List of Washburn University alumni

The following is a list of notable people associated with Washburn University, located in Topeka, Kansas, United States.

Arts and entertainment

 * Elizabeth Barr Arthur (B.A. 1908) – poet, author, journalist, librarian, police officer, suffragist
 * Mary Huntoon (B.A. '20) – artist, Federal Art Project state director, art therapist
 * Bill Kurtis (J.D. '66; D.Lit. '85) – television journalist and producer
 * Kerry Livgren, primary songwriter and founding member of progressive rock band Kansas
 * Larry Niven (B.A. '62; D.Lit. '84) – science-fiction writer
 * James Reynolds ('69) – actor; portrays Capt. Abe Carver on the soap opera Days of Our Lives
 * Bradbury Thompson (1911–1995) (B.A. '34; D.F.A. 65) – graphic artist

Business

 * Greg Brenneman (B.B.A. '84; DComm '99) – chief executive officer, Quiznos; former chief executive officer, Burger King; former chief operating officer, Continental Airlines
 * Rich Davis (1926-2015) – founder, Kansas City Masterpiece; former dean, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
 * John F. Kilmartin Jr. (1921-2004) – former chairman and chief executive officer, Mervyns
 * Ronald K. Richey (1926-2010) – president and chief executive officer (1985–1998), Torchmark Corporation

Government and politics

 * Henry Justin Allen (1868–1950) – 21st Governor of Kansas
 * Georgia Neese Clark Gray (1900–1995; B.A. '21; D.B.A. '66) – 29th (and first female) Treasurer of the United States
 * Don O. Concannon ('52) – Chairman of the Kansas Republican Party from 1968 to 1970. Unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1974
 * Bob Dole (J.D. '52; LLD '69) – former U.S. Senator from Kansas and Senate Majority Leader, Republican candidate for President of the United States (1996)
 * John Edward Erickson (1863–1946; 1890) – Governor of Montana and U.S. Senator
 * Joan Finney (1925–2001; B.A. '82; D.P.S. '95) – 42nd Governor of Kansas (1991–95; the state's first female governor); Kansas State Treasurer (1972–1986)
 * Arthur Fletcher (1924–2005; B.A. '50; D.H.L. '90) – chairman, National Black Chamber of Commerce; director, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; executive director, United Negro College Fund
 * Denver David Hargis – U.S. Representative from Kansas
 * John F. Hayes – Kansas State Representative
 * Donald R. Heath – U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia (1952), Vietnam (1952–1955), Lebanon (1955–1957) and Saudi Arabia (1958–1961)
 * Harold S. Herd – Kansas State Senator (1965–1972), Senate Minority Leader; Mayor of Coldwater, Kansas (1950–1954)
 * Delano Lewis (J.D. '63; LLD '00) – former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa; former president, National Public Radio
 * Charles D. McAtee – Director of Kansas penal institutions during the last executions held in Kansas; candidate for Congress and attorney general (Republican)
 * John McCuish ('25) – 34th Governor of Kansas
 * Dennis Moore (J.D. '70) – U.S. Representative from Overland Park
 * Paul J. Morrison – Kansas Attorney General (2007–2008), District Attorney of Johnson County, Kansas (1990–2007)
 * Howard B. Myers, (Ph.D.) – Director, Division of Social Research, Works Progress Administration during FDR's New Deal
 * Roger Noriega (B.A. '82) – Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, United States Department of State
 * Mike Padilla – Mayor of Topeka, Kansas (2022–present)
 * Warren W. Shaw – Kansas State Representative (1951–1957); candidate for Governor of Kansas (1956); member of the Washburn Athletic Hall of Fame
 * Jim Slattery – Kansas State Representative (1973–1979); U.S. Representative from Kansas's 2nd congressional district (1983–1995); candidate for Governor of Kansas (1994), candidate for the U.S. Senate (2008)
 * Robert T. Stephan – Attorney General of Kansas (1979–1995)
 * Robert Stone – Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives (1915), Kansas State Representative (1905–1917)
 * Ron Thornburgh – Kansas Secretary of State (1995–2010)
 * Togiola Tulafono (J.D. 1975) – Governor of American Samoa (2003–2013)
 * Douglas S. Wright – Mayor of Topeka, Kansas (1983–1989)

Journalism

 * Arthur J. Carruth Jr. (1887–1962) – co-owner and editor, Topeka State Journal; chairman, Washburn Board of Regents; namesake of the university's Carruth Hall
 * Reuben H. Markham (1887–1949) (B.A. 1908) – missionary educator in Bulgaria; journalist for the Christian Science Monitor, author of numerous books

