List of Mercer University people

Mercer University is a private, coeducational university in Macon, Georgia, founded in 1833.



Mercer is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music, engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, law, theology, and continuing and professional studies. Mercer enrolls approximately 8,300 students in its eleven colleges and schools.

Alumni
This is a list of notable Mercer alumni and employees.

Arts, education, media, and industry



 * Tom Abbott – broadcaster with Golf Channel and NBC Sports
 * Gregg Allman – musician, received an honorary degree in 2016
 * Steve Berry – author of six novels including several New York Times bestsellers
 * Thomas P. Bishop – senior vice president, compliance officer and general counsel, Georgia Power, the largest electric utility in Georgia
 * John B. Black – president, East Georgia College
 * J. Buford Boone – Pulitzer Prize-winning author (1957); recognized for editorials against segregation
 * David Bottoms – Georgia Poet Laureate, 2000–2012
 * William H. Bruce – Mercer's first doctoral graduate (1890); president, Tarleton State University, 1899–1900; president, University of North Texas, 1906–1923
 * James C. Coomer – political scientist and author
 * John M. Couric – former UPI editor, PR executive with the National Association of Broadcasters; father of broadcast journalist Katie Couric
 * Harry Stillwell Edwards – former editor, Macon Telegraph; author of 19 books, including the Southern classic Eneas Africanus
 * Erick Erickson – political contributor for John King, USA on CNN
 * Barbara (Willis) Gauthier – news anchor for WTVM in Columbus
 * Nancy Grace – legal commentator and guest host for Larry King Live; hosted her own show, Nancy Grace on CNN
 * Keitaro Harada – opera and orchestra conductor
 * Rufus Carrollton Harris – president, Tulane University, 1939–1960; president, Mercer University, 1960–1979, co-author of the GI Bill
 * John Hogan – founding president, Radio-Television News Directors Association, the world's largest organization devoted to broadcast journalism
 * Y. Lynn Holmes – president, Brewton-Parker College, 1983–1997
 * Budge Huskey – president and CEO, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC
 * Malcolm Johnson – Pulitzer Prize-winning author (1949); his reports were the basis for On the Waterfront, which starred Marlon Brando
 * Tony Kemp — Executive Committee member, Phi Eta Sigma; currently Mercer's Senior Director of Academic Services
 * Anne B. Kerr – president, Florida Southern College
 * William Heard Kilpatrick – career educator; first president of the Bennington College board of trustees, 1931–1938
 * Landrum P. Leavell – president, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1975–1995
 * Dr. Henry Lewis III – president, Florida Memorial University
 * Dr. Andrew Light – university professor, George Mason University, and Senior Adviser on Climate Change, U.S. Department of State; author and editor of 17 books on the intersection of the scientific and moral dimensions of environmental and technology policy




 * Bruce D. McDonald III – university professor, North Carolina State University
 * Reg Murphy – former president and vice chairman, National Geographic Society; publisher, Baltimore Sun; editor and publisher, San Francisco Examiner; editor, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; author of Uncommon Sense: The Achievement of Griffin Bell
 * William F. Ogburn – sociologist; former president of the American Sociological Society
 * George P. Oslin – former Western Union executive; invented the singing telegram in 1933
 * Lyman Ray Patterson – law professor and copyright scholar; former dean, Emory University School of Law
 * James Rachels – moral philosopher, university professor, and author; best known for his writing on euthanasia
 * Ed Roberts – designed the first commercially successful personal computer in 1975; known as "the father of the personal computer"
 * Ferrol Sams – widely read Southern author, known for Run with the Horsemen and Whisper of the River
 * Robert A. Saurberg, Jr. – president, Condé Nast
 * Neil Skene – president and publisher, Congressional Quarterly, 1990–1997
 * Eugene W. Stetson – banker and railway executive; organized the sale of Coca-Cola by Asa Griggs Candler to Ernest Woodruff in 1919; namesake of Mercer's Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics
 * Steve Stoler – news reporter for WFAA in Dallas, Texas; noted for his coverage of the Branch Davidian Waco Siege in Waco, Texas
 * Jack Tarver – publisher, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1958–1976; chairman, Associated Press, 1977–1983, namesake of the Jack Tarver Library on the Macon campus
 * Corbett H. Thigpen – psychiatrist; co-author of The Three Faces of Eve
 * Ellis Paul Torrance – educator known for pioneering research in creativity; namesake of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development
 * Phil Walden – music pioneer and founder of Capricorn Records; represented Otis Redding and The Allman Brothers
 * Martin Christopher White – president, Chowan University, 2003–present; former president, Gardner–Webb University, 1986–2002
 * Jerry Wilson – former Senior Vice President and Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, the Coca-Cola Company

