100 Notable alumni of Davidson College

Harry Corpening Martin was an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, serving from 1982 to 1992. He was born in Lenoir, North Carolina.

Jay Carl Cashion was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the Washington Senators from 1911 to 1914. According to Baseball Magazine, Cashion had a fast fastball but was unable to control it.

Rufus Rivers "Rufe" Clarke was a Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Detroit Tigers in 1923 and 1924.

Everett Little Booe was an American professional baseball player. He played in two seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily as an outfielder. He played part of 1913 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, then jumped to the Federal League in 1914. He played for two teams that season, the Indianapolis Hoosiers and the Buffalo Buffeds.

Henry Gaston Bunn was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician who served as Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Eugene Clyde Brooks was an American educator. He was educated at Trinity College (now Duke University), where he earned an A.B. degree in 1894. He also earned a Litt.D. degree from Davidson College in 1918.

John Miller Faison was a United States representative from North Carolina.

Richard Burton Marlowe was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in 98 games in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox from 1951 to 1956. Born in Hickory, North Carolina, he threw and batted right-handed and was listed as 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and 165 pounds (75 kg). He attended Davidson College.

Edgar Blackburn "Blackie" Moore was an American politician. A Democrat, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates 1933–1967 and was its Speaker 1950–1967, making him the second longest serving Speaker after Linn Banks.

Charles Alphonso Smith was an American professor of English, college dean, philologist, and folklorist.

Maston Emmett O'Neal Jr. was a U.S. Representative from Georgia.

Henry Louis Smith was an American academic administrator, educator, and physicist. He was president of Davidson College and of Washington and Lee University. He was a pioneer in the use of the X-ray machine and psychological warfare.

Jasper Keith "Jap" Smith, Jr., was an attorney and politician from Louisiana who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Benjamin Bernard Lahey is an American psychologist and developmental epidemiologist. He is the Irving B. Harris Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Health Studies and Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. He has conducted research on psychological problems in children, adolescents, and adults such as ADHD and antisocial behavior, and he was a member of a scientific...

William Francis Stevenson was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina.

Dan Simonds is an American baseball coach. He has served as a coach in the minor leagues, college, and amateur ranks. He is currently serving as director of baseball at IMG Academy.

Fletcher L. Hartsell Jr. was a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly until he admitted to misappropriating over $200,000 in campaign donations. On May 16, 2017, he was sentenced in Federal Court in Winston-Salem, NC, to eight months in Federal prison. He represented the state's thirty-sixth North Carolina Senate district, including constituents in Cabarrus and Union counties. An...

Allen Ralph "Buck" Flowers, Jr. was an American college football player who was a halfback for the Davidson Wildcats football team of Davidson College in 1917 and for the Georgia Tech Golden Tornado football team of the Georgia School of Technology in 1918, 1919 and 1920.

Victor Anson "Vic" Fleming is an American judge, law professor, and writer residing in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Sharon Thompson-Schill is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her research covers the field of biological basis of human cognitive systems, including language, memory, perception, and cognitive control, and the relationships between these systems. As of 2023, she has produced more than 190 scientific publications, which collectively have been cited over 18,000 times.

William McKinnon Fetzer was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Davidson College (1915–1918), North Carolina State University (1919–1920), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1921–1925), compiling a career college football record of 61–28–7. His brother, Bob Fetzer, served as co-head football coach at the University of North Carolina...

Jack Gibbs is an American professional basketball player who last played for Limburg United of the Belgian Pro Basketball League. He played college basketball for Davidson.

David Lamar Blount is a Democratic member of the Mississippi Senate, representing the 29th District since 2008. He is Vice Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

John Frederick Anderson was an American baseball player. He played for Davidson College in 1906, but later transferred to the Maryland Agricultural College (later the University of Maryland), where he played from 1907 to 1909. Then, the 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), 180-pound pitcher moved to play for the Boston Red Sox. Anderson played in Boston in 1909 but...

John Light Napier is an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983. He later served as a judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims from 1986 to 1989.

James F. Entwistle was the United States Ambassador to Nigeria from October 28, 2013 to October 2016. From 2010 until 2013 he was the ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is a career Foreign Service Officer. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand from July 2007 and was Deputy Chief of...

William Winkenwerder Jr. is an American business and health care industry executive. He was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs from 2001 to 2007. He had executive positions within the health industry.

Lieutenant General Jack C. Stultz, Jr. is a retired United States Army general who served as the commanding general of the United States Army Reserve.

