Notable Alumni

Activism and Public Service

Norman F. Bates 1865: recipient of Medal of Honor in the Civil War
Bruce Friedrich ’96: executive director of The Good Food Institute (GFI) and founding partner of New Crop Capital (NCC)
John Garang de Mabior ’69: former vice-president of Sudan and past commander-in-chief of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement
Latona Giwa ’09: doula, nurse, lactation consultant, and advocate; co-founder of Birthmark Doula Collective and the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center.
Louise Rosenfield Noun ’29: activist for women’s rights and president, Iowa Civil Liberties Union
Carolyn Swartz Bucksbaum ’51: leader in cultural and civic affairs; Trustee, Grinnell College; vice president of the National Public Radio Foundation; former board member, Des Moines Register; former Chair of the Board of Trustees, Grinnell College

Arts and Entertainment

Emily Bergl ’97: actor in film, television, and on Broadway; including TV’s Desperate Housewives, Southland, and Shameless
Gary Cooper ’26: Academy Award–winning actor
Martha Cooper ’63: icon of the street art movement and author of Subway Art
Peter Coyote ’64: stage, film, TV actor, writer, and director, Wild Dog Productions
Hallie Flanagan Davis 1911: pioneer of experimental theatre and director, the Federal Theatre Project of the Works Progress Administration; first woman to win a Guggenheim
Herbie Hancock ’60: Oscar- and Grammy-winning musician and composer, Hancock Music
Pat Irwin ’77: musician/composer, B-52s
Amy Johnson ’85: acclaimed soprano and actress
Walter Koenig ’58: actor, director, screenwriter, and producer (Star Trek’s Chekov)
Sterling Lord '42: literary agent, founder of Sterling Lord Literistic
Thomas Meglioranza ’92: acclaimed baritone
F. Hudson Miller ’80: sound editor (film), earned Academy Awards for “Best Sound Editing” on The Hunt for Red October and Pearl Harbor and an Oscar Nomination for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; vice president, Motion Picture Sound Editors; board member, Motion Picture Editors Guild
Kumail Nanjiani ’01: stand-up comic; actor known for roles in: Franklin and Bash, the Colbert Report, Michael and Michael have issues, and Silicon Valley; star and Academy Award–nominated screenwriter for The Big Sick
Ian Roberts ’87: actor and founder, Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe; cast member of Comedy Central’s Reno 911
Richard K. Schmiechen ’69: Academy Award–winning filmmaker and producer, The Times of Harvey Milk
Joan Wilson Sullivan ’50: Emmy award winner and former producer of Masterpiece Theatre

Authors

May-Lee Chai ’89: novelist, My Lucky Face and The Girl from Purple Mountain
David Feldman ’71: writer of the Imponderables book series
Amy Clampitt ’41: internationally acclaimed poet
James Norman Hall 1910: co-author, Mutiny on the Bounty
Curtis Harnack ’49: author and former president of the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center
Rebecca Hill ’66: prize-winning author of Blue Rise, author of Among Birches, and co-author of Killing Time in St. Cloud
Edward Hirsch ’72: award-winning poet; president, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
George McJimsey ’58: professor emeritus of history at Iowa State University, author of Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy and The Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
David Mura ’74: writer, memoirist, poet, and performance artist; author of Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire
Patricia O’Conner ’71: former editor, The New York Times Book Review and author of Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English
Sam Tanenhaus ’77: editor, The New York Times Book Review; 1997 National Book Award finalist for the biography Whittaker Chambers; author, The Death of Conservatism
Joseph F. Wall ’41: author of Bancroft Prize–winning biography Andrew Carnegie
Michele Weiner-Davis ’73: psychotherapist and author of books on solution-based brief therapy, including Divorce Busting and Fire Your Shrink: Do-It-Yourself Strategies for Changing Your Life and Everyone in It
Ray Young Bear ’76: Native American poet and educator

