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
• A. V. Williams Jackson (1883), American specialist on Indo-European languages
• Thomas Fiske (1885), professor of mathematics at Columbia University; acting dean of Barnard College; president of the American Mathematical Society from 1902 to 1904; secretary of the College Board
• Charles Knapp (1887), classical scholar
• Charles Sears Baldwin (1888), American scholar and professor of rhetoric at Yale University
• John Dyneley Prince (1888), American linguist; United States Ambassador to Yugoslavia
• George Louis Beer (1892), renowned historian of the "Imperial school".
• William Robert Shepherd (1893), American cartographer, historian
• John Driscoll Fitz-Gerald (1895), American Hispanic scholar
• Joel Elias Spingarn (1895), professor of comparative literature
• Mortimer Lamson Earle (1896), American classical scholar
• 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
• Alexander Goldenweiser (1902), Russian-born anthropologist and sociologist
• 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
• Edwin Borchard (1908), International legal scholar; Sterling Professor at the Yale Law School
• Richard F. Bach (1909), curator with the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Armin K. Lobeck (1911), American cartographer
• Lawrence K. Frank (1912), social scientist; vice president of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation and co-initiator of the Macy conferences
• Arthur MacMahon (1912), American political scientist, president of the American Political Science Association
• Clarence Manning (1912), prominent slavicist at Columbia University
• 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
• Thomas Ollive Mabbott (1920), professor of literature at Hunter College; expert on Edgar Allan Poe
• Richard McKeon (1920), philosopher
• Frank Tannenbaum (1920), Austrian-American historian, sociologist, and criminologist; founder of the Labeling theory in criminology
• Mortimer Adler* (1923), philosopher and Great Books pioneer
• Alexander Lesser (1923), anthropologist known for his documentation of the Kitsai language
• 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
• William York Tindall (1925), James Joyce scholar at Columbia University
• Lionel Trilling (1925), literary critic
• Jacques Barzun (1927), cultural historian
• Robert C. Schnitzer (1927), arts teacher and administrator
• Francis Steegmuller (1927), Flaubert scholar
• Carl Benjamin Boyer (1928), historian of science and mathematics
• 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
• Frederick Burkhardt (1933), president emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies
• 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
• Herbert Aptheker (1936), Marxist historian and political activist
• Joseph Greenberg (1936), prominent linguist known for work in linguistic typology and genetic classification 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
• Robert J. Alexander (1940), American political activist, writer, and professor at Rutgers University
• Donald Barr (1941), American educator and author; former headmaster of Dalton School; initiated the Columbia University Science Honors Program
• 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
• Bernard Weisberger (1943), American historian of the Reconstruction Era
• Alan Hoffman (1944), mathematician known for constructing the Hoffman–Singleton graph
• 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
• William Bell Dinsmoor, Jr. (1947), Classical archaeologist and architectural historian
• 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), George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities and Dean of Columbia College
• Carl Hovde (1950), professor of English and Dean of Columbia College following the Columbia University protests of 1968.
• Burton Watson (1950), American scholar and translator of Chinese and Japanese literature
• Joseph Rothschild (1951), professor of Central European and Eastern European history at Columbia University
• Immanuel Wallerstein (1951), sociologist who defined world-systems theory
• Elliott Mendelson (1952), American logician; professor of mathematics at Queens College, City University of New York
• 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
• Henry Littlefield (1954), educator, author, historian who initiated political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Stephen Orgel (1954), Shakespeare and Renaissance literature scholar
• David Rosand (1954), Art historian, Columbia University
• Jerry Fodor (1956), philosopher
• Kenneth Silverman (1956), professor at New York University and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
• Robert Alter (1957), professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley; president of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers
• Erich S. Gruen (1957), American classicist and ancient historian; president of the Society for Classical Studies in 1992
• Jonathan Lubin (1957), professor of mathematics at Brown University; introduced Lubin–Tate formal group law
• Gerald Feldman (1958), American historian who specializes in 20th-century German history; professor at University of California, Berkeley
• Joachim Neugroschel (1958), prolific multilingual translator
• David Rothman (1958), professor of social medicine and president of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession
• Robert Nozick (1959), libertarian philosopher
• Isser Woloch (1959), historian of the French Revolution
• Rudolf Makkreel (1960), professor of philosophy at Emory University
• Marshall Berman (1961), urbanologist
• David Syrett (1961), professor of military history at Queens College, City University of New York; former president of the New York Military Affairs Symposium
• 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
• Ken Jowitt (1962), American political scientist and professor at University of California, Berkeley and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution
• 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
• David Orme-Johnson (1963), professor of psychology at the Maharishi University of Management
• Victor Margolin (1963), professor of design history at the University of Illinois at Chicago
• Jonah Raskin (1963), American writer, professor on counterculture
• Howard Spodek (1963), American historian specializing in urban studies; professor at Temple University
• Robert J. Art (1964), professor of international relations at Brandeis 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
• Peter K. Machamer (1964), American philosopher and historian of science; professor at the University of Pittsburgh
• Mike Wallace (1964), historian and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History for Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
• Jonathan Goldberg (1964), professor at Emory University
• Michael M. Gunter (1964), professor at Tennessee Technological University, authority in Kurds
• Jonathan M. Weiss (1964), American scholar of French literature and politics
• 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
• Mark D. Naison (1966), former political activist; professor of history at Fordham University
• T. J. Pempel (1966), professor of political science and former director of the Institute of Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
• 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
• Terrell Carver (1968), political theorist; professor at the University of Bristol
• Samuel R. Gross (1968), professor at the University of Michigan Law School; editor of the National Registry of Exonerations project
• Alfred W. McCoy (1968), historian of Southeast Asia; professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Lawrence Susskind (1968), urban planner and mediator; professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jerry Avorn (1969), professor at the Harvard Medical School
• Chris Iijima (1969), legal scholar, folksinger
• Andrei Markovits (1969), professor of comparative politics at the University of Michigan
• 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
• John D'Emilio (1970), professor of history and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago; winner of the Bill Whitehead Award in 2013
• Samuel Estreicher (1970), professor at the New York University School of Law
• 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
• Roy Rosenzweig (1971), historian and director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University
• Scott Atran (1972), American anthropologist; director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and presidential scholar at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
• Joel Black (1972), literature and film scholar
• Jerome Groopman (1972), Harvard Medical School professor and medical writer for The New Yorker
• Mark J. Roe (1972), professor at Harvard Law School
• John Servos (1972), professor and historian of science; president of the History of Science Society
• 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
• David S. Katz (1974), professor of early modern European history at Tel Aviv University
• James R. Russell (1974), professor of Ancient Near Eastern studies at Harvard University
• Steven Simon (1974), Middle East expert and former executive director of International Institute for Strategic Studies-US; former senior director in the United States National Security Council
• Haruo Shirane (1974), professor of Japanese literature of Columbia University
• International Institute for Strategic Studies
• Jonathan Crary (1975), art critic, essayist, professor of art at Columbia University
• Phelps Stokes Hawkins (1975), professor at the American University in Bulgaria
• Alexander J. Motyl (1975), professor of political science at Rutgers 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
• Alexander George (1979), professor of philosophy at Amherst College; founder of AskPhilosophers.org
• 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
• Alexander Argüelles (1986), American polyglot and professor at the American University in the Emirates; son of poet Ivan Argüelles
• Tobias Hecht (1986), American anthropologist, ethnographer, and translator; winner of the 2002 Margaret Mead Award
• Alva Noë (1986), professor of philosopohy at University of California, Berkeley
• Ritu Birla (1987), historian of modern South Asia
• 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
• David Eisenbach (1994), historian on media and politics; narrator, 10 Things You Don't Know About
• Gabriella Coleman (1996), American anthropologist known for her work in hacker culture and online activism; professor at McGill University
• Lauren Winner (1997), historian, professor at Duke Divinity School
• Louis Hyman (1999), economic historian, professor at Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, author of Debtor Nation
• Adrianne Wadewitz (1999), American feminist scholar and noted Wikipedian