Law
For further alumni, see also: Walter F. George School of Law.
 * A. Harris Adams – Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals
 * Griffin Bell – Judge, United States Court of Appeals, 1962–1976; 72nd Attorney General of the United States, 1977–1979
 * John S. Bell – Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals, 1960–1979; Chief Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals, 1969–1979
 * Reason C. Bell – Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court, 1943–1946; Associate Justice, 1932–1943 and 1946–1949; Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals, 1922–1932
 * William Augustus Bootle – Judge, Federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, 1954–2005; ordered the first admission of an African-American to the University of Georgia in 1961
 * G. Harrold Carswell – Judge, Federal District Court for the Northern District of Florida, 1958–1969; Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1969–1970; unsuccessful nominee to the United States Supreme Court, 1970
 * Barry Cohen – criminal defense attorney, 1966–2018
 * Linton McGee Collins – Judge, United States Court of Claims, 1964–1972
 * Brainerd Currie – law professor; noted conflict of laws scholar who developed the characterisation concept of governmental interest analysis
 * Thomas Hoyt Davis – Judge, Federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, 1945–1969
 * Sara L. Doyle – Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals
 * Beverly Daniel Evans, Jr. – Georgia Supreme Court Justice, 1904–1917; Federal District Judge for the Southern District of Georgia, 1917–1922
 * Albert John Henderson – Judge, United States Court of Appeals, 1979–1999; Judge, Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, 1968–1979
 * Archibald Battle Lovett – Judge, Federal District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, 1941–1945
 * Scott D. Makar – Florida Solicitor General
 * M. Yvette Miller – Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals; the first African-American woman to serve on the court
 * Carlton Mobley – Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court, 1972–1974; Associate Justice, 1954–1972; United States Representative, Georgia's 6th Congressional district, 1932–1933
 * Michael J. Moore – United States Attorney, Federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
 * Willie Louis Sands – Judge, Federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia; the first African-American to serve on the court
 * Jay Sekulow – chief counsel, American Center for Law and Justice
 * Evett Simmons – former president, National Bar Association
 * Hugh Thompson – Georgia Supreme Court Justice
 * Marc T. Treadwell – Judge, Federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
 * L. Lin Wood – attorney and conspiracy theorist on President Donald Trump's legal team tasked with overturning the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election

U.S. senators

 * Four Mercerians have served as United States Senators, all from Georgia.
 * Walter F. George – United States Senator from Georgia, 1922–1957, served as President pro tempore, 1955–1957; namesake of Mercer's Law School
 * Thomas W. Hardwick – United States Senator from Georgia, 1915–1919; Governor of Georgia, 1921–1923; as Governor, appointed Rebecca L. Felton as the first female United States Senator
 * Thomas E. Watson – United States Representative, Georgia's 10th Congressional district, 1891–1893; United States Senator from Georgia, 1921–1922
 * William S. West – United States Senator from Georgia, 1914–1914

Governors

 * Eleven Mercerians have served as Governors: six of Georgia, two of Alabama, and one each of New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, and Texas.
 * Ellis Arnall – Governor of Georgia, 1943–1947
 * Allen D. Candler – Governor of Georgia, 1898–1902; United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1883–1891; namesake of Candler County, Georgia
 * Nathan Deal – United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1993–2010; served as Governor of Georgia 2011–2019
 * Thomas W. Hardwick – United States Senator from Georgia, 1915–1919; Governor of Georgia, 1921–1923; as Governor, appointed Rebecca L. Felton as the first female United States Senator
 * Richard B. Hubbard – Governor of Texas, 1876–1879; US Ambassador to Japan, 1885–1889
 * William D. Jelks – Governor of Alabama, 1901–1907
 * Henry Dickerson McDaniel – Governor of Georgia, 1883–1886
 * William J. Northen – Governor of Georgia, 1890–1894; president, Southern Baptist Convention, 1899–1901; served as a Mercer trustee for 44 years, 1869–1913
 * Chauncey Sparks – Governor of Alabama, 1943–1947
 * Meldrim Thomson, Jr. – Governor of New Hampshire, 1973–1979
 * Blanton Winship – Governor of Puerto Rico (1934–1939)

