Tonight and Primetime
• Alan N. Cohen (1952), former co-owner of the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets; former chairman and CEO of the Madison Square Garden Corporation
• Alfred Lerner (1955), chairman of MBNA Bank and ex-owner of the Cleveland Browns
• Sid Sheinberg (1955), head of Universal Pictures
• Franklin A. Thomas (1956), former president of The Ford Foundation
• Doug Morris (1960), CEO of Sony Music Entertainment and former CEO of Universal Music Group
• Frank Lorenzo (1961), former chairman of Eastern Airlines, Texas Air Corporation and Texas International Airlines
• William Campbell (1962), chairman of the board of Intuit, former board director of Apple Inc.; founder of Claris
• Kenneth Lipper (1962), financier and deputy mayor of New York City; Academy Award-winning producer of the Holocaust documentary The Last Days
• Jerry Speyer (1962), billionaire, founding partner, chairman and CEO of Tishman Speyer
• Robert Kraft (1963), chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group; owner of the New England Patriots
• Mark H. Willes (1963), former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, CEO and Publisher of Los Angeles Times
• Michael Gould (1966), former CEO of Bloomingdale's
• Julian Geiger (1967), former CEO of Aéropostale and current CEO of Crumbs Bake Shop
• Mark E. Kingdon (1971), hedge fund manager, president of Kingdon Capital Management
• Gara LaMarche (1976), former president and CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies; president of advocacy group Democracy Alliance
• J. Ezra Merkin (1976), American financier, hedge fund manager; former chairman of GMAC Inc.
• Tom Glocer (1981), former CEO of Thomson Reuters and Reuters
• Donald F. Ferguson (1982), Chief technology officer at Dell
• Wayne Allyn Root (1983), business mogul, TV personality and producer, author, 2008 Libertarian Party vice-presidential nominee
• Daniel S. Loeb (1983), billionaire, hedge fund manager, founder of Third Point Management
• Kai-Fu Lee (1983), Taiwanese IT Venture Capitalist, founder of Google China and Microsoft Research Asia
• Steve Perlman (1983), founder and CEO of Artemis Networks; inventor of QuickTime, MSN TV, pCell, and Mova Contour facial motion capture technology
• Randy Lerner (1984), billionaire, ex-owner of Cleveland Browns and Aston Villa F.C., son of billionaire Alfred Lerner '55
• Michael Wolf (1984), founder of Activate, and former president of MTV Networks
• Noam Gottesman (1986), billionaire, hedge fund manager, and co-founder of GLG Partners
• Ben Horowitz (1988), technology entrepreneur, co-founder of software company Opsware and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, son of conservative writer David Horowitz '59
• Dirk Edward Ziff (1988) billionaire businessman, son of publishing magnate William Bernard Ziff, Jr.
• Jonathan Lavine (1988), business executive, managing partner and chief investing officer of Sankaty Advisors.
• Joanne Ooi (1989), former creative director of Shanghai Tang; CEO of Clean Air Network and Plukka
• Daniel M. Ziff (199-), third youngest billionaire hedge fund manager in the U.S., son of publishing magnate William Bernard Ziff, Jr.
• Jack Hidary (1991), financier and entrepreneur, co-founder of the Automotive X Prize and EarthWeb/Dice Inc.
• Ken Shubin Stein (1991) activist investor, hedge fund manager
• Shawn Landres (1994), social entrepreneur, co-founder of Jewish philanthropic organization Jumpstart
• Welly Yang (1994), real estate developer; former actor and playwright
• Arnold Kim (1996), founder of MacRumors
• Li Lu (1996), former student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and American investment banker, founder of Himalaya Capital
• Ellen Gustafson (2002), businesswoman, social entrepreneur, food activist, co-founder of FEED Projects and former spokesperson for the World Food Programme
• Doug Imbruce (2005), co-founder of Qwiki, an automated video production company

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
• Allan Temko (1947), architecture critic of The San Francisco Chronicle and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
• Andrew Sarris (1951), film critic
• Martin Gottfried (1955), critic, author, and biographer
• Morris Dickstein (1961), cultural critic and professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY
• 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

• Robert Siegel (1968), host of All Things Considered on National Public Radio
• Jim Gardner (1970), anchor for WPVI-TV news in Philadelphia
• Elizabeth Cohen (198-), CNN's senior medical correspondent
• Pimm Fox (198-), Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg Television anchorman
• 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; husband of Christiane Amanpour
• George Stephanopoulos (1982), ABC News personality; senior advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration
• Greg Burke (1982), former Fox News correspondent and senior communications adviser with the Vatican's Secretariat of State
• 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
• Suzy Shuster (1994), Emmy Award-winning sportscaster with ABC Sports
• Max Kellerman (1998), American boxing commentator and host of HBO World Championship Boxing
• Gideon Yago (2000), MTV News correspondent

Editors

• 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
• Charles Peters (1949), founder and former editor-in-chief of The Washington Monthly
• Robert Gottlieb (1952), editor of The New Yorker
• Max Frankel (1952), Pulitzer Prize winning executive editor of the New York Times
• Clark Hoyt (1964), public editor of the New York Times
• Leon Wieseltier (1974), literary editor, The New Republic
• Dean Baquet (1978), Pulitzer Prize-winning executive editor of The New York Times
• John Glusman (1978), editor-in-chief of W. W. Norton & Company
• Marcus Brauchli (1983), former managing editor, The Wall Street Journal and executive editor of The Washington Post
• Charles Ardai (1991), founder of Juno and Hard Case Crime
• Janice Min (1991), former editor of Us Weekly, co-president and chief creative officer of Guggenheim Partners
• Franklin Foer (1996), editor, The New Republic
• Marco Roth (1996), one of the editors of n+1
• Christopher Bollen (1998), journalist, essayist, and former editor-in-chief of Interview Magazine
• Matthew Continetti (2003), associate editor and writer, The Weekly Standard