Business

Nordahl Brue ’67: co-founder, Bruegger’s Bagels; chair, Franklin Foods and PKC Corp.
Lucia McMillan Cleveland ’74: former owner/operator, The Spice Hunter Inc.
Andrew Cooper ’70: principal, CooperKatz & Co.
Henry Cornell ’76: managing director, Goldman Sachs & Co.
Allison Davis ’61: manager, The Davis Group; Chicago attorney and real estate developer
Vernon Faulconer ’61: president, Vernon E. Faulconer Inc.
David Fisher ’59: chief executive officer, G.W. Onthank Co.
Shelley Floyd ’72: chief administrative officer, Intel Corporation
Ronald Gault ’62: managing director, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.
Kihwan Kim ’57: international chair, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council; chair, Seoul Financial Forum; senior international adviser, Goldman Sachs
James H. Lowry ’61: diversity, equity, and inclusion advocate and entrepreneur; through his work as a management consultant and mentor, Lowry has opened doors and removed glass ceilings for Black professionals in the business world; Life Trustee of the Board of Trustees, Grinnell College
James Maxmin ’64: founder and chair, Global Brand Development
Paul McCulley ’79: partner, PIMCO, the world’s largest fixed income investment management company
Maijid Moujaled ’14: co-founder of Chipper Cash (with Ham Serunjogi ’16)
Vance Opperman ’65: president, Key Investment Inc.
John Price Jr. ’60: president and CEO, Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh
Joseph Rosenfield ’25: trustee, General Growth Companies
Michael “Mickey” Schulhof ’64: former president of Sony America, first American asked to serve on the board of directors for Sony, patent holder
Ham Serunjogi ’16: co-founder of Chipper Cash (with Maijid Moujaled ’14)
Joel R. Spiegel ’78: former vice-president responsible for website technology, Amazon.com

Education

Mary Sue Wilson Coleman ’65: president, University of Michigan
Barbara Doscher ’44: teacher of singing, pedagogue, author, and professor of music at the University of Colorado in Boulder
George Drake ’56: former president, Grinnell College
Michael Hager ’65: president and CEO, San Diego Natural History Museum
Wallace Loh ’65: president, University of Maryland; former executive vice president and provost, University of Iowa
David Marker ’59: chief academic officer, Pacific Oaks College
David Maxwell ’66: former president, Drake University
Kathryn Jagow Mohrman ’67: executive director, Hopkins-Nanjing Center, John Hopkins University
Paul Risser ’61: former chancellor, Oklahoma State System of Higher Education
John “Fritz” Schwaller ’69: president, State University of New York-Potsdam
Irma McClaurin ’73: president, Shaw University

Government and Politics

Ken Adelman ’67: chief arms negotiator under President Reagan, author of Reagan at Rejkjavi, Shakespeare scholar
Paul Appleby 1913: deputy director, U.S. Bureau of the Budget, FDR administration
Florin Cîţu ’96: prime minister of Romania 2020–
Thomas Cole ’71: member, U.S. House of Representatives, State of Oklahoma, and fourth-leading Republican leader in the House
Chester Davis 1911: director, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, FDR administration
Harry Hopkins 1912: chief presidential adviser to FDR; architect of the New Deal
Lorelei Kelly ’88: national security specialist and senior associate, Henry L. Stimson Center
Florence Stewart Kerr 1912: assistant commissioner of the WPA and the Federal Works Agency, FDR administration
Keith Kozloff ’73: director, Office of Accountability for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Jodie Levin-Epstein ’72: deputy director, Center for Law and Social Policy
Rebecca Lucero ’03: Minnesota human rights commissioner, led state civil rights investigation of Minneapolis Police Department following murder of George Floyd
George Moose ’66: former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, U.S. Department of State
Thomas Railsback ’54: member, U.S. House of Representatives, 1967–83
Taimur Rahman ’98: general secretary, Pakistan’s Mazdoor Kissan party and professor of political science at Lahore University of Management Sciences
A. Gregory Thielmann ’72: former intelligence analyst, U.S. Department of State
Sheryl Walter ’78: director, Office of Information Programs and Services, U.S. Department of State
K.C. Wu 1923: governor of Taiwan Province, 1949–53
Joan Zimmerman ’71: senior analyst, John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board

Journalism and Media

Kenneth Adelman ’67: diplomat, political writer, policy analyst, and William Shakespeare historian; director of arms control and disarmament agency, Reagan administration
Hal Fuson Jr. ’67: retired executive vice-president and chief operating officer, The Copley Press
Gary Giddins ’70: writer, filmmaker, and lecturer, formerly of the Village Voice
David Heath ’81: investigative journalist and Emmy and three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee
Robert Hodierne ’68: Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist; associate professor of journalism, University of Richmond
Eric Johnson ’88: director, Internews Europe
Adam Kempenaar ’97: host of popular movie review podcast, “Filmspotting”
Caroline Little ’81: chief executive officer, Guardian News and Media, North America; leader of the Newspaper Association of America
Marileta Sawyer Robinson ’65: senior editor, Highlights For Children
John Ruane ’76: Emmy–winning producer, formerly of NBC Sports
David Schechter ’77: senior national editor, CNN
Roberta Smith ’69: art critic, The New York Times
Cynthia Wagner ’78: managing editor, The Futurist Magazine