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
• Dimitri B. Papadimitriou (1970), executive vice president and provost of Bard College
• Samuel Hoi (1980), president of the Maryland Institute College of Art
• 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

• John B. Mason (1880), American stage actor
• 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
• Cornel Wilde* (1933), star of The Greatest Show on Earth, Beach Red, and Academy Award nominee for A Song to Remember
• Richard Ney (1940), actor, Mrs. Miniver; husband of Greer Garson
• 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
• Roger Davis (1962), American actor, Dark Shadows, Alias Smith and Jones
• 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
• Robert Wisdom (1976), actor, Nashville, The Wire, Prison Break
• 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
• 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
• Sarah Steele (2011), actress, Spanglish
• Kelsey Chow (2014), actress, Pair of Kings
• Cinta Laura (2014), actress and singer
• Sofia Vassilieva (2014), actress, Eloise at the Plaza, Eloise at Christmastime
• Katie Chang (2017), actress, The Bling Ring, A Birder's Guide to Everything

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.
• Walter Satterlee (1863), American figure and genre painter
• Lockwood de Forest* (1872), American artist, interior and furniture designer
• Devereux Emmet (1883), pioneering golf course architect
• Henry Martyn Congdon (1854), architect and designer
• William Ordway Partridge (1885), sculptor
• Henry Shrady (1894), sculptor known for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• 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
• Bernard Cywinski (1962), architect and co-founder of the firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
• Greg Wyatt (1971), sculptor-in-residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
• Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (1974), photographer
• James Sanders (1976), architect who co-wrote New York: A Documentary Film with Ric Burns '78
• Peter Pennoyer (1980), architect
• Jacob Collins (1986), American realist painter, founder of the Grand Central Academy of Art
• Lance Hosey (1987), architect, author of The Shape of Green; Chief sustainability officer of the global architectural firm RTKL Associates
• 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
• Oliver Campbell (1891), American tennis player; youngest male winner of the U.S. Open Singles title from 1890 to 1990
• Charles Townsend (1893), first Olympic fencer from the Ivy League; silver medalist in the 1904 Summer Olympics
• 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
• Jay Gould II* (1911), American real tennis player, Olympic gold medalist in 1908 and world champion from 1914 to 1916; great-grandson of financier Jay Gould
• 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.
• Art Smith (1928), baseball player for the Chicago White Sox
• Fresco Thompson (1928), baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies
• 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
• John O'Brien (1938), basketball player for the Akron Wingfoots
• 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
• Bill Swiacki (1948), player for New York Giants, member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• 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
• Jack Rohan (1953), head coach of the Columbia Lions men's basketball team from 1961 to 1974, and 1990 to 1995
• Richard Ballantine*, cyclist and cycling advocate; son of Ian Ballantine '38 of Ballantine Books
• 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
• Dave Newmark (1968), NBA player for the Chicago Bulls; also played for Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C.
• 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
• Amr Aly (1985), soccer player who won the Hermann Trophy as the top college player of the year 1984; member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Soccer Team and indoor soccer team Los Angeles Lazers
• Stephen Trevor (1986), Olympic fencer
• Caitlin Bilodeaux (1987), Olympic fencer
• Bob Cottingham (1988), Olympic fencer
• Jon Normile (1989), Olympic fencer
• Frank Seminara (1989), Major League Baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres and the New York Mets
• Ann Marsh (1994), Olympic fencer
• Ríkharður Daðason (1996), Icelandic soccer player
• 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
• Jeremiah Boswell (2005), professional basketball player for BC Sliven, KK Strumica, and KK Torus
• Delilah DiCrescenzo (2005), American long-distance runner, inspiration and subject of the Grammy-nominated song Hey There Delilah
• Michael Quarshie (2005), Finnish American football player who played for the Oakland Raiders and Frankfurt Galaxy
• 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
• Jeff Adams (2011), Houston Texans offensive tackle
• Nicole Ross (2011), Olympic fencer
• Josh Martin (2013), Kansas City Chiefs Linebacker
• 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
• Henry T. Anthony (1832), photographer, vice-president of the E. & H. T. Anthony & Company
• Adrian G Iselin* (1837), financier, banker
• Edward Anthony (1838), photographer and founder of E. & H. T. Anthony & Company, largest manufacturer and distributor of photographic supplies in the United States during the 19th century
• 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
• John Crosby Brown (1859), heir to investment bank Brown Bros. & Co., which later became Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., the oldest private bank in the United States
• Emory McClintock (1859), actuary; president of the American Mathematical Society and the Actuarial Society of America
• 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
• James Montaudevert Waterbury, Sr. (1873), industrialist, co-founder of the New York Yacht Club
• 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
• Temple Bowdoin (1885), former executive of J.P. Morgan & Co.
• Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr. (1887), banker, prominent figure in Thoroughbred horse racing
• Louis Frank Rothschild (1890), investment banker, namesake of investment firm L.F. Rothschild
• Howard Gould* (1894), financier, son of railroad tycoon Jay Gould
• 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
• Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. (1898), director of D.M. Ferry & Co.; member of the Michigan House of Representatives
• Charles A. Dana (1902), philanthropist who founded the Dana Foundation and Dana Holding Corporation
• John Knowles Fitch (1902), founder of Fitch Ratings, one of the Big Three rating agencies
• Marcellus Hartley Dodge, Sr. (1903), chairman of the Remington Arms Company, husband of Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge
• William Gage Brady, Jr. (1908), Chairman of Citigroup from 1948 to 1952
• 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
• Arthur Ross (1931), philanthropist, businessman; Vice president of Central National-Gottesman; namesake of Arthur Ross Pinetum in Central Park
• 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
• Norton Garfinkle (1951), economist, businessman, public servant; chairman of the Future of American Democracy Foundation
• 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 and Deseret Management Corporation
• 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
• Marc Porat (1972), entrepreneur in information technology and sustainable materials; co-founder of General Magic
• Albie Hecht (1974), founder of Spike TV, head of HLN, and former president of Nickelodeon; creator of Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards; Academy Award-nominated producer
• 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
• Ken Ofori-Atta (1984), Ghanaian economist and investment banker
• 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
• Marko Ahtisaari (199-), Finnish entrepreneur; founding CEO of Dopplr
• Roo Rogers (199-), entrepreneur, business designer, writer
• Daniel M. Ziff (199-), third youngest billionaire hedge fund manager in the U.S., son of publishing magnate William Bernard Ziff, Jr.
• Paul Greenberg (1990), former CEO of CollegeHumor and current CEO of Nylon
• 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
• Scott Sartiano (1997), American restauranter
• Amol Sarva (1998), founder of Peek and Virgin Mobile USA
• Adriana Cisneros (2002), Vice Chairman of Grupo Cisneros; daughter of Venezuelan media mogul Gustavo Cisneros
• 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
• Liesel Pritzker Simmons (2006), former child actress, A Little Princess ; heiress to the Hyatt hotels fortune, philanthropist