Journalists

• Henry Demarest Lloyd (1867), muckraking journalist, "father of investigative journalism"
• Matthew Josephson (1920), American journalist credited with popularizing the term "Robber baron"
• Herbert Matthews (1922), New York Times foreign correspondent who first reported Fidel Castro alive in the Sierra Maestra
• Ernest Cuneo (1927), president, North American Newspaper Alliance
• Kennett Love (1948), journalist for The New York Times
• David Wise (1951), author of espionage and national security nonfiction
• Thomas Lippman (1961), journalist and author specializing in the Middle East, correspondent for The Washington Post
• Lars-Erik Nelson (1962), New York Daily News columnist
• Michael Drosnin (1966), journalist and author on the Bible code
• Juan Gonzalez (1969), New York Daily News columnist
• James Simon Kunen (1970), author of articles for Newsday, People, The New York Times Magazine and the novel The Strawberry Statement
• Michael Wolff (1975), media columnist for New York Magazine and Vanity Fair
• Michael Musto (1978), gossip columnist for The Village Voice
• Tim Weiner (1979), Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times specializing in national security matters
• Barry C. Lynn (19--), American journalist, senior fellow at the New America Foundation
• Kevin Baker (1980), freelance journalist and novelist
• Ashley Kahn (1983) Grammy-winning music historian, journalist, and producer
• N.J. Burkett (1984), award-winning correspondent for WABC-TV
• Matthew Cooper (1984), Time magazine White House correspondent and defendant in the Valerie Plame investigation
• Naftali Bendavid (1986), Congress correspondent for The Wall Street Journal
• Elizabeth Rubin (1987), American journalist for the The New York Times Magazine, sister of Bloomberg News executive editor James Rubin'82
• Caroline Glick (1991), Israeli journalist, editor, writer
• Jesse Eisinger (1992), Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for ProPublica
• 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
• David Epstein (2002), investigative reporter at ProPublica and author of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene
• Jonah Lehrer (2003), former writer for The New Yorker discharged for falsifying quotes
• Poppy Harlow (2005), correspondent for CNN

Pundits

• Arnold Beichman (1934), conservative critic
• Ralph de Toledano (1938), conservative commentator, editor of National Review and Newsweek
• 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
• Jeffrey Hart (1952), conservative cultural critic and advisor to the Dartmouth Review
• David Horowitz (1959), conservative commentator and activist; author of the Academic Bill of Rights
• Herbert London (1960), conservative activist; former professor at New York University and first dean of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study; former president of conservative think tank Hudson Institute

Sports journalists

• 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
• 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