Law

Kenneth “J-C” E. Labowitz ’71: attorney and pioneer of the law regarding AIDS and HIV infection
Andrew Sacks ’81: environmental and complex litigation attorney; handled the largest single land-owner verdict ($1 billion) in U.S. history
Joseph Nye Welch 1914: counsel for the U.S. Army during Army-McCarthy hearings
David White ’90: national executive director, Screen Actors Guild
Henry Wingate ’69: chief district judge, Southern District of Mississippi

Medicine

Richard Anderson ’67: ophthalmologist and surgeon, University of Utah School of Medicine; developed surgical procedures for reconstructive and cosmetic surgery of the eyelids and orbital region
Vincent Anku ’65: hematologist and oncologist; author, Health of the Nation
John Canady ’80: plastic surgeon, otolaryngologist, and orthopedic surgeon, University of Iowa Hospitals; director of cleft lip and palate service, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
Jeffrey Greenberg ’80: faculty member and attending surgeon, Indiana Hand Center
Katherine Sutherland Hauser ’71: reproductive endocrinologist, McFarland Clinic; fertility specialist for the parents of the McCaughey septuplets
I. Craig Henderson ’63: medical hematologist and oncologist; renowned breast cancer clinician and researcher, University of California-San Francisco Medical Center
Randall Morgan Jr. ’65: orthopedic surgeon; executive director, Cobb/National Medical Association Health Institute
Rein Saral ’65: senior associate director, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine and School of Public Health
Randy Seeley ’89: professor of psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; director, Obesity Research Center
Dennis Spencer ’67: chair of the department of neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine; included in the book The Best Doctors in America
Jessie Ternberg ’46: pioneering woman surgeon and former chief of pediatric surgery, Children’s Hospital of the Washington University Medical Center
Eric Whitaker ’87: executive vice president, strategic affiliations, and associate dean of community-based research, University of Chicago Medical Center

Retail and Fashion

Hugh Acton ’50: designer, artist, and creator of iconic modern furniture
Susan Klein ’63: artist and jewelry designer
Elena Rubinova ’78: sweater designer
Richard Von Maur Jr. ’55: co-chair, Von Maur department stores

Science and Mathematics

Nathaniel Borenstein ’80: scientist, programmer, inventor, and entrepreneur; distinguished engineer, IBM Lotus Division
Oliver Buckley 1909: president and director, Bell Labs, 1940–51; led the company to develop the transistor, a pivotal invention that transformed communication
Thomas Cech ’70: 1989 Nobel laureate in chemistry; former president, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Dean Martin ’55: director, Institute for Environmental Studies, University of South Florida
Robert Noyce ’49: co-inventor of the integrated circuit; co-founder, Intel Corp.
Clair Patterson ’43: professor of geochemistry, California Institute of Technology; pioneer in the elimination of lead pollution
Roberta Smith Reuben ’57: director, biochemical genetics, Merck and Co. and Dohme research laboratories; pioneer of genetic research
Arthur Risser Jr. ’60: general manager, San Diego Zoo
Stephen Rockwood ’65: chief technology officer, Science Applications International Corp.
George Simon ’55: retired senior scientist, space physics division, National Solar Observatory
Gordon Stacey ’79: professor of astronomy, Cornell University, and principal investigator of NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory’s Wide-Field Infrared Camera
Henry Wilhelm ’68: co-founder, president, and director of research, Wilhelm Imaging Research; expert on print and photo permanence

Sports

Marvin Clein ’54: former chair, University of Denver’s physical education and sports science departments; authority in kinesiology; coach of top athletes including Olympic figure-skating champion Dorothy Hamill
Erik Kocher ’84: project designer of athletic facilities, principal/owner, Hastings & Chivetta Architects
Judy Mahle Lutter ’61: co-founder and former president, The Melpomene Institute for Women’s Health Research
F. Dayle “Hap” Moran ’26: professional football player, New York Giants, 1929–33
Veronika Platzer ’87: former member, U.S. Rowing Team; coach, Olympic rower Ken Jurkowski
Norman Sonju ’60: founder and former chief operating officer/general manager, Dallas Mavericks (NBA)
Morgan Taylor ’26: Olympic gold medalist, 400-meter hurdles, Paris 1924
Christine Thorburn ’92: physician and Olympic cyclist, 2004 and 2008