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
• Martin Filler (1970), architecture critic
• Gerrit Henry (1972), art critic, author, poet
• Jed Perl (1972), art critic; son of Nobel laureate Martin Lewis Perl GSAS '55
• Luc Sante (1976), literary critic
• Tim Page (1979), music critic of The Washington Post and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
• 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
• Pimm Fox (198-), Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg Television anchorman
• Fred Katayama (1982), anchor on Reuters Television
• 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
• Elizabeth Cohen (1987), CNN's senior medical 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
• Charlotte MacInnis (2002), China Central Television anchor known by the stage name Ai Hua; host of Growing up with Chinese

Editors

• Francis Pharcellus Church (1859), editorial writer for the New York Sun and author of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
• Victor Rosewater* (1891), managing editor of the Omaha Bee
• Horatio Sheafe Krans (1894), author and editor
• 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
• Ashbel Green (1950), senior editor and vice president of Alfred A. Knopf
• Robert Gottlieb (1952), editor of The New Yorker
• Max Frankel (1952), Pulitzer Prize winning executive editor of the New York Times
• Richard Locke (1962), critic, essayist and first editor of new incarnation of Vanity Fair magazine
• 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
• Max Alexander (1987), senior editor of People
• Dave Kansas (1990), COO of American Public Media Group; former editor-in-chief of TheStreet.com
• 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
• Michael Schaffer, (1995), editor of Washingtonian and former editor of Washington City Paper
• 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
• Herbert Anderson Yocom (1929), newspaperman Associated Press, editor-in-chief and editor of Platt's Oilgram, National Petroleum News, Petroleum Week

Journalists

• William Henry Leggett (1837), botanist and journalist who founded the Torrey Botanical Bulletin
• Henry Demarest Lloyd (1867), muckraking journalist, "father of investigative journalism"
• Herbert Agar (1919), journalist and historian, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1934
• 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
• Phelan Beale, Jr. (1944), journalist; first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• Charles E. Silberman (1945), author and journalist
• Kennett Love (1948), journalist for The New York Times
• David Wise (1951), author of espionage and national security nonfiction
• Walter Karp (1955), journalist, historian, contributing editor to Harper's Magazine
• Warren Boroson (1957), journalist; editor of Fact Magazine
• William E. Burrows (1960), author and journalist; founder of the Alliance to Rescue Civilization
• 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
• Allen Young (1962), journalist, author, political activist
• 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
• Jeffrey Bruce Klein (1970–71), investigative journalist and co-founder of Mother Jones
• John Brecher (1973), American journalist and wine critic for The Wall Street Journal
• Michael Wolff (1975), media columnist for New York Magazine and Vanity Fair
• D. D. Guttenplan (1978), London correspondent for The Nation
• 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
• Jamal Dajani (197-), broadcast journalist; Peabody Award-winning producer of Mosaic: World News from the Middle East
• Barry C. Lynn (197-), American journalist, senior fellow at the New America Foundation
• Kevin Baker (1980), freelance journalist and novelist
• John Leland (1981), journalist for The New York Times
• 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
• Tom Watson (1984), journalist, entrepreneur
• Thomas Vinciguerra (1985), journalist, editor and author
• 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
• Aram Roston (1988), American investigative journalist
• Edward Lewine (1989), author and freelance journalist
• David Streitfeld (1989), book reporter for The Washington Post; winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
• Caroline Glick (1991), Israeli journalist, editor, writer
• Warren St. John (1991), journalist for The New York Times
• Jesse Eisinger (1992), Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for ProPublica
• Jim Frederick (1993), American author and journalist
• Brad Stone (1993), journalist for Bloomberg Business
• Anne Kornblut (1994), correspondent for The Washington Post
• Joshua Prager (1994), journalist and author who writes on historical secrets
• 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
• Sarah Maslin Nir (2005), investigative journalist for the The New York Times

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
• Lawrence Auster (1971), Traditionalist conservative blogger and essayist