• Richard Harison (1764), first United States Attorney for the District of New York
• Egbert Benson (1765), Chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, First Attorney General of the State of New York and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York
• Peter van Schaack (1767), American loyalist and attorney
• Abraham Van Vechten (178-), two-time New York Attorney General
• Anthony Bleecker (1791), lawyer and founding member of the New-York Historical Society
• Samuel Jones, Jr. (1793), Recorder of New York City; Chancellor of New York; Chief Justice of the New York City Superior Court
• Augustus B. Woodward (1793), first Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory; one of the founders of the University of Michigan
• Thomas Phoenix (1795), New York County District Attorney
• Pierre C. Van Wyck (1795), New York County District Attorney; Recorder of New York City
• William P. Van Ness (1797), United States federal judge
• Alexander Hamilton Jr. (1804), son of Alexander Hamilton, attorney, soldier, and member of the New York State Assembly
• Hugh Maxwell (1808), New York County District Attorney and Collector of the Port of New York
• Matthew C. Paterson (A.M. 1809), New York County District Attorney
• Ogden Hoffman (1812), New York State Attorney General (1854–55), U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1841–45), U.S. congressman from New York (1837–41)
• Frederic de Peyster (A. M. 1819), New York attorney
• Theodore Sedgwick III (1829), United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
• Samuel Blatchford (1837), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Ogden Hoffman, Jr. (1840), United States federal judge
• Frederic René Coudert, Sr. (1850), lawyer, founder of international law firm Coudert Brothers
• Edgar M. Cullen (1860), Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Willard Bartlett (1869), Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Randolph B. Martine (1885), New York County District Attorney from 1885 to 1887
• Benjamin Cardozo (1889), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Joseph M. Proskauer (1896), lawyer, judge, co-founder of international law firm Proskauer Rose
• Arthur Garfield Hays (1902), counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union and lawyer in the Scopes Trial
• Alexander Holtzoff (1908), judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
• Benjamin Buttenwieser (1919), parter of Kuhn, Loeb, president of the United Jewish Appeal
• Alfred Egidio Modarelli (1920), judge on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
• George Rosling (1920), judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• Archie Owen Dawson (1921), judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Louis Nizer (1922), legendary trial lawyer
• Joseph Carmine Zavatt (1922), judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• John T. Cahill (1924), U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and founding partner of Cahill Gordon & Reindel
• Paul R. Hays (1924), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; wrote majority opinion that found I Am Curious (Yellow) to be not obscene.
• Frank Hogan (1924), District Attorney of New York City
• George Jaffin (1924), attorney and philanthropist; major patron of Yaacov Agam
• Frederick van Pelt Bryan (1925), judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Jerome L. Greene (1926), lawyer, philanthropist
• Murray Gurfein (1926), judge of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, famous for presiding over the Pentagon Papers case
• Milton Pollack (1927), judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Arthur Krim (1930), partner in Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon and co-chairman of United Artists
• Charles Miller Metzner (1931), judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals
• Lawrence E. Walsh (1932), independent counsel in the Iran-Contra affair; 4th United States Deputy Attorney General
• Daniel Mortimer Friedman (1937), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; acting Solicitor General of the United States
• Wilfred Feinberg (1940), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Hugh H. Bownes (1941), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• Richard Kuh (1941), New York County District Attorney and prosecutor of Lenny Bruce for obscenity
• Charles L. Brieant (1944), judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• 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
• Arthur Lazarus, Jr. (1947), American Indian rights lawyer, argued United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians and was involved in the Black Hills Land Claim
• Norman Dorsen (1950), professor at the New York University School of Law and former president of the American Civil Liberties Union
• Clarence Benjamin Jones (1956), attorney and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.
• Bernard Nussbaum (1958), White House counsel under Bill Clinton
• David G. Trager (1959), judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• Robert Abrams (1960), Bronx Borough President and New York State Attorney General
• José A. Cabranes (1961), judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals; first Puerto Rican to sit in a U.S. District Court; current Trustee of Columbia University
• Michael B. Mukasey (1963), Attorney General of the United States; Chief judge (2000–06), judge (1987–2006) of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Flemming L. Norcott, Jr. (1965), former Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
• Joel Klein (1967), assistant Attorney General of the United States; Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education
• Nicholas G. Garaufis (1969), judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and former chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration
• William Barr (1971), Attorney General of the United States
• Gerard E. Lynch (1972), judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Robert Katzmann (1973), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Eric Holder (1973), United States Attorney General under Barack Obama, Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
• Paul S. Diamond (1974), judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Abbe Lowell (1974), partner of Chadbourne & Parke, Chief Minority Counsel during the Impeachment of Bill Clinton
• Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. (1978), federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
• Rolando Acosta (1979), associate justice of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, First Judicial Department
• Lanny A. Breuer (1980), United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division
• Miguel Estrada (1983), controversial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Neil Gorsuch (1988), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Military leaders

• Rudolphus Ritzema (1758), officer during the American Revolutionary War
• Edward Antill (1762), colonel and military engineer of the Continental Army who fought in the Battle of Quebec
• Nicholas Fish (177-), American Revolutionary War officer
• John Doughty (1770), served as Commanding General of the United States Army in 1784
• Stephen Lush (1770), American Revolutionary War officer
• Robert Troup (1774), soldier, lawyer, jurist, roommate of Alexander Hamilton at King's College
• Samuel Auchmuty (1775), British general, Commander-in-Chief, Ireland and commander of the Madras Army
• Marinus Willett (1776), colonel of the Continental Army, leader of the Sons of Liberty and 48th Mayor of New York City
• John Chrystie (1806), Colonel of the United States Army during the War of 1812
• 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
• Philip Kearny (1833), United States Army officer
• Henry M. Judah* (1840), United States Army officer during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War
• John Watts de Peyster* (1840), Civil War general, military critic and historian
• Augustus van Horne Ellis* (1844), Civil War general
• Henry Eugene Davies (1857), Civil War general
• Alfred Thayer Mahan* (1858), president, U.S. Naval War College and author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
• Hamilton Fish II (1895), first American killed in the Spanish–American War

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
• Richard Franko Goldman (1930), composer, music professor, president of the Peabody Institute from 1969 to 1977
• Emerson Buckley (1936), conductor, The Crucible, The Ballad of Baby Doe; director of the Florida Grand Opera from 1950 to 1973
• Eddie Sauter (1936), jazz musician
• Elliott Schwartz (1936), American composer and professor emeritus of Bowdoin College
• 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.
• Mort Lindsey (1944), musical director for Judy Garland and Merv Griffin
• 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
• Mitchell Parish*, American lyricist, Stardust
• Malcolm Frager (1955), American piano virtuoso
• Mike Berniker (1957), American musical producer and winner of nine Grammy Awards
• 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, famous for the song The Sound of Silence
• Tom Werman (1967), former record producer for Epic Records
• Jon Bauman (1969), "Bowzer" of Sha Na Na
• Cameron Brown (1969), jazz bassist
• Emanuel Ax (1970), concert pianist
• Marc Copland (1970), jazz pianist and composer
• 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
• Sam Morrison (1973), saxophonist
• Phil Kline (1975), American composer
• Erik Friedlander (1982), American cellist, son of American photographer Lee Friedlander
• Dave Nachmanoff (1986), award-winning American folk singer and sideman to Al Stewart
• John Bohlinger (1988), musician and music director on NBC program Nashville Star
• Laura Cantrell (1989), country musician
• Peter J. Nash (1989), member of 3rd Bass
• Gil Shaham (1993), violinist
• Jefferson Friedman (1996), American composer
• Tom Kitt (1996), American composer, co-winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Original Score for his score of the musical Next to Normal
• R. Luke DuBois (1997), composer and artist
• Lauryn Hill* (1997), Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and songwriter, and member of The Fugees
• Sean Lennon* (1997), singer and songwriter, and son of 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
• Ariana Ghez (2003), oboist
• Nico Muhly (2003), American contemporary classical music composer
• Alisa Weilerstein (2004), American cellist and 2011 MacArthur Fellow
• Peter Cincotti (2005), pianist
• 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
• Danny Mercer (2013), singer, songwriter and producer
• Conrad Tao (2015), composer, pianist, violinist

