List of Roanoke College alumni

Following is a list of notable alumni of Roanoke College.

Art and architecture

 * Rob Balder – cartoonist
 * Joel Christian Gill – cartoonist and author of graphic novels
 * Wyatt C. Hedrick – architect, engineer, and developer

Business

 * William W. Cates – vintner and co-founder of Tantara Winery
 * John P. Fishwick – former president of Norfolk and Western Railway
 * John McAfee – software entrepreneur; founder of McAfee
 * John A. Mulheren – Wall Street trader and philanthropist; provided funding for the construction of several Roanoke College buildings
 * Stuart T. Saunders – founding chairman, Penn Central Railroad; appeared on the cover of Time in 1968

Education

 * R. H. W. Dillard – award-winning poet and author; and professor of English and creative writing at Hollins University
 * Thomas David Gordon – reformed theologian, writer, and professor at Grove City College
 * Cornelius T. Jordan – Virginia Senate and president of New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (New Mexico State University)
 * Lewis Lancaster – Buddhist scholar; professor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; past president, University of the West
 * William Riley Parker – professor of English at Indiana University and New York University
 * Rebecca Sharitz – ecologist and emeritus professor at the University of Georgia
 * Carol M. Swain – Pulitzer Prize nominee in 2002, political scientist, and professor at Vanderbilt University

Entertainment

 * Jay Alaimo – film director, writer, and producer
 * Ted Brown – radio personality in New York City with WMGM, WNEW and WNBC
 * Walter Compton – radio and television broadcaster and executive
 * Tom T. Hall – country music artist, attended Roanoke following military service via the G.I. Bill
 * John Payne – film and television actor
 * David C. Robinson – movie producer and vice president of Morgan Creek Productions
 * Alice White – film actress
 * Eve Whittle – actress and child psychologist
 * Kristen Wiig – actress known Saturday Night Live and various comedic blockbusters

Law

 * George Warwick McClintic – judge with the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia1921–42
 * Richard Harding Poff – justice with the Supreme Court of Virginia1972–88 and United States Representative 1953–72
 * Anthony D. Sayre – justice with the Supreme Court of Alabama 1909-31
 * Frank S. Tavenner Jr. – United States Attorney, United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia,1940–45
 * James C. Turk – judge with the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia 1972-2014 and Virginia Senate

Literature and journalism

 * R. H. W. Dillard – award-winning poet and author; and professor of English and creative writing at Hollins University
 * Rorer A. James – owner and editor of the Danville Register and the Danville Bee, Virginia House, Senate, and United States Representative
 * Frederick Bittle Kegley – magazine editor and author
 * Ruth Randall – Biographer of Mary Todd Lincoln

Military

 * Leslie D. Carter – U.S. Army major general
 * David C. Shanks – US Army major general
 * Yi Kang – Lieutenant General in Imperial Korean Army and Korean prince





Politics

 * Frederick C. Boucher – United States Representative, Virginia's 9th congressional district, 1983–2011
 * Park Hee Byung – Korean independence leader; worked to end the Japanese annexation of Korea
 * Christy Underwood Clark – North Carolina House of Representatives
 * Walter M. Denny – United States Representative, Mississippi's 6th congressional district, 1895–97
 * Mawine G. Diggs – Liberian minister of Commerce and Industry
 * Henry H. Fowler – United States Treasury Secretary, 1965–68
 * Rorer A. James – Virginia House, Senate, United States Representative, owner and editor of the Danville Register and the Danville Bee
 * Cornelius T. Jordan – Virginia Senate and president of New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (New Mexico State University)
 * Kim Kyu-shik – Korean independence leader; represented Korea at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I
 * James W. Marshall – United States Representative, Virginia's 9th congressional district, 1893–95
 * William McKendree Murrell – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
 * Leonard G. Muse – Virginia Senate
 * Park Hee-byung – a Korean independence activist
 * E. J. Pipkin – member, Maryland State Senate, 2003–13
 * Richard H. Poff – United States Representative 1953–72; Justice, Supreme Court of Virginia, 1972–88
 * Sam Rasoul – member, Virginia House of Delegates
 * Lloyd M. Robinette – Virginia Senate
 * Robert Spellane – member, Massachusetts House of Representatives, 2001–11
 * James C. Turk – Virginia Senate and judge with the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, 1972-2014
 * James P. Woods – United States Representative, Virginia's 6th congressional district, 1918–23
 * Joshua Soule Zimmerman – West Virginia House of Delegates

Religion

 * William A. Brown – Episcopal Bishop of Southern Virginia
 * Thomas C. Darst – Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina


 * W. A. R. Goodwin – an Episcopal priest, historian, and author known as the "Father of Colonial Williamsburg"
 * Arthur Selden Lloyd – coadjutor bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and Suffragan Bishop of New York
 * Richard L. Pratt Jr. – theologian, author, and founder and President of Third Millennium Ministries
 * William Henry Roberts – Baptist minister who worked for many years as a missionary in Burma
 * Theodore Schneider – Bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 1995–2007

Science and medicine

 * William Steel Creighton – myrmecologist and taxonomist with Department of Biology at the City College of New York
 * Carl W. Gottschalk – professor of medicine, University of North Carolina; notable kidney researcher
 * Bettie Sue Masters – biochemist and adjunct professor at Duke University
 * Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle – neurophysiologist and Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University

Sports

 * Frankie Allen – college basketball player and coach
 * Doc Ayers – professional baseball player
 * William Beroza – lacrosse goalie, coach and member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame
 * Jim Brillheart – professional baseball player
 * Lombe Honaker – college football coach
 * Loren LaPorte – college softball coach
 * Mike McGuire – head coach of the Radford University women's basketball team
 * Herbert J. McIntire – college football coach
 * Rock Norman – college basketball and track coach
 * Shelley Olds – former professional racing cyclist
 * John Pirro –- lacrosse player and coach
 * Ben Sanders – professional baseball player
 * Conley Snidow – college football and basketball coach
 * Gordon C. White – college football coach