Sports journalists

• Jeremy Gaige (1951), chess archivist and journalist
• 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
• Steven Krasner (1975), sports journalist famous for covering the Boston Red Sox for The Providence Journal from 1986 to 2008
• 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
• 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), judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Sampson Simson (1800), attorney, philanthropist, remembered as the "father of Mount Sinai Hospital"
• 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), judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
• Peter B. Sweeny* (1840s), New York County District Attorney in 1858
• Alexander McCue (1845), Solicitor of the United States Treasury from 1885 to 1888
• Joseph Larocque (1849), attorney; president of the New York City Bar Association
• Frederic René Coudert, Sr. (1850), lawyer, founder of international law firm Coudert Brothers
• Myer J. Newmark* (1850s), youngest city attorney in the history of Los Angeles
• Edgar M. Cullen (1860), Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Emile Henry Lacombe (1863), judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Nicholas Fish II (1867), attorney, diplomat, investment banker; son of United States Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
• Willard Bartlett (1869), Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Thomas C. Bach (1875), judge on the Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana
• Francis S. Bangs (1878), attorney at Bangs, Stetson, Tracy, and McVeigh and trustee of Columbia College
• Randolph B. Martine (1885), New York County District Attorney from 1885 to 1887
• Benjamin Cardozo (1889), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• William Bondy (1890), judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• 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 on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, famous for presiding over the Pentagon Papers case
• Edmund Louis Palmieri (1926), judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Milton Pollack (1927), judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Samuel Silverman (1928), justice on the New York Supreme Court; partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison who represented J. Robert Oppenheimer and Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank
• 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
• Harold Leventhal (1934), judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• 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
• Leonard I. Garth (1942), senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• 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
• Richard H. Stern (1953), attorney and law professor
• Clarence Benjamin Jones (1956), attorney and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.
• Bernard Nussbaum (1958), White House counsel under Bill Clinton
• Ezra G. Levin (1959), lawyer, co-chair of international law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
• 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
• Barry Kamins (1965), New York City Criminal Court judge and professor at the Fordham University School of Law and Brooklyn Law School
• Howard Matz (1965), senior judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
• 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
• David M. Becker (1968), two-time general counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• 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
• Arthur Helton (1971), lawyer, refugee advocate
• 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
• Jonathan Cuneo (1974), American lawyer, founding partner of Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP
• Paul S. Diamond (1974), judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Abbe Lowell (1974), partner at Chadbourne & Parke, Chief Minority Counsel during the Impeachment of Bill Clinton
• Jeffrey L. Kessler (1975), partner at Winston & Strawn; former Global Litigation Chair at Dewey & LeBoeuf
• Vincent L. Briccetti (1976), judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• 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
• Michael H. Cohen (1983), healthcare law attorney, professor at Harvard Medical School
• Miguel Estrada (1983), controversial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Gary Richard Brown (1985), Magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• Victor Allen Bolden (1986), judge on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
• Neil Gorsuch (1988), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Frank A. Natoli (2003), intellectual property attorney and entrepreneur

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
• Edward E. Potter (1842), officer during the American Civil War
• 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
• John F. "Jack" Hasey (1940), American captain in the French Foreign Legion; recipient of the Order of Liberation

Musicians, composers, and lyricists

• Roy Webb (1910), composer for Notorious and Abe Lincoln in Illinois
• Richard Hale (1914), opera and concert singer; narrator, Peter and the Wolf
• 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
• Milton Katims (1930), conductor, music director of the Seattle Symphony from 1954 to 1976
• Mordecai Bauman (1935), American baritone
• 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
• Leonard B. Meyer (1940), composer, author, philosopher known for his contributions to the Aesthetic theory of music
• 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
• Eric Salzman (1954), composer, producer, critic; founder of the American Music Theater Festival and composer-in-residence of the Center for Contemporary Opera
• 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
• Kenneth Ascher (1966), Academy Award-nominated jazz pianist; writer of Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie
• Tom Werman (1967), former record producer for Epic Records
• Billy Cross (1968), American guitarist, singer, and producer who lives in Denmark
• 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
• Frederick "Dennis" Greene (1971), member of Sha Na Na; professor of law at the University of Dayton
• 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
• Richard Einhorn (1975), American composer, Voices of Light
• Phil Kline (1975), American composer
• Paul Phillips (1978), conductor, composer, and music scholar at Brown University
• 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
• Michael Goldwasser (1993), record producer, songwriter, musician; founder of Easy Star Records and reggae collective Easy Star All-Stars
• 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
• The Two Man Gentlemen Band, modern musical duo that consists of Fuller Condon (2000) and Andy Bean (2001)
• Utada Hikaru* (2000), Japanese pop star
• Alicia Keys* (2001), Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and songwriter
• Brian Weitz (2001), founding member of experimental band Animal Collective
• 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
• Michael Barimo (2006), pop singer and whistler
• 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