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
• Sam Spewack (1919), winner of the Tony Award for the book of Kiss Me, Kate
• 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
• Guy Endore (1923), screenwriter for The Story of G.I. Joe
• Alvah Bessie (1924), screenwriter for Objective, Burma! and one of the Hollywood Ten
• Ferrin Fraser (1927), radio scriptwriter for Little Orphan Annie and Frank Buck
• Joseph Mankiewicz (1928), Academy Award-winning writer and director of All About Eve and A Letter to Three Wives
• Frank S. Nugent (1929), screenwriter for Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Quiet Man
• Ben Maddow (1930), screenwriter for The Asphalt Jungle, God's Little Acre and The Mephisto Waltz
• Albert Maltz (1930), screenwriter for Destination Tokyo and one of the Hollywood Ten
• Arnold M. Auerbach (1932), Primetime Emmy Award-winning American comedy writer
• William Ludwig (1932), Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Interrupted Melody
• Martin Manulis (1935), television producer and creator of Playhouse 90
• Charles H. Schneer (1940), film producer known for his collaboration with Ray Harryhausen
• 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; Academy Award nominee for I Want to Live!
• Steve Krantz (1943), screenwriter and film producer, Fritz the Cat
• Ernest Kinoy (1947), television writer of Murrow, Roots, and Victory at Entebbe
• William Kronick (1955), American film and television writer, director and producer
• Doran William Cannon (1959), screenwriter of Skidoo and Brewster McCloud
• Terrence McNally (1960), Tony Award-winning playwright; author of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime (musical)
• Brian De Palma (1962), director of Scarface, The Untouchables and Carrie
• 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, New York: A Documentary Film, The Civil War
• Tony Kushner (1978), Academy Award-nominated screenwriter; 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
• Katharina Otto-Bernstein (1986), filmmaker, producer, screenwriter
• Cecily Rhett (1987), film editor, Stranger Inside
• Garth Stein (1987), Academy Award-winning producer, The Lunch Date
• Dan Futterman (1989), two-time Academy Award nominee for writing Capote and Foxcatcher
• Jessica Bendinger (1988), writer of Bring it On and for Sex and the City
• Dede Gardner (1990), Academy Award-winning producer of 12 Years a Slave; president of Plan B Entertainment
• Jenji Kohan (1991), television writer, producer, creator of Orange Is the New Black and Weeds
• Ari Gold (1992), filmmaker, director of Adventures of Power
• Brian Yorkey (1993), American playwright, co-winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for writing the musical Next to Normal
• Ramin Bahrani (1996), writer-director of Man Push Cart and Chop Shop
• Beau Willimon (1999), creator and producer of House of Cards and writer of the play Farragut North
• Dan Harris (2001), Saturn Award-winning American screenwriter, X2, Superman Returns; director, Imaginary Heroes
• Anna Boden (2002), co-writer of Half Nelson and director of Sugar
• Tze Chun (2002), award-winning director, Children of Invention
• Katori Hall (2003), American playwright, The Mountaintop
• Graham Moore (2003), winner of the 2015 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his screenplay of The Imitation Game

