List of Taft School alumni

The following is a list of notable alumni of Taft School. The Taft School is a private, coeducational prep school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. The school was founded by Horace Dutton Taft, the brother of President William Howard Taft, in 1890.

Academics



 * T. H. Breen '60, Guggenheim fellow, history professor
 * Stevan Dedijer '30, founder of the Research Policy Institute, pioneer of Business Intelligence
 * Alfred G. Gilman '58, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine
 * Mason Gross '29, President of Rutgers University
 * Thomas Kuhn '40, philosopher of science, author
 * Samuel T. Orton 1897, pioneer in the study of dyslexia
 * Rollin G. Osterweis '26, Professor of history at Yale University

Arts and entertainment

 * Trey Anastasio '83, Phish lead guitarist
 * Jeff Baxter '67, musician (Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers)
 * Henry Beard '63, co-founder of National Lampoon, co-author of Bored of the Rings
 * Peter Berg '80, actor/director of Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor
 * Jason Blum '87, producer of "Get Out" and "Paranormal Activity", founder of Blumhouse Productions
 * Mia Borders, '05, singer-songwriter
 * Mary Chapin Carpenter '76, five-time Grammy Award winner
 * Spencer Treat Clark '05, actor in Gladiator, Mystic River, Unbreakable, and The Last House on the Left
 * Barnaby Conrad '40, author, artist, bullfighter
 * Barnaby Conrad III '71, author and artist
 * Dominique Dunne, actress
 * Adam Duritz '82, lead singer of Counting Crows
 * James Franciscus '53, actor in The Naked City, Longstreet
 * Grant Goodeve, actor in Eight is Enough
 * Geoffrey T. Hellman '24, longtime New Yorker columnist
 * Deane G. Keller '17, painter and educator
 * Alan Klingenstein '72, film producer
 * Ralph Lee '53, Guggenheim fellow and Obie Award winner
 * Lorenzo Mariani '73, international opera director
 * Steve Sandvoss '98, actor
 * Tom Santopietro '72, author and Broadway theater manager
 * Fred Small '70, singer-songwriter
 * Dudley Taft '84, member of Sweet Water guitars, vocals
 * Karen L. Thorson '78, producer of The Wire, The Unusuals

Business

 * Henry Becton, chairman of Becton Dickinson and Company
 * Thomas Ludlow Chrystie II '51, investment banker, first CFO of Merrill, Lynch & Company and inventor of the Cash Management Account
 * Peter S. Kaufman '71, investment banker, president of the Gordian Group LLC
 * Joseph Irwin Miller '27, industrialist, Cummins Engine Company
 * John M. Schiff '21, investment banker, philanthropist, honorary chairman of Lehman Brothers
 * John G. Taft '68, financier and writer
 * George Weyerhaeuser '44, chairman and CEO, Weyerhaeuser Company

Government officials

 * William D. Brewer, U.S. Ambassador
 * Nathaniel Neiman Craley, Jr. '46, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania
 * Richard Funkhouser, U.S. Ambassador to Gabon
 * Robert C. Hill '38, United States Ambassador to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Spain and Argentina
 * William S. Mailliard '35, U.S. Congressman, California
 * Manuel Rocha '69, United States Ambassador to Bolivia 2000-02
 * Earl E. T. Smith '22, United States Ambassador to Cuba (1958–59)
 * Michael P. W. Stone '42, U.S. Secretary of the Army
 * Bob Taft '59, Governor of Ohio
 * Robert A. Taft 1906, U.S. Senator from Ohio 1939–53, majority leader
 * Robert Taft, Jr. '35, Republican Congressman 1963–65, 1967–71, Senator 1971-76
 * William Howard Taft III '33, United States Ambassador to Ireland
 * Robert F. Wagner Jr. '29, Mayor of New York
 * John S. Wold '34, U.S. Congressman, Wyoming

Legal and judiciary

 * Flemming L. Norcott, Jr. '61, Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
 * Robert W. Sweet '40, federal judge who heard New York Times v. Gonzales  concerning the Judith Miller controversy
 * Ralph K. Winter Jr. '53, federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, nominated to the court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan
 * Wesley S. Williams Jr., first African-American to serve both as legal counsel to the United States Senate and president of the Harvard Law School Association

Sports

 * Darren Bragg '87, professional baseball player
 * James Driscoll '96, professional golfer
 * Patrick Kerney '95, professional football player
 * Allison Mleczko '93, gold medalist in first women's Olympic ice hockey game at Nagano; silver medalist in 2002
 * Max Pacioretty '07, professional hockey player for the Carolina Hurricanes
 * Barbara Potter '79, Hall of Fame professional tennis player
 * James Stillman Rockefeller 1920, Olympic gold medalist, 8-man rowing (Paris, France)
 * Ryan Shannon '01, professional hockey player
 * Tammy Lee Shewchuk '96, Olympic gold medalist in women's ice hockey, Salt Lake City
 * Jaime Sifers '02, professional ice hockey player
 * Katey Stone '84, head coach of 2014 Olympic Team USA women's ice hockey team, coach of Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey team
 * John Welchli '46, Olympic silver medalist, Melbourne, 1956

Writing, journalism, and publishing

 * Laurence Bergreen '67, historian and biographer
 * Nelson Denis '72, journalist, screenwriter, former New York State Assemblyman
 * Steven J. Erlanger ’70, London bureau chief (formerly Paris and Jerusalem bureau chief) for The New York Times
 * Philip K. Howard '66, founder of Common Good, author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America
 * Thomas Kuhn '40, author of Structure of Scientific Revolutions, coined the phrase "paradigm shift"
 * John Merrow ’59, Peabody Award-winning journalist and producer
 * Sumner Chilton Powell '42, Pulitzer Prize winner in history for Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town
 * Josh Quittner '75, author, editor of Business 2.0
 * David Kenyon Webster '40, soldier, journalist, and author