• Henry Churchill de Mille (1875), playwright and Georgist; father of film pioneers Cecil B. DeMille and William C. deMille
• William C. DeMille (1900), screenwriter, director, playwright; second president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; co-founder of the USC School of Cinematic Arts
• Edgar Allan Woolf (1901), screenwriter, The Wizard of Oz
• 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), CBS television and movie producer , Days of Wine and Roses, The Best of Broadway, Climax!, Suspense; creator of Playhouse 90; former president of 20th Century Fox Television
• 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)
• Michael Kahn (1961), Artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
• Brian De Palma (1962), director of Scarface, The Untouchables and Carrie
• Christopher Trumbo (1964), screenwriter, The Don Is Dead ; son of noted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo
• Arthur Albert (1969), American cinematographer and television director
• Glenn Switkes (1972), director and environmentalist
• 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
• P. J. Pesce (1983), co-creator of The Adventures of Chico and Guapo, director of From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter
• Scott McGehee (1985), director of Uncertainty
• 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
• Andrew W. Marlowe (1988), creator of Castle; writer of Air Force One, End of Days, and Hollow Man
• Lawrence Trilling (1988), executive producer of Parenthood
• 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
• Tim Carvell (1995), head writer of The Daily Show and executive producer of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
• Henry Alex Rubin (1995), Academy Award-nominated director, Murderball
• Ramin Bahrani (1996), writer-director of Man Push Cart and Chop Shop
• Yana Gorskaya (1996), Academy Award-nominated film editor, Spellbound
• Cetywa Powell (1996), American director and fine art photographer
• Beau Willimon (1999), creator and producer of House of Cards and writer of the play Farragut North
• Ned Benson (2001), director, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
• 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
• John Ferguson (1795), Mayor of New York City
• 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
• Rudolph Bunner (1798), United States Congressman from New York
• John M. Bowers (180-), United States Congressman from New York
• 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
• John L. Lawrence (1803), member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate
• 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; United States Senator from Louisiana
• 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"; publisher of the The United States Magazine and Democratic Review
• 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
• Nicholas B. La Bau (1844), member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate
• 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
• A. Bleecker Banks* (185-), Mayor of Albany, New York; member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate
• Galen A. Carter (1850), member of the Connecticut Senate
• 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
• Thomas C. E. Ecclesine (1870), member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate
• 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 F. Magner (1882), United States Congressman from New York
• Thomas Ewing III (1883), 33rd commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
• Herbert L. Satterlee (1883), Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1908 to 1909
• William Sulzer (1884), Governor of New York
• J. Mayhew Wainwright (1884), U.S. Congressman and Assistant Secretary of War
• Charles Henry Turner (1888), United States Congressman from New York; Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives from 1891 to 1893
• James W. Gerard (1890), United States Ambassador to Germany
• Victor M. Allen (1892), member of the New York State Senate
• John F. Carew (1893), United States Congressman from New York
• Harvey R. Kingsley (1893), President pro tempore of the Vermont State Senate
• 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
• Henry W. Shoemaker (1901), folklorist, historian, diplomat; United States Ambassador to Bulgaria from 1930 to 1933
• Martin C. Ansorge (1903), United States Congressman from New York
• Stanley M. Isaacs (1903), Manhattan Borough president from 1938 to 1942
• Allen J. Bloomfield (1094), member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate
• Fred Biermann (1905), United States Congressman from Iowa
• John Collier (1906), U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs
• Joseph C. O'Mahoney (1907), United States Senator from Wyoming
• 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.
• Samuel Irving Rosenman (1915), 1st White House Counsel to presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
• 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
• Joseph Campbell (1924), fourth Comptroller General of the United States
• 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
• Faubion Bowers* (1935), General Douglas MacArthur's interpreter and Aide-de-camp during the Allied Occupation of Japan
• 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
• Christian H. Armbruster (1944), member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate
• Harold Brown (1945), U.S. Secretary of Defense and president of the California Institute of Technology
• Albert Burstein (1947), Democratic Party politician and former Majority leader of the New Jersey General Assembly
• 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
• Constantine Menges (1960), national security aide to Ronald Reagan
• 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), Under Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2004; 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
• Eric D. Coleman (1973), member of the Connecticut Senate
• 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 and current commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs
• 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
• Matt Brown (1993), Secretary of State of Rhode Island from 2003 to 2007; co-founder of non-partisan group Global Zero
• Frank Scaturro (1994), lawyer, public advocate who spearheaded the restoration of Grant's Tomb; Republican candidate for New York's 4th congressional district
• Jay Carson (1999), executive director of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group; former press secretary for Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean's presidential campaigns
• George Demos (1999), former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor and Republican candidate for New York's 1st congressional district
• 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
• Sam Arora (2003), member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 2011 to 2015
• 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; Chinese delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 and the League of Nations; judge on the International Court of Justice from 1957 to 1967
• 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
• Yossi Alpher (1964), former Mossad officer and director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University
• 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
• Donald S. Klopfer* (1922), founder of Random House
• Richard L. Simon (1920) and Max Lincoln Schuster (1919), co-founders of Simon & 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
• William D. Carey (1940), executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and publisher of Science from 1975 to 1987
• 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 and former CEO of Penguin Books
• Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (1951), publisher of The New York Times
• Donald Welsh (1965), founding publisher of outdoors magazine Outside
• 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
• John Beardsley (1761), Church of England clergyman in Canada; chaplain of the Loyal American Regiment
• 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
• Richard Fish Cadle (1813), Episcopalian priest and first superior of Nashotah House