Political and diplomatic figures

United States political and diplomatic figures

• Philip Van Cortlandt (1758), soldier, statesman, United States Congressman from New York
• Anthony Hoffman (1760), member of the New York State Senate
• Gilbert Livingston (1760), member of the New York Provincial Congress
• Gulian Verplanck (1768), Speaker of the New York State Assembly and president of the Bank of New York from 1791 to 1799
• Philip Pell (1770), delegate for New York to the Congress of the Confederation
• 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
• David A. Ogden (178-), United States Congressman from New York
• DeWitt Clinton (1786), Governor of New York who initiated the construction of the Erie Canal; also served as United States Senator from New York
• James Cochran (1788), United States Congressman from New York
• Daniel C. Verplanck (1788), United States Congressman from New York
• John Peter Van Ness (1789), United States Congressman from New York and mayor of Washington, D.C.
• George Graham (1790), acting U.S. Secretary of War under James Madison and James Monroe; Commissioner of the General Land Office from 1823 to 1830
• John Graham (1790), secretary of the Orleans Territory; U.S. Minister to Portugal; acting United States Secretary of State in 1817
• Jotham Post, Jr. (1792), United States Congressman from New York
• John Randolph of Roanoke* (1792), planter, United States Congressman from Virginia, United States Senate from Virginia, United States Ambassador to Russia; founder of the American Colonization Society
• George Clinton, Jr. (1793), brother of DeWitt Clinton, and United States Congressman from New York
• George Izard* (1793), general, politician; second Governor of the Territory of Arkansas
• James Parker (1793), United States Congressman from New Jersey
• Peter A. Jay (1794), son of Chief Justice John Jay; member of New York State Assembly and Recorder of New York City
• Cyrus King (1794), United States Congressman from Massachusetts
• Daniel D. Tompkins (1795), Vice President of the United States; Governor of New York
• Rensselaer Westerlo (1795), United States Congressman from New York
• Edward Philip Livingston (1796), member of the New York State Senate, great-great-grandfather of Eleanor Roosevelt
• Gulian C. Verplanck (1801), United States Congressman from New York and chairman of the United States House Committee on Ways and Means
• Gouverneur Kemble (1803), United States Congressman from New York and founder of the West Point Foundry
• Alpheus Sherman (1803), member of the New York State Senate
• James Alexander Hamilton (1805), son of Alexander Hamilton, soldier, acting United States Secretary of State under president Andrew Jackson, and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1829 to 1834
• Edmund H. Pendleton (1805), United States Congressman from New York, great-nephew of Edmund Pendleton, first Chief Justice of Virginia
• Samuel B. Romaine (1806), Speaker of the New York State Assembly
• Henry H. Ross (1808), United States Congressman from New York
• Peter Dumont Vroom (1808), U.S. Minister to Prussia and Governor of New Jersey
• John Fine (1809), United States Congressman from New York
• 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
• Nathanael G. Pendleton (1813), United States Congressman from Ohio
• James I. Roosevelt (1815), United States Congressman from New York; brother of Cornelius Roosevelt
• 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
• William Duer (1824), United States Congressman from New York
• 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
• John Henry Hobart Haws (1827), United States Congressman from New York
• John D. Van Buren (1829), member of New York State Assembly
• Henry Ledyard (1830), Mayor of Detroit; president of Newport Hospital
• Henry Nicoll (1830), United States Congressman from New York
• Henry C. Murphy (1830), United States Congressman from New York; former United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
• John L. O'Sullivan (1831), US Minister to Portugal; journalist who coined the term "Manifest Destiny"
• James William Beekman (1834), member of the New York State Senate; vice-president of the New York Hospital
• Isaac C. Delaplaine (1834), United States Congressman from New York
• John Richardson Thurman (1835), United States Congressman from New York
• John Jay (1836), grandson of Chief Justice John Jay; United States Minister to Austro-Hungary; president of the American Historical Association
• John Vanderbilt (1837), judge, member of the New York State Senate
• William Ward Duffield (1841), officer, member of the Michigan Senate, superintendent of the U.S. National Geodetic Survey
• Abram Stevens Hewitt (1842), Mayor of New York City and planner of the first line of the New York City Subway system
• John Winthrop Chanler (1847), United States Congressman from New York
• Horace Carpentier (1848), first mayor of Oakland, California and president of the Overland Telegraph Company
• 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
• George Lockhart Rives (1868), United States Assistant Secretary of State and chairman of the Columbia trustees
• Hamilton Fish II (1869), Speaker of the New York State Assembly and U.S. Congressman
• Seth Low (1870), Mayor of New York City and president of Columbia University
• Oscar Solomon Straus (1871), first Jewish U.S. Cabinet secretary, U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Labor under Theodore Roosevelt, and U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, first president of the American Jewish Historical Society
• Robert Anderson Van Wyck (1871), first Mayor of New York City to preside over all five boroughs
• Robert Ray Hamilton (1872), member of New York State Assembly, great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton
• P. Henry Dugro (1876), United States Congressman from New York
• Benjamin Barker Odell Jr.* (1877), Governor of New York; United States Congressman from New York
• Thomas G. Patten (1879), United States Congressman from New York
• Thomas Ewing III (1883), 33rd commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
• 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 F. Carew (1893), United States Congressman from New York
• Edward Lazansky (1895), Secretary of State of New York
• John Purroy Mitchel (1899), Mayor of New York City
• Charles H. Tuttle (1899), United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and 1930 Republican nominee for Governor of New York
• Stanley M. Isaacs (1903), Manhattan Borough president from 1938 to 1942
• Fred Biermann (1905), United States Congressman from Iowa
• John Collier (1906), U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs
• James W. Mott (1909), United States Congressman from Oregon
• Emanuel Celler (1910), 39th Dean of the United States House of Representatives; United States Congressman from New York
• William Langer (1910), United States Senator and Governor of North Dakota
• Laurence Steinhardt (1913), former United States Ambassador to Sweden, Peru, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Czechoslovakia and Canada; the first United States Ambassador to be killed in office.
• Frederic René Coudert, Jr. (1918), United States Congressman from New York
• Harold F. Linder (191-), president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States from 1961 to 1968; former United States Ambassador to Canada
• Arthur Levitt, Sr. (1921), longest-serving New York State Comptroller; father of Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
• Arthur F. Burns (1925), Chairman of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Ambassador to West Germany
• Bernard M. Shanley (1925), White House Counsel from 1953 to 1955; Secretary to the President of the United States under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1955 to 1957
• James Hagerty (1934), White House Press Secretary from 1953 to 1961
• Hunter Meighan (1935), member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate
• Arthur R. Albohn (1942), member of the New Jersey General Assembly
• David E. Mark (1943), former United States Ambassador to Burundi
• Harold Brown (1945), U.S. Secretary of Defense and president of the California Institute of Technology
• Edward N. Costikyan (1947), Democratic Party politician and reformer who oversaw the dismantling of Tammany Hall; partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
• Monteagle Stearns (1948), former United States Ambassador to Ivory Coast and United States Ambassador to Greece
• James D. Theberge (1952), former United States Ambassador to Chile and United States Ambassador to Nicaragua
• Richard E. Benedick (1955), president of the National Council for Science and the Environment, chief United States negotiator to the Montreal Protocol
• 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
• Pat Mullins (1959), Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia
• Jeff Bell (1965), Republican nominee for United States Senate from New Jersey in 1978, 1982, and in 2014
• Dick Morris (1967), political strategist and advisor to President Bill Clinton and Mexican President Felipe Calderón
• Mark C. Minton (1967), former U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia, and current president of the Korea Society
• Robert Delahunty (1968), Deputy General Counsel, White House Office of Homeland Security from 2002 to 2003; professor at University of St. Thomas School of Law
• 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
• Donald Yamamoto (197-), former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
• Howard W. Gutman (1977), United States Ambassador to Belgium
• David Paterson (1977), first African American Governor of New York
• Karl Dean (1978), mayor of Nashville
• Christopher Dell (1978), career diplomat; former US ambassador to Zimbabwe
• Jim McGreevey (1978), Governor of New Jersey
• Andres Alonso (1979), former CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools
• Randal Quarles (1981), 15th Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance; partner at The Carlyle Group
• Andrew C. McCarthy (1981), Assistant United States Attorney and columnist for National Review
• Charles J. O'Byrne (1981), Secretary to the Governor of New York
• Michael Waldman (1982), speechwriter for president Clinton; president of the Brennan Center for Justice
• John Solecki (1982), U.S. official for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, kidnapped in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation United Front in 2009
• Barack Obama (1983), 44th President of the United States and first African American to hold the office; former Senator from Illinois; winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
• Victor Cha (1983), foreign policy expert; President Bush's top advisor on North Korean affairs
• Jay Lefkowitz (1984), George W. Bush's special envoy for Human rights in North Korea
• Steven Waldman (1984), senior advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and founder of Beliefnet
• Julius Genachowski (1985) Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
• Matt Gonzalez (1987), Green Party San Francisco mayoral candidate and independent 2008 candidate for vice president running with Ralph Nader
• Julie Menin (1989), former chairperson of Manhattan Community Board 1
• Dave Hunt (1990), 65th Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and majority leader from 2007 to 2009
• 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
• Melissa Mark-Viverito (1991), Speaker of the New York City Council
• Benjamin Lawsky (1992), attorney and New York's first Superintendent of Financial Services
• Eric Garcetti (1992), member of the Los Angeles City Council and current Mayor of Los Angeles
• David Segal (2001), member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
• Robby Mook (2002), political campaign strategist and campaign manager for Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, former executive director of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; campaign manager for Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016
• Cyrus Habib (2003), Washington Senate Democratic Whip, first and only Iranian American elected to a state office in the United States