Law

 * Sam A. Crow (1926–2022) – Senior Judge, United States District Court for the District of Kansas (1981–present)
 * Lee A. Johnson (b. 1947) (J.D. '80) – Kansas Supreme Court Justice (2005–present)
 * Tyler C. Lockett (1932–2020) –  Kansas Supreme Court (1983–2002); District court judge in Wichita (1977–1983); Judge, common pleas court (1971–1977)
 * Marla Luckert (b. 1955) (J.D. '80) – Kansas Supreme Court Justice (2003–present)
 * J. Thomas Marten (b. 1951) – District Judge, United States District Court for the District of Kansas (1996–present)
 * Kay McFarland (1935–2015) (B.A. '57; J.D. '64) – first female chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court
 * Eric F. Melgren (b. 1956) – District Judge, United States District Court for the District of Kansas (2008–present)
 * Loren Miller (1903–1967) Municipal Court Judge, County of Los Angeles, California (1964-1967)
 * Nancy Moritz (J.D. '85) – Kansas Supreme Court Justice (2011–2014); Judge for 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (2014–present)
 * Joseph Wilson Morris – senior partner, Gable & Gotwals (1984–present); general counsel of Shell Oil (1978–1983); Chief Judge, Eastern District of Oklahoma (1974–1978); Dean, University of Tulsa College of Law (1972–1974)
 * Paul J. Morrison (B.A.; J.D.) – former Attorney General for the State of Kansas
 * Fred Phelps (B.A. '62; J.D. '64) – disbarred lawyer and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its extreme views on homosexuality, Christianity, and American soldiers; he and the Westboro Baptist Church were the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case, Snyder v. Phelps
 * Shirley Phelps-Roper (B.A. '79; J.D. '81) – daughter of Fred Phelps; attorney and spokesperson for the Westboro Baptist Church
 * Eric Rosen (J.D. '84) – Kansas Supreme Court Justice (2007–present)
 * Gordon Sloan (1911–2006) (J.D. '35) – former judge on the Oregon Supreme Court
 * Robert Stone (1866–1957) (B.A. 1889) – founder of Washburn Law School in 1903, Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives (1915)
 * Ozell Miller Trask (1909–1984) – appointed by President Richard Nixon as a Federal Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit (1969–1984)

Science and technology

 * Karl Bowman (1888–1973) – former chief of psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital in New York; former director of the Langley Porter Psychiatric Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco (1954–1964), Superintendent of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute (1964–1967)
 * Lauren Drain – nurse and author known for writing the 2013 book Banished, which chronicles her experiences and eventual banishment from the controversial Westboro Baptist Church
 * Karl Menninger (1893–1990) – psychiatrist; co-founder, the Menninger Clinic
 * Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. (1915–1974) (B.S. '37) – recipient, 1971 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 * Robert Whittaker (1920–1980) (B.S. '42) – plant ecologist; known for first proposing the five kingdom taxonomic classification and Whittaker Biome Classification.

Military service

 * Brigadier General Arthur S. Champeny (1893–1979) – only man in U.S. history to receive the Distinguished Service Cross in three separate conflicts: World War I, World War II and Korea
 * Rear Admiral Stanley Thomas Counts (1926–2015) – commanded USS Towers (DDG-9) and USS Chicago (CG-11) during the Vietnam War
 * Brigadier General Clarence T. "Curly" Edwinson (1912–1985) – flew 30 missions as a World War II fighter pilot; Commander, 42nd Air Division, U.S. Air Force; all conference halfback at Washburn
 * Major General Kathleen E. Fick – Director of Intelligence of the National Guard Bureau
 * Brigadier General Howard S. Searle (1891–1972) – Assistant Division Commander, 35th Infantry Division
 * Colonel Leroy W. Stutz (b. 1939) – U.S. Air Force pilot; shot down on his 85th mission in Vietnam; spent 2,284 days as a prisoner of war, including time at the "Hanoi Hilton" (attended WU in 1960, transferred to Air Force Academy)

Sports

 * See also List of Washburn Ichabods head football coaches


 * Ernest Bearg (1893–1971) – WU football coach (1918–1919, 1929–1935), Nebraska coach (1925–1928), Nebraska football Hall of Fame (1988), Washburn Athletics Hall of Fame (1973–1974)
 * Kurt Budke (1961–2011) – WU basketball and graduate assistant, head coach for Louisiana Tech (2002–2005) and Oklahoma State (2005–2011) women's programs
 * Bob Davis (b. 1945) – radio broadcaster for Kansas City Royals and Jayhawks football and men's basketball teams
 * Morley Fraser (1922–2004) – coach, Albion College (1954–1968), led school to 11 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships
 * Jim Holtgrieve (b. 1947) – golfer, three-time Walker Cup champion
 * Davey Lopes (b. 1945) (B.Ed '69) – former manager, Milwaukee Brewers baseball team; 16-year Major League Baseball career
 * Ron McHenry (b. 1962) (1984) – current women's basketball coach at Washburn
 * Mike Racy (B.B.A. '87) – former NCAA vice president (1993–2013); 5th commissioner of Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association
 * Jerry Schemmel (b. 1959) (B.A. '82, J.D. '85) – radio voice of NBA's Denver Nuggets
 * Troy Stedman (b. 1965) – linebacker for Kansas City Chiefs
 * Dave Wiemers (b. 1968) – college football coach
 * Cary Williams (b. 1984) ('08) – NFL cornerback, Tennessee Titans (2008–2009), Baltimore Ravens (2009–2012), Philadelphia Eagles (2013–2014), Seattle Seahawks (2014–present)
 * Gary Woodland (b. 1984) — professional golfer on the PGA Tour, 2019 U.S. Open champion


 * Corey Ballentine (b. 1996) – NFL cornerback and return specialist for the New York Giants, New York Jets, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers.