List of College of Wooster people

This page lists notable alumni and former students, faculty, and administrators of the College of Wooster.

Academia

 * Karl Taylor Compton, Philosophy (1908), President of MIT 1930-1948; member of the National Academy of Sciences
 * Wayne A. Cornelius, Political Science (1967), founder of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego
 * Frederick Hinitt, Doctor of Divinity (1902), Presbyterian pastor; President of Centre College and Washington & Jefferson College
 * Isaac C. Ketler, Presbyterian scholar, founder of Grove City College
 * Shannon Boyd-Bailey McCune (1935), geographer and university administrator; President of the University of Florida and the University of Vermont
 * Kimberly Bracken Long, B. Mus. (1981), Presbyterian pastor; writer; Associate Professor of Worship at Columbia Theological Seminary
 * Merton M. Sealts, Jr., English (1937), Emerson and Melville scholar
 * Ronald Takaki, History (1961), historian, ethnographer, professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley
 * J. Campbell White, President of Wooster, 1915-1919
 * Wendell L. Wylie, American Orthodontist
 * Courtney Young (librarian), English (1996), Librarian and past president of the American Library Association, 2014-2015
 * Nancy Zahniser, pharmacologist

Business

 * George Fitch, Economics (1970), politician and business consultant; co-founder of the Jamaican Bobsled Team, which debuted at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta
 * Stanley Gault, Geology (1948), former CEO of Rubbermaid and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
 * Charles F. Kettering, inventor of electric automobile starter motor; Vice President of General Motors Research Corporation; namesake of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; attended but did not graduate
 * Blake Moore, History (1980), NFL lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers; CEO of Allianz Global Investors
 * R.J. Thomas, President of the United Auto Workers
 * Bill Townsend, Art (1986), Internet entrepreneur, politician, founder and chairman of the Amati Foundation

Education

 * Margaret Lee Chadwick, founder and headmistress of the Chadwick School, and author

Government

 * W. Thomas Andrews (1963), Pennsylvania State Senator
 * William Moore McCulloch, chair of the United States House Committee on the Judiciary, forced Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress
 * John Carwile, U.S. Ambassador to Latvia (2019-present)
 * Ted Celeste, member of the Ohio House of Representatives
 * John Dean, Political Science (1961), White House Counsel (1970–1973) to President Richard Nixon
 * Eugene A. DePasquale, Political Science (1993), Pennsylvania Auditor General
 * David Dudley Dowd Jr. (1951), United States federal judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
 * Charlie Earl, former Ohio state representative; candidate in the 2014 Ohio gubernatorial election
 * Mark F. Giuliano, Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
 * Donald Kohn, Economics (1964), Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve
 * Ping-Wen Kuo (1911), Chinese educator and statesman
 * John McSweeney (1912), member of the United States House of Representatives
 * John T. Morrison (1887), sixth Governor of Idaho, 1903-1905
 * Norman Morrison, Religion (1956), pacifist, Vietnam War protester
 * Solomon Oliver Jr., Philosophy and Political Science (1969), U.S. District Court Chief Judge for the Northern District of Ohio
 * Carl V. Weygandt (1912), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio

Journalism

 * Vince Cellini, Speech (1981), host of The Golf Channel; former anchor for CNN Sports
 * Alfred William Edel, History (1957), news anchor for ABC Radio News and Voice of America
 * Daniel Howes, History (1983), business columnist for The Detroit News
 * Mary Sifton Pepper (1883), journalist and translator on The Jesuit Relations
 * Mark Stephens, also known as Robert X. Cringely, History (1975), technology journalist for Public Broadcasting Service

Literature

 * Debra Allbery, English (1979), poet (Walking Distance), winner of the 1990 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
 * Frederic Lauriston Bullard (1891), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Boston Herald; Lincoln historian; writer (Famous War Correspondents)
 * Mary Crow, English (1955), Poet Laureate of Colorado
 * Stephen R. Donaldson, English (1968), New York Times bestselling science fiction author (Thomas Covenant)
 * John Lawrence Goheen (1906), missionary, agriculturist, writer (Glimpses of Ichalkaranji)
 * David Means, English (1984), short story writer (Assorted Fire Events), winner of 2000 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction

Performing arts

 * James B. Allardice, Emmy Award winning television writer
 * Caitlin Cary, English (1990), alt-country musician, member of the band Whiskeytown
 * J.C. Chandor, Cultural Film Studies (1996), film director
 * Darius Scott Dixson (DIXSON), Academy Award-nominated Songwriter & Music Producer, "Be Alive", contestant on The Voice (American season 9)
 * Divya Gopikumar, Psychology (2008), South Indian actress
 * Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie or Joey Bowie), Philosophy (1995), British film director of Moon and Source Code; son of rock musician David Bowie
 * Debi Smith, Psychology (1976), folk singer/songwriter and member of the Four Bitchin' Babes

Religion

 * Sophia Lyon Fahs (1897), honorary degree (1961), writer, liberal religious activist, and educator
 * Elizabeth Eaton, Music Education (1977), Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) from 2013–present.

Science

 * Arthur Holly Compton, Physics (1913), Nobel Prize-winning physicist; member of the National Academy of Sciences; Chancellor of Washington University 1945-1953
 * Helen Murray Free, Chemistry (1945), elected President of the American Chemical Society in 1993; inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000
 * Martha Chase (1950), American geneticist; performed the Hershey–Chase experiment in 1952, proving that genetic information is transmitted by DNA and not protein.
 * Elizebeth Friedman, America's first female cryptologist; attended briefly but transferred elsewhere
 * George E. Goodfellow (1876), physician, authority on gunshot wounds, first surgeon to perform a perineal prostatectomy
 * Tim McCreight, Art (1973), artist and metalsmith; President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (1993–1994)
 * James V. Neel, Biology (1935), Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics University of Michigan; Albert Lasker Award winner, National Medal of Science winner, National Academy of Sciences member; "father of modern human genetics"
 * Stephen J. Page (1993), biomedical researcher, author, clinician, academic, and expert on motor recovery and care after stroke
 * James C. Stevens, Chemistry (1975), Distinguished Fellow at Dow Chemical; inventor of constrained geometry catalyst for polyolefin manufacture; member of the National Academy of Engineering
 * George W. Thorn, Biology (1927), Chief of Medicine, Bringham & Woman's Hospital Harvard University; NAS Public Welfare Medal winner; Chairman Emeritus Howard Hughes Medical Institute
 * John Travis, Chemistry (1965), preventive medicine physician, founder of first wellness center in US
 * Emily A. Buchholtz, Paleontology, vertebrate paleontologist

Sports

 * Charles Follis (1902*), the first black professional football player; he played for a team in the Ohio League (which later became the NFL)
 * Reggie Minton, Physical Education (1963), deputy executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches; head basketball coach United States Air Force Academy (1985–2000)
 * Larry Shyatt, Physical Education (1973), basketball coach; head coach of Clemson University and the University of Wyoming; assistant coach of the Dallas Mavericks (2016-2019)

Faculty

 * Daniel Bourne, poet, professor of English
 * Joanne Frye, writer, professor of English and Women's Studies
 * Jack Gallagher, composer, Olive Williams Kettering Professor of Music
 * William Gass, novelist (The Tunnel), professor of philosophy and English
 * R. Stanton Hales, president of Wooster (1995–2007), national US badminton champion
 * Dario Hunter, rabbi
 * Jack Lengyel, head football coach and lacrosse coach 1966–1970; head football coach at Marshall University 1971–1974
 * Hayden Schilling, professor of history
 * Orange Nash Stoddard, professor of natural history
 * Anthony Tognazzini, writer, professor of Creative Writing
 * Susanne Woods, president-elect of Wooster (1995)
 * Josephine Wright, musicologist, Josephine Lincoln Morris Professor of Black Studies