Foreign political and diplomatic figures

• Henry Cruger* (1758), member of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1774 to 1790 and the New York State Senate
• Isaac Wilkins (1760), judge, member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly
• Thomas Henry Barclay (1772), United Empire Loyalist; member of the 6th General Assembly of Nova Scotia
• William Sanford Evans (1895), Manitoba politician, Mayor of Winnipeg from 1909 to 1911
• 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
• Uldis-Ivars Grava (1958), Latvian parliamentarian, former director of Latvijas Televīzija and chairman of American Latvian Association
• Johan Jorgen Holst (1960), Norwegian Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs; heavily involved with the Oslo Accords
• Perezi Kamunanwire (19--), former ambassador of the Republic of Uganda to the United States and Germany; permanent representative at the United Nations
• Dore Gold (1975), Israeli political advisor and diplomat; former ambassador to the United States
• Toomas Hendrik Ilves (1975), President of Estonia
• Michael Oren (1977), Israeli historian and former Israeli ambassador to the United States

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
• Douglas Black (1916), president of Doubleday and Company
• Bennett Cerf (1920), founder of Random House
• Richard L. Simon (1920) and Max Lincoln Schuster (1916), co-founders of Simon and Schuster
• Elliott V. Bell (1925), former editor and publisher of Businessweek
• Robert Giroux (1936), chairman of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Ian Ballantine (1938), founder of Ballantine Books
• Walter B. Pitkin, Jr. (1938), editor-in-chief and executive vice president of Bantam Books
• Jason Epstein (1949), editorial director of Random House and co-founder of the New York Review of Books
• Peter Mayer (1956), publisher of Overlook Press
• Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (1951), publisher of The New York Times
• Louis Rossetto (1971), founder and publisher of Wired magazine
• David Rothkopf (1977), CEO and editor of Foreign Policy magazine
• John R. MacArthur (1978), president and publisher of Harper's magazine

Religious figures

• Samuel Provoost (1758), third Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church
• Benjamin Moore (King's 1768), second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and president of Columbia College
• Philip Frederick Mayer (1799), Lutheran clergyman; founder of the Pennsylvania Bible Society, the first of its kind in the United States
• Henry Onderdonk (1805), second Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania
• 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
• Henry John Whitehouse (1821), second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago
• George Washington Bethune* (1823), theologian and preacher
• Morgan Dix (1848), priest, theologian, rector of Trinity Church
• James DeKoven (1851), leader of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Episcopal Church
• Bernard Drachman (1882), leader of Orthodox Judaism; former president of the Orthodox Union
• Stephen Samuel Wise (1892), rabbi and Zionist leader
• Henry S. Whitehead (1904), rector, and author of horror fiction ^[2]
• Arthur Lelyveld (1933), rabbi, president of the American Jewish Congress and first Jewish editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator
• Thomas Merton (1938), Trappist monk, writer, humanist; author of The Seven Storey Mountain
• Robert Farrar Capon (1946), Episcopal priest and author
• Harold Kushner (1955), rabbi and writer
• Adi Da (1961), born Franklin Albert Jones, American spiritual teacher; founder of a new religious movement, Adidam
• Michael Lerner (1964), liberal rabbi and editor of Tikkun magazine
• Elliot N. Dorff (1965), conservative rabbi, chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Sharon Brous (1995), first woman to be named most influential rabbi by Newsweek