Robert Brodnax Glenn was an American lawyer, prosecuting attorney, U.S. Attorney, and politician who served as a state senator and as the 51st Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1905 to 1909.

Shirley Schaub "Red" Wilson was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at Elon University for 1967 to 1976 and at Duke University from 1979 to 1982, compiling a career college football head coaching record of 88–61–3.

James McNair Baker was a lawyer, politician, and state senator in Florida in the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War.

John Luther McLucas was United States Secretary of the Air Force from 1973 to 1975, becoming Secretary of the Air Force on July 19, 1973. He had been Acting Secretary of the Air Force since May 15, 1973, and Under Secretary of the Air Force since March 1969. Before he was appointed Under Secretary, he was president and chief executive...

George N. Cretekos is an American politician from the state of Florida. A member of the Republican Party, Cretekos is the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida. Prior to his election as mayor, he served as a congressional aide to Bill Young for 36 years, and served on the Clearwater City Council.

Eric Brien Rosenbach is an American public servant and professor who served as Pentagon Chief of Staff from July 2015 to January 2017 and as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security from September 2014 to September 2015. As Chief of Staff, Rosenbach assisted Secretary Ash Carter on the Department of Defense's major challenges of the time,...

Mary B. Verner is an American politician who served as the 45th Mayor of Spokane, Washington from 2007 to 2011.

Boyce Ficklen Martin Jr. was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, Martin served as chief judge of the circuit from 1996 to 2003 and wrote more than 1,100 opinions during his 34-year tenure. Martin lived in Louisville, Kentucky.

Leonard Francis McAllister Jr. is an American political commentator for a number of newspapers and websites, including RedState, AOL, and The Root. He was the 2016 Republican Candidate for US Congress in Pennsylvania's 14th district after winning the primary by way of write-in votes, tripling the requirement for the nomination. From 2008 through 2017, his media platform including hosting shows...

Samuel James Ervin III was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the son of United States Senator Sam Ervin.

William David Halyburton Jr. was a United States Navy hospital corpsman who was killed in action during World War II while assigned to a Marine Corps rifle company. He was posthumously awarded the nation's highest military decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor, for heroic actions "above and beyond the call of duty" on May 10, 1945, during the Battle...

William James "Jim" Haynes II is an American lawyer and was General Counsel of the Department of Defense during much of 43rd President George W. Bush's administration and his war on terror. Haynes resigned as general counsel effective March 2008.

Michael Alvin Maloy was an American-Austrian professional basketball player who played in the ABA and in Austria in the OBB. He was an All-American college basketball player for the Davidson Wildcats.

William Byrd Traxler Jr. is an American jurist who currently serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Raymond Stanley Baker Jr., known professionally as R. Stan Baker, is the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. He was formerly a United States magistrate judge of the same court.

David Grier Martin III is an American politician and attorney. He served several terms as a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly, representing the state's 34th district. His district included the northern part of Raleigh in Wake County.

Rufus Geddie Herring was a United States Naval Reserve officer and a recipient of America's highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.

Charles Grandison Rose III was an American attorney and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for North Carolina's 7th congressional district from 1973 to 1997.

William Nichol Eskridge Jr. is an American legal scholar who is the Alexander M. Bickel Professor of Public Law at Yale Law School. He is one of the most cited law professors in America, ranking fourth overall for the period 2016–2020. He writes primarily on constitutional law, legislation and statutory interpretation, religion, marriage equality, and LGBT rights.

Michaël Brun is a Haitian and Guyanese DJ and record producer based in New York, known for blending electronic music with traditional Haitian styles such as kompa and rara. He released his debut EP Gravity in 2013 and founded the record label Kid Coconut in 2014, to showcase Haitian music and develop Haitian artists. In 2016 he founded his BAYO...

Elizabeth Kiss is an American philosopher and academic administrator, specialising in moral and political philosophy. She is the 20th and current president of Union College.

Peyton James Aldridge is an American professional basketball player for Dolomiti Energia Trento of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the EuroCup. He played college basketball for the Davidson Wildcats.

De'Mon Brooks is an American basketball player for TSG GhostHawks of the Taiwanese P. League+. He completed his college career at Davidson College after the 2013–14 season. In the 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, he was named Southern Conference player of the year and an All-American by the Associated Press.

William H. Harris Jr., known as Jack Harris, is an American radio personality in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. He has been involved in radio, television, and sports broadcasts in that market since 1970.

Bertis Edwin Downs IV is an American entertainment lawyer. He provides legal counsel (particularly for initial contracts) for the rock band R.E.M., later also assuming management duties after the departure of original manager Jefferson Holt. He is usually credited simply as the band's "Advisor".

Luka Brajkovic is an Austrian professional basketball player for Cedevita Olimpija of the Slovenian Basketball League and the ABA League. He played college basketball for the Davidson Wildcats.

Christopher Czerapowicz is a Swedish-American professional basketball player who last played for GTK Gliwice of the Polish Basketball League (PLK). He is also a member of the Sweden national team, making his senior debut in 2016.

David Henry Gambrell was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Georgia who served as the chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party in the early 1970s and served in the United States Senate from 1971 to 1972.

Derek Alan Rucker is an American-Australian former professional basketball player who starred in the Australian National Basketball League for 15 seasons.

Jón Axel Guðmundsson is an Icelandic professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Davidson Wildcats. He won two national championships with Grindavík in 2012 and 2013 and the Icelandic Basketball Cup in 2014.

Jana Mashonee,, better known by her stage name, Jana, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, author and philanthropist. She is originally from Robeson County, North Carolina. Jana is a two-time Grammy nominee and nine-time Nammy winner. Her music is steeped in R&B and gospel roots, which introduced her to the mainstream.

Daniel G. Clodfelter is an American politician and attorney from North Carolina. He served as a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the State's thirty-seventh Senate district, which includes constituents in Mecklenburg County, from January 1999 through April 8, 2014, when he resigned after being appointed Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina.

William Conner Eldridge Jr. is an American lawyer and former federal prosecutor. He served as the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas from 2010 to 2015. In 2016, he was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate election in Arkansas.

Tyler Kenneth Kalinoski is an American professional basketball player for Unicaja of the Spanish Liga ACB and the FIBA Champions League (BCL). Kalinoski was a McDonald's All-American nominee as a senior at Olathe East High School in Kansas and completed his college career for the Davidson Wildcats. He was named Atlantic 10 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year in...

Michael Curtis Munger is an American economist and a former chair of the political science department at Duke University, where he continues to teach political science, public policy, and economics. He is a prolific writer, and his book Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts, and Practices is now a standard work in the field of policy analysis. In 2008 he was the...

Kellan Grady is an American professional basketball player who last played for Zastal Zielona Góra in the Polish Basketball League (PLK). He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats and the Davidson Wildcats.

Fred B. Hetzel is an American former professional basketball player. He was an All-American college player for Davidson College. Hetzel was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1965 NBA draft by the San Francisco Warriors and played six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Lunsford Richardson was an American pharmacist from Selma, North Carolina, and the founder of Vick Chemical Company (which became Richardson Vicks Inc.).

James Eubert Holshouser Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 68th Governor of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977. He was the first Republican candidate to be elected as governor of the state since 1896. Born in Boone, North Carolina, Holshouser initially sought to become a sports journalist before deciding to pursue a law degree. While...

John McKee Spratt Jr. was an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 5th congressional district from 1983 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, his district covered all or part of 14 counties in north-central South Carolina. The largest cities are Rock Hill and Sumter.

Robert Franciscus Eenhoorn is a Dutch former professional baseball player and manager. He played four seasons of Major League Baseball as a utility infielder for the New York Yankees and California/Anaheim Angels. On September 27, 1997, Eenhoorn became the first Dutch-born player to hit a home run in the major leagues since Jack Lelivelt in 1912. The feat was later...

Elizabeth Lee "Lisa" Branch is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She was a judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals from 2012 to 2018.

Lee Hyun-jung is a South Korean professional basketball player for the Nagasaki Velca of the B.League. He played college basketball for the Davidson Wildcats of the Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10). He helped the Illawarra Hawks of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) win the NBL championship in 2025.

James Grubbs Martin is an American chemist and politician who served as the 70th governor of North Carolina from 1985 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served six terms as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 9th congressional district from 1973 to 1985.

Michael R. Taylor is an American lawyer who has played leadership roles in the US Food and Drug Administration, agrochemical company Monsanto, and law firm King & Spalding. He currently co-chairs the board of STOP Foodborne Illness, a non-profit that supports victims of serious illness and their families in efforts to strengthen food safety culture and practices in government and...

Michael Terrence Holland was an American college athletics administrator and basketball player and coach. Holland served as the head men's basketball coach at Davidson College from 1969 to 1974 and at the University of Virginia from 1974 to 1990, compiling a career college basketball coaching record of 418–216. Following his retirement from coaching, Holland was the athletic director at Davidson...

Clinton "Clint" Smith III is an American writer, poet and scholar. He is the author of the number one New York Times Best Seller, How the Word Is Passed, which won the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was named one of the top ten books of 2021 by the New York Times. He is also the...

Jacob Greer Cohen is an American-Israeli 6' 10 3⁄4" (2.10 m ) tall former professional basketball player. He played nine seasons for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague. He has also represented the Israeli national team in international competitions.

William Wyche Fowler Jr. is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat. He is a member of the Democratic Party and served as a U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1987 to 1993. He had previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987.

Graham Tillett Allison Jr. is an American political scientist and the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Thomas Henry Marshburn is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of three spaceflights to the International Space Station and holds the record for the oldest person to perform a spacewalk at 61 years old.

Gregory Francis Murphy is an American politician and urologist representing North Carolina's 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019. He served as a representative in the North Carolina General Assembly from 2015 to 2019.

Anthony Renard Foxx is an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of Transportation from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Foxx had previously served as Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina from 2009 to 2013. First elected to the Charlotte City Council in 2005, his 2009 mayoral victory made him the youngest person...

David Dean Rusk was the United States secretary of state from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving secretary of state after Cordell Hull from the Franklin Roosevelt administration. He had been a high government official in the 1940s and early 1950s, as well as the head of a leading foundation.

Lawrence Patton McDonald was an American physician, politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Democrat from 1975 until he was killed as a passenger on board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by Soviet interceptors.

Robert Anthony Snow was an American journalist, political commentator, anchor, columnist, musician, and the 25th White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, from May 2006 until his resignation in September 2007. Snow also worked for the President George H. W. Bush as chief speechwriter and Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs, from 1991 to 1993.

Wardell Stephen Curry II, also known as Steph Curry, is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he plays as a point guard. Nicknamed "Chef Curry", he is widely regarded as the greatest shooter in basketball history and is credited with revolutionizing the game by popularizing the three-point shot across...

William Clark Styron Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1968 for The Confessions of Nat Turner.

Jay Chaudhuri is an American attorney, professor, politician and a Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. First appointed to fill a vacancy in April 2016 caused by the resignation of Josh Stein (to run for North Carolina Attorney General), Chaudhuri was later elected and re-elected, becoming North Carolina's first Indian-American state legislator. In January 2019, he was elected by...

Margaret Claire Hoover is an American political commentator, political strategist, journalist, media personality, author, and great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. president. She is author of the book American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party, published by Crown Forum in 2011. Hoover hosts PBS's reboot of the conservative interview show Firing Line.

James Hovis Hodges is an American businessman, attorney, and politician who served as the 114th governor of South Carolina from 1999 to 2003. A former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Hodges is the most recent Democrat to serve as the state's governor.

Mark S. George is a Distinguished University Professor of psychiatry, radiology and neurosciences and is the director of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Center for Advanced Imaging Research as well as the Brain Stimulation Laboratory. As of June 2020, his research has been cited over 47,000 times, with an h-index of 113 and i-10 index of 404.

Carl Elliott is an American philosopher working as a professor in department of philosophy at the University of Minnesota.

James Marion Farr was an American university professor and academic administrator. Farr was a native of South Carolina, and earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees before beginning his career as a professor of English language and literature. He was the interim president of the University of Florida from 1927 until 1928, and also served as the university's first vice president...

Vincent Walker Foster Jr. was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration.

Patricia Cornwell is an American crime writer. She is known for her best-selling novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, of which the first was inspired by a series of sensational murders in Richmond, Virginia, where most of the stories are set. The plots are notable for their emphasis on forensic science, which has influenced later TV treatments of police work....

Risden Tyler Bennett was a Democratic U.S. congressman from North Carolina between 1883 and 1887. He was also an attorney and judge.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat to serve as president during the Progressive Era, when Republicans dominated the presidency and legislative branches. As president, Wilson made significant economic reforms and led the United States through World War I. He was the leading architect of the...

Prescott Prince is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Navy Reserve. Prince is notable for being assigned to represent Guantanamo captive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Holmes Rolston III was an American philosopher who was University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University. He is best known for his contributions to environmental ethics and the relationship between science and religion. Among other honors, Rolston won the 2003 Templeton Prize, awarded by Prince Philip in Buckingham Palace. He gave the Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, 1997–1998....

Kurt Hans Biedenkopf was a German jurist, academic teacher and politician of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) party. He was rector of the Ruhr University Bochum.