U.S. representatives

 * Twenty-one Mercerians have served as United States representatives; the most recent (as of 2021) was Scott Rigell of Virginia. Seventeen were from Georgia, three from Florida, and one from Virginia.
 * Doug Barnard – United States Representative, Georgia's 10th Congressional district, 1977–1993
 * Allen D. Candler – Governor of Georgia, 1898–1902; United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1883–1891; namesake of Candler County, Georgia
 * Edward E. Cox – United States Representative, Georgia's 2nd Congressional district, 1925–1952
 * Martin J. Crawford – United States Representative, Georgia's 2nd Congressional district, 1855–1861; Representative to the Confederate Provisional Congress, 1861–1862; Justice, Supreme Court of Georgia, 1880–1883
 * Nathan Deal – United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1993–2010; served as Governor of Georgia 2011–2019
 * Robert W. Everett – United States Representative, Georgia's 7th Congressional district, 1891–1893
 * Phillip M. Landrum – United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1953–1977
 * Thomas G. Lawson – United States Representative, Georgia's 8th Congressional district, 1891–1897
 * Rufus E. Lester – United States Representative, Georgia's 1st Congressional district, 1889–1906
 * Charles L. Moses – United States Representative, Georgia's 4th Congressional district, 1891–1897
 * James W. Overstreet – United States Representative, Georgia's 1st Congressional district, 1906–1907 and 1917–1923
 * Homer C. Parker – United States Representative, Georgia's 1st Congressional district, 1931–1935
 * Scott Rigell – United States Representative, Virginia's 2nd Congressional district, 2011–2017
 * Seaborn Roddenbery – United States Representative, Georgia's 2nd Congressional district, 1910–1913
 * Dwight L. Rogers – United States Representative, Florida's 6th Congressional district, 1945–1954
 * William J. Sears – United States Representative, Florida's 4th Congressional district, 1915–1929; United States Representative, an at-large Florida district, 1933–1937
 * Malcolm C. Tarver – United States Representative, Georgia's 7th Congressional district, 1927–1947
 * Carl Vinson – United States Representative for over 50 years, 1914–1965; long-time Chairman, House Armed Services Committee; has been called the "patriarch of the armed services" and the "father of the two-ocean navy"; namesake of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70)
 * Thomas E. Watson – United States Representative, Georgia's 10th Congressional district, 1891–1893; United States Senator from Georgia, 1921–1922
 * J. Mark Wilcox – United States Representative, Florida's 4th Congressional district, 1933–1939
 * John S. Wood – United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1931–1935 and 1945–1953; Chairman, House Un-American Activities Committee, 1949–1953

Other

 * Brad Bryant – Superintendent of the Georgia public schools, one of Georgia's eight statewide executive officials, 2010–2011
 * Cathy Cox – Georgia Secretary of State, 1999–2007; first woman elected to this position
 * Luis Eduardo Díaz Granados – Colombian Representative
 * Walter C. Dowling – United States Ambassador to South Korea, 1956–1959; United States Ambassador to Germany, 1959–1963
 * Winfred Dukes – Georgia State Representative
 * John Oxendine – Georgia Insurance Commissioner, 1995–2011
 * John Peyton – Mayor, Jacksonville, Florida, the most populous city in Florida and the thirteenth most populous in the United States, 2003–2011
 * Charles "Jack" Pritchard – United States Ambassador and Special Envoy for Negotiations to North Korea, 2001–2003
 * Sandra L. Thurman – Director, Office of National AIDS Policy, 1997–2001; the first Presidential Envoy for AIDS Cooperation, 2000–2001; referred to as the nation's "AIDS czar" in the administration of President Bill Clinton
 * William Usery Jr. – United States Secretary of Labor, 1976–1977
 * Julian Webb – Member of the Georgia State Senate 1963–1974 and the Georgia Court of Appeals 1974–1979
 * Samuel J. Welsch – Member of the Georgia House of Representatives, the Georgia State Senate, and mayor of Marietta, Georgia.
 * Zachery S. Mitcham-Author, BBA '80