Scientists and inventors

• Samuel Bard* (1763), personal physician to George Washington; founder of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
• John Stevens (King's 1768), builder of the first oceangoing steamboat in the United States
• Nicholas Romayne* (1774), physician, president of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
• David Hosack (1790), physician, botanist, educator
• John Eatton Le Conte (1800), American naturalist ^[3]
• James Renwick (1807), English-American scientist and engineer, professor of Natural philosophy at Columbia University; father of architect James Renwick, Jr.
• John Brodhead Beck (1813), New York physician
• Alfred Charles Post (1822), American surgeon, professor at New York University School of MedicineS
• Horatio Allen (1823), imported the Stourbridge Lion, first successful steam locomotive to run in the United States
• Alfred W. Craven (1829), chief engineering of Croton Aqueduct; founding member of the American Society of Civil Engineers
• Edward S. Renwick (1839), mechanical engineer, patent expert
• Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (1841), chemist, president of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Robert Ogden Doremus* (1842), chemist and physician
• Valentine Mott (1872), American surgeon pioneer
• William Barclay Parsons (1879), chief engineer of the first line of the New York City Subway system, founder of multinational engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff
• Michael I. Pupin (1879), physicist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography
• Henry Crampton (1893), American evolutionary biologist
• John Duer Irving (1896), geologist, professor at Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University
• Hans Zinsser (1899), American physician, bacteriologist, prolific author
• Marston T. Bogert (1890), former president of the American Chemical Society and the Society of Chemical Industry
• William King Gregory (1900), American zoologist, primatologist, paleontologist
• Reuben Ottenberg (1902), physician and haematologist
• Irving Langmuir (1903), winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Edward Calvin Kendall (1906), winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Michael Heidelberger (1909), immunologist, "father of modern immunology"
• Hermann Joseph Muller (1910), geneticist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Ralph Randles Stewart (1911), botanist and founder of the National Herbarium, Islamabad
• Ludlow Griscom (1912), pioneer in field ornithology
• John Howard Northrop (1912), winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Alfred Sturtevant (1912), geneticist, protege of Thomas Hunt Morgan and winner of the National Medal of Science
• Augustus Braun Kinzel (1919), metallurgist and first president of the National Academy of Engineering
• Konrad Lorenz* (1926), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Emanuel Papper (1935), anesthesiologist, dean of the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine from 1969 to 1981
• 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), leading American environmentalist, former editor of Science Illustrated magazine
• Victor Wouk (1939), pioneer in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles
• Jeremiah Stamler (1940), epidemiologist, expert in the field of preventive cardiology, professor emeritus at Northwestern University
• Robert Jastrow (1944), astronomer, founder of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and conservative think tank George C. Marshall Institute
• Joshua Lederberg (1944), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Paul Marks (1945), geneticist, president emeritus of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation
• Jack Oliver (1945), professor of seismology at Columbia University and Cornell University
• Robert A. Frosch (1947), fifth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• 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
• William Carl Burger (1953), botanist, curator at the Field Museum of Natural History
• Gerald Feinberg (1953), physicist who coined the term "tachyon"
• Melvin Schwartz (1953), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Wallace Smith Broecker (1953), professor of environmental science at Columbia University, developed the idea of a global "conveyor belt" linking ocean circulation
• 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
• Norbert Hirschhorn (1958), American public health physician and developed the Oral rehydration therapy
• Hans Christian von Baeyer (1958), physicist at the College of William & Mary
• Eugene Milone (1961), astronomer, professor at the University of Calgary
• Robert Pollack (1961), American biologist who studies the intersections between science and religion
• Robert Lefkowitz (1962), winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Allen Neuringer (1962), American psychologist, prominent in the field of the experimental analysis of behavior
• Harvey Cantor (1963), American immunologist, professor of microbiology & immunobiology at Harvard Medical School
• David B. Cohen (1963), psychologist, professor at the University of Texas at Austin
• Richard A. Muller (1964), professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley; winner of the MacArthur Fellowship in 1982 and the Alan T. Waterman Award in 1978; founder of climate science institute Berkeley Earth
• Norman Christ (1965), physicist, professor at Columbia University
• Niles Eldredge (1965), collaborator of Stephen Jay Gould and curator of the Department of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History
• Stuart Newman (1965), developmental and evolutionary biologist
• Allen Steere (1965), rheumatologist and pioneering investigator of Lyme Disease
• Peter Gray (1966), American psychologist; professor at Boston College
• Brian Weiss (1966), psychiatrist noted for his research on reincarnation and past life regression
• Richard Axel (1967), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studying the operations of the olfactory system
• Sidney R. Nagel (1969), University of Chicago physicist specializing in the complex physics of everyday materials
• Paul S. Appelbaum (1972), psychiatrist credited with conceptualizing the idea of therapeutic misconception
• Stephen M. Barr (1974), author and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware
• Steven Kahn (1975), astrophysicist, professor st Stanford University and director of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
• George Yancopoulos (1980), American biomedical scientist and CSO of Regeneron
• Carl Haber (1980), physicist and winner of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2013
• Neil Shubin (1982), paleontologist and co-discoverer of Tiktaalik
• Leslie B. Vosshall (1987), neurobiologist known for her contributions in the field of olfaction
• Jennifer Ashton (1991), physician, author, host of lifestyle talk show The Revolution