• Manton Eastburn (1817), fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
• 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
• William Edmond Armitage (1849), second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee
• George Franklin Seymour (1850), first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield
• James DeKoven (1851), leader of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Episcopal Church
• Marvin Vincent (1854), Presbyterian minister and professor at the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
• Daniel S. Tuttle (1857), first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho, Montana, and Utah
• William David Walker (1859), first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota
• Henry Y. Satterlee (1863), first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington; established the Washington National Cathedral
• Bernard Drachman (1882), leader of Orthodox Judaism; former president of the Orthodox Union
• Herbert Shipman (1890), Suffragan bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of New York
• Stephen Samuel Wise (1892), rabbi and Zionist leader
• Henry S. Whitehead (1904), rector, and author of horror fiction
• 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
• Haskel Lookstein (1953), Modern Orthodox Rabbi; spiritual leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and principal of Ramaz School since 1966
• 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
• Alan Senauke (1969), Soto Zen priest, folk musician, and poet residing at the Berkeley Zen Center; former director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship
• Taigen Dan Leighton (1971), Soto Zen priest and teacher, academic at the Institute of Buddhist Studies
• C. John McCloskey (1975), Catholic priest who helped prominent figures convert to Catholicism, including Newt Gingrich, Bernard Nathanson, Sam Brownback, and Lawrence Kudlow
• 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
• Valentine Mott (1806), American surgeon pioneer
• 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
• Henry James Anderson (1818), scientist and educator who participated in the U.S. Dead Sea exploration expedition
• 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
• Cornelius Rea Agnew (1849), physician who helped founding the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital
• Henry Carrington Bolton (1862), chemist and bibliographer of science
• Rudolph August Witthaus (1867), American toxicologist
• Frederick Remsen Hutton (1873), engineer, president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Sylvanus Albert Reed (1874), aerospace engineer who developed the modern metal aircraft propeller, for which won the 1925 Collier Trophy
• William Hallock (1879), American physicist, professor at Columbia University
• 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
• Harold Jacoby (1894), astronomer and professor at Columbia University
• 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
• Grover Loening (1908), American aircraft manufacturer, founder of Loening Aeronautical Engineering; developed the Loening Model 23 which won the 1921 Collier Trophy
• 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
• Calvin Bridges (1912), geneticist, protege of Thomas Hunt Morgan known for his contribution to genetics
• Alfred Sturtevant (1912), geneticist, protege of Thomas Hunt Morgan and winner of the National Medal of Science
• James Chapin (1916), American ornithologist; 17th president of the The Explorers Club
• Harold Alexander Abramson (1919), early advocate of Psychedelic therapy
• 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
• Andrew Streitwieser (1927), American chemist known for his contributions to Physical organic chemistry
• Harold Charles Bold (1929), American botanist
• Theodore Lidz (1930), Sterling Professor of psychiatry at Yale; expert on Schizophrenia
• Leo Rangell (1933), psychoanalyst; president of the International Psychoanalytical Association and the American Psychoanalytic Association
• 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
• Leon Davidson (1942), chemical engineer known for his work in the Manhattan Project and the study of Unidentified Flying Objects
• Seymour Jonathan Singer (1943), cell biologist and professor at the University of California, San Diego
• Arnold Cooper (1944), psychoanalyst; professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and former president of the American Psychoanalytic Association
• 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
• Alfred P. Wolf (1944), nuclear and organic chemist; research professor at New York University
• 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
• Albert Starr (1946), noted cardiovascular surgeon, winner of the 2007 Lasker Award
• Robert A. Frosch (1947), fifth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Frank I. Marcus (1948), American cardiologist and professor at University of Arizona Medical Center
• Robert Neil Butler (1949), president of the International Longevity Center and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
• Benjamin Widom (1949), professor of chemistry at Cornell University; recipient of the Boltzmann Medal in 1998
• Leon Cooper (1951), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Richard A. Gardner (1952), psychiatrist known for researching Parental alienation syndrome
• 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
• Richard K. Bernstein (1954), physician and advocate for Low-carbohydrate diet
• Henry Buchwald (1954), professor of surgery and biomedical engineering at University of Minnesota
• Neil D. Opdyke (1955), geologist
• Alvin F. Poussaint (1956), professor of psychiatry and dean of freshmen at the Harvard Medical School
• Sheldon Saul Hendler (1957), American scientist, physician, and musician
• Ralph Feigin (1958), American pediatrician; former president and CEO of Baylor College of Medicine and physician-in-chief of Texas Children's Hospital
• 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
• Joseph L. Fleiss (1959), professor of biostatistics at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
• Michael Lesch (1960), physician and medical educator who identified the Lesch–Nyhan syndrome
• Ira Black (1961), American physician and neuroscientist, advocate of Stem cell research; former president of Society for Neuroscience
• Kenneth C. Edelin (1961), American physician known for his support of abortion rights and former chairman of Planned Parenthood
• Eugene Milone (1961), astronomer, professor at the University of Calgary
• Robert Pollack (1961), American biologist who studies the intersections between science and religion
• Charles Cantor (1962), molecular geneticist; chief science officer at Sequenom
• 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
• Farhad Ardalan (1963), Iranian High Energy physicist and professor at Sharif University and the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics.
• 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
• Allan Blaer (1964), American physicist and professor who is in charge of the Columbia University Science Honors Program
• 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
• Thomas B. Kornberg (1970), American biochemist who was the first to purify and characterize DNA polymerase II and DNA polymerase III
• Paul S. Appelbaum (1972), psychiatrist credited with conceptualizing the idea of therapeutic misconception
• Steven M. Bellovin(1972), professor of computer science at Columbia University and chief technologist of Federal Trade Commission
• Stephen M. Barr (1974), author and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware
• Mark G. Lebwohl (1974), American dermatologist and president of the American Academy of Dermatology
• 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
• Jonathan E. Aviv (1981), American surgeon known for inventing the Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing with Sensory Testing technique and developing the Transnasal esophagoscopy method
• Neil Shubin (1982), paleontologist and co-discoverer of Tiktaalik
• Peter Lunenfeld (1984), critic and theorist of digital media
• 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
• Beth Willman (1998), American astronomer at Haverford College

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
• Cornelius Mathews* (1834), American winter in the Young America movement
• Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1835), literary biographer in the Young America movement
• George Templeton Strong (1838), noted diarist; founder of the United States Sanitary Commission and the Union League Club of New York
• Edgar Fawcett (1867), novelist
• Duffield Osborne (1879), author
• John Kendrick Bangs (1883), author, satirist, editor of Puck magazine
• Albert Payson Terhune (1893), author, dog breeder, journalist, Further Adventures of Lad
• Guy Wetmore Carryl (1895), humorist, Fables for the Frivolous
• Melville Henry Cane (1900), poet; winner of the Robert Frost Medal in 1971
• 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, The John Riddell Murder Case
• Henry Morton Robinson (1923), author of The Cardinal and A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
• 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; recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award and the Curt Gowdy Media Award
• Walter Wager (1944), mystery writer whose book 58 Minutes was adapted into Die Hard 2
• Herbert Gold (1946), Beat Generation novelist
• Daniel Hoffman (1947), poet; 22nd United States Poet Laureate
• Allen Ginsberg (1948), Beat generation poet; author of Howl
• Frederick Karl (1948), literary biographer famous for his work on Joseph Conrad
• Louis Simpson (1948), American poet; winner of the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• 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
• Dan Wakefield (1955), novelist, journalist, screenwriter
• Robert Silverberg (1956), science fiction writer, recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in 2004
• 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
• Aaron Fogel (1967), poet
• 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, literary critic, professor at William Paterson University
• 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
• Bob Holman (1970), poet and activist identified with the oral tradition
• David Lehman (1970), poet, editor of The Best American Poetry series
• Alex Abella (1972), Cuban-American writer
• 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
• Jeffrey Harrison (1980), poet who won the 1988 Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
• Lou Antonelli (1981), science fiction writer
• Michael Azerrad (1983), author, journalist, musician
• David Rakoff (1986), comedic essayist
• Adam Mansbach (1988), author and former professor of literature at Rutgers University–Camden
• Darryl Pinckney (1988), novelist, playwright, and essayist
• Mako Yoshikawa (1988), novelist, professor at Emerson College
• Carol Guess (1990), novelist and poet; professor at Western Washington University
• John Reed (1990), novelist; author of Snowball's Chance
• Kelly Link (1991), Hugo Award-winning American author; founder of Small Beer Press; editor of St. Martin's Press's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
• 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
• Jordan Davis (1992), poet
• Melissa de la Cruz (1993), writer known for work in young-adult fiction
• Maxine Swann (1994), fiction writer
• Robert Westfield (1994), writer who won two Lambda Literary Awards
• Megan McCafferty (1995), chick lit writer, Jessica Darling series, which were plagiarized by Kaavya Viswanathan
• Tova Mirvis (1995), author
• Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur (1996), author and Islamic activist
• Aravind Adiga (1997), Man Booker Prize-winning novelist
• Gotham Chopra (1997), author, son of health advocate Deepak Chopra
• Daniel Alarcón (1999), novelist
• Katherine Howe (1999), novelist, author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
• Rebecca Pawel (1999), author of mystery novels; winner of the 2004 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel
• Fiona Sze-Lorrain (2003), French poet, translator, musician
• Danielle Valore Evans (2004), American fiction writer
• Nikil Saval (2005), American writer and journalist

Miscellaneous

• John Parke Custis* (1777) 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
• William H. Herriman (1849), expatriate American art collector
• Elbridge Thomas Gerry (1857), lawyer and social reformer who founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; grandson of U.S. Vice President Elbridge Gerry and father of United States Senate from Rhode Island Peter G. Gerry
• Arthur B. Spingarn (1897), civil rights activist; elected president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1940 to 1965; namesake of the Moorland–Spingarn Research Center at Howard University
• George Marshall (1926), political activist and conservationist
• Reed Harris (1932), former State Department official and victim of McCarthyism
• John K. Lattimer (1935), urologist, ballistics expert, and inveterate collector
• Richard Ravitch (1955), chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Bowery Savings Bank
• Morris J. Amitay (1958), lobbyist, former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and vice chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
• John Giorno (1958), subject of Andy Warhol's first movie, Sleep
• Fred Glazer (1958), librarian and director of the West Virginia Library Commission
• 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
• Anita Lo (1988), celebrity chef and restauranteur
• 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 (1999), socialite and television personality
• Anna Baltzer (2002), activist for Palestinian human rights
• Meghan McCain (2007), blogger and daughter of Arizona senator John McCain
• John Cochran (2009), winner of Survivor: Caramoan
• Hari Nef (2015), transgender model, actress, and writer; signed to IMG Models