Military

 * John Birch – missionary, U.S. Army intelligence officer, and OSS agent in China during World War II; namesake of the John Birch Society
 * Ross W. Crossley, Brigadier General, U.S. Army – Commanding General, V Corps Artillery, 1983–85; Chief of Staff, V Corps, 1985–88
 * Benjamin S. Griffin, General, U.S. Army – Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command, 2004–08
 * Richard E. Hawes, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy – commanded several vessels during World War II; recipient of the Navy Cross; namesake of the USS Hawes
 * Alexander T. Hawthorn, Brigadier-General, C.S. Army – Commander, 4th Arkansas Infantry Brigade, 1863–65
 * Michael L. Howard, Brigadier General, U.S. Army – Deputy Commanding General, 10th Mountain Division, 2013–present; Commander, 4th Brigade (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, the only airborne brigade in the Pacific Theater, 2008–10
 * Claude M. Kicklighter, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army – Commanding General, United States Army, Pacific, 1989–91; after military retirement, served in senior civilian positions in the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs; Assistant Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs, 2001–05; Inspector General, Department of Defense, 2007–08
 * C. Stewart Rodeheaver, Brigadier General, U.S. Army – Deputy Commanding General, First United States Army, 2006–09
 * William T. Thielemann, Brigadier General, U.S. Army – Commander, 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized), Georgia Army National Guard, 1995–97
 * George J. Walker, Brigadier General, U.S. Army – Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, U.S. Army Forces Command, 1987–89; member, Military Intelligence Hall of Fame




 * Perry L. Wiggins, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army – Commanding General, Fifth United States Army, 2013–present; Commander, 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley, 2008–09
 * Blanton Winship, Major General, U.S. Army – The Judge Advocate General (TJAG), 1931–33; Governor of Puerto Rico, 1934–39

Science

 * Kevin Greenaugh – nuclear engineer, the first African-American to receive a PhD from the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park
 * Godwin Maduka – MD and founder of Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Center

Other public service

 * Ed Bacon – rector emeritus of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California
 * Betty Cantrell – Miss America 2016
 * Charles Kelsey Dozier – missionary and founder of Seinan Gakuin University in Japan
 * J. Truett Gannon – influential Baptist minister; chairman, Truett-McConnell College Board of Trustees, 1985–1987; chairman, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Board of Trustees, 1987–1990; president, Georgia Baptist Convention, 1990–1992
 * Jenna Jackson (CLA 2011), Miss University of Georgia 2013
 * Skylar Mack – student imprisoned in the Cayman Islands for COVID-19 quarantine breach
 * Louie D. Newton – influential Baptist minister; president, Southern Baptist Convention, 1947–1948; president, Georgia Baptist Convention, 1950–1951; pastor of Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta for more than 40 years; namesake of Mercer's Newton Hall, a large chapel on the Macon campus
 * Lamar R. Plunkett – past chair, University System of Georgia Board of Regents; past chair, Mercer Board of Trustees; former Georgia state senator; namesake of the Lamar R. Plunkett Lecture Series at the University of West Georgia; namesake of the Lamar R. Plunkett Award presented by the Southern Regional Education Board
 * Steadman V. Sanford – former chancellor, University System of Georgia; namesake of Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia

Athletics

 * Rob Belloir – former Major League Baseball infielder for the Atlanta Braves
 * William Brennan – former Major League Baseball pitcher
 * Cindy Brogdon – former basketball player who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics
 * Billy Burns – Major League Baseball outfielder in the New York Yankees organization
 * Wally Butts – head football coach, University of Georgia (1939–1960), athletic director (1939–1963); member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame
 * Jimmy Carnes – head track & field coach, Furman University (1962–1964), University of Florida (1965–1976), U.S. Olympic team (1980); founding president of USA Track & Field (1980–1984)
 * Andrea Congreaves – women's basketball player in the WNBA and in Europe
 * Wesley Duke – former tight end for the Denver Broncos, 2005 AFC West Champions
 * Cory Gearrin – Major League Baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees
 * Hilda M. Hankerson – high school basketball coach
 * Big James Henderson – powerlifter who competed in the International Powerlifting Federation and won five world bench press titles (1994–1998)
 * Kyle Lewis – Major League Baseball outfielder for the Seattle Mariners
 * Mike Mimbs – former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies
 * Sam Mitchell – head coach, Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (2004–2008); selected as the 2007 NBA Coach of the Year
 * Joe Pettini – former Major League Baseball infielder and coach
 * Bill Yoast – high school football coach made famous in the film Remember the Titans