Spies

• William Joseph Donovan (1905), head of the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, "Father of American Intelligence"
• Isaiah Oggins (1920), communist activist and Soviet spy
• 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
• Robert Charles Sands (1815), poet and writer
• Charles Fenno Hoffman (1825), poet, translator, and editor, founder of the The Knickerbocker magazine
• 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 Paul Smith (1936), author of Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing.
• Robert Lax (1938), minimalist poet
• Ed Rice (1940), Beat Generation writer
• 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
• Leonard Koppett (1944), sportswriter
• Walter Wager (1944), mystery writer
• Herbert Gold (1946), Beat Generation novelist
• Daniel Hoffman (1947), poet; 22nd United States Poet Laureate
• Allen Ginsberg (1948), Beat generation poet; author of Howl
• John Clellon Holmes (1949), Beat Generation novelist, Go.
• John Hollander (1950), poet, MacArthur Fellow and winner of the Bollingen Prize
• Richard Howard (1951), translator and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• Anthony Robinson (1953), English professor and novelist
• Ralph Schoenstein (1953), humorist
• Robert Silverberg (1956), science fiction writer
• Jerome Charyn (1959), novelist
• Robert Westbrook (196-), writer, son of syndicated columnist Sheilah Graham Westbrook
• Phillip Lopate (1964), essayist and fiction writer
• Ron Padgett (1964), poet and translator
• 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, writer of Jason Bourne novels
• Thomas Hauser (1968), author of nonfiction and biographer
• David Shapiro (1968), poet
• William Stadiem (1969), lawyer, screenwriter, author
• Hilton Obenzinger (1969), novelist, poet, history and criticism writer
• Paul Auster (1970), postmodern writer; author of The New York Trilogy, Moon Palace, and the Brooklyn Follies
• David Lehman (1970), poet, editor of The Best American Poetry series
• Todd McEwen (1975), writer, professor at the University of Kent
• Damien Bona (1977), chronicler of the Academy Awards
• Kevin Baker (1980), novelist and freelance journalist
• Lou Antonelli (1981), science fiction writer
• Michael Azerrad (1983), author, journalist, musician
• David Rakoff (1986), comedic essayist
• Darryl Pinckney (1988), novelist, playwright, and essayist
• Mako Yoshikawa (1988), novelist, professor at Emerson College
• John Reed (1990), novelist; author of Snowball's Chance
• Loren Goodman (1991), postmodern poet, professor at Underwood International College
• Ingrid Stabb (1991), writer, innovator in the field of personalization
• Andrew Carroll (1992), author, editor, activist, and historian
• Maxine Swann (1994), fiction writer
• Megan McCafferty (1995), chick lit writer, Jessica Darling series, which were plagiarized by Kaavya Viswanathan
• Tova Mirvis (1995), author
• Aravind Adiga (1997), Man Booker Prize-winning novelist
• Gotham Chopra (1997), author, son of health advocate Deepak Chopra
• Daniel Alarcón (1999), novelist
• Danielle Valore Evans (2004), American fiction writer

Miscellaneous

• John Parke Custis* (1773) stepson of George Washington
• 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; also founder of the Presbyterian Hospital
• John Lloyd Stephens (1822), explorer, archaeologist, Special Ambassador to Central America, and president of the Panama Railroadn
• Samuel Cutler Ward (1831), lobbyist
• Henry Bergh* (1834), founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
• William R. Travers (1838), founder of the Travers Stakes
• Elbridge Thomas Gerry (1857), lawyer and social reformer
• Arthur B. Spingarn (1897), president of the NAACP
• Reed Harris (1932), former State Department official and victim of McCarthyism
• John K. Lattimer (1935), urologist, ballistics expert, and inveterate collector
• Jerry Robinson*, comic book artist and creator of the Joker
• Carl Hovde (1950), professor and Dean following the Columbia University protests of 1968.^[4]
• 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 General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
• Richard Grossman (1965), critic and organizer against corporate power
• Joseph Goldstein (1965), American vipassana expert
• David Gilbert (1966), leader of Students for a Democratic Society and participant in Brink's armored car attack with Kathy Boudin
• Edwin Schlossberg (1967), designer, author, artist; 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
• Francis Levy (1969), comic book artist
• Mark Rudd (1969), president of Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground
• Stephen Donaldson (1970), bisexual political activist, founder of the Student Homophile League at Columbia, the oldest college LGBTQ organization in the world
• David Kaczynski (1970), brother of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski
• Jim Dunnigan (1970), author, military-political analyst, wargame designer
• Fred Seibert (1973), TV producer and first creative director of MTV
• 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
• Elana Amsterdam (1989), food blogger and author
• John Bemelmans Marciano (1992), American children's book author and illustrator, grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans, author of Madeline
• Anna Ivey (1994), admissions counsellor
• Benjamin Jealous (1994), president of the NAACP
• Ai-jen Poo (1996), activist, recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2014
• Chubby Hubby or Aun Koh (1996), Singaporean food and travel blogger
• Tinsley Mortimer (1998), socialite and television personality
• Anna Baltzer (2002), activist for Palestinian human rights
• Meghan McCain (2007), blogger and daughter of Arizona senator John McCain

References