76 Notable alumni of Denison University

Lewis Ezra Hicks was an American geologist, zoologist and college administrator.

Zella Allen Dixson was an American writer, lecturer, librarian, and publisher. She was the longest-serving director and associate librarian of the University of Chicago Extension Division's library school.

George Bliss was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio for two non-consecutive terms in the 1850s and 1860s.

Lottie Estelle Granger was an American educator and school officer from the U.S. state of Ohio. She served as county superintendent of public schools of Page County, Iowa, and was the second woman elected president of the Iowa State Teachers' Association.

Richard Bevan Austin was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

John Hardy Doyle was a Republican politician in the U.S. State of Ohio who was an Ohio Supreme Court Judge during 1883.

William Duane Fulton was a Democratic politician in the U.S. state of Ohio who served in the Ohio House of Representatives and was Ohio Secretary of State 1917–1919.

Henry Clay Van Voorhis was an American lawyer and politician. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Muskingum County, Ohio, serving six terms from 1893 to 1905.

Daniel William Daub was a 19th-century American Major League Baseball pitcher born in Middletown, Ohio. After attending and playing baseball for Denison University, he played for the Cincinnati Reds in 1892 and with the Brooklyn Grooms/Bridegrooms from 1893 through 1897.

Milton Isaiah Southard was a U.S. representative from Ohio.

Jeffrey A. Masten is an American academic specializing in Renaissance English literature and culture and the history of sexuality. He is the author and editor of numerous books and scholarly articles. Masten's book Queer Philologies was awarded the 2018 Elizabeth Dietz Prize for the best book in the field of early modern drama by the journal SEL: Studies in English...

Frank Justus Miller was a leading American classicist, translator, and university administrator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He authored the Loeb Classical Library translations of Seneca and of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and was president of the American Classical League for more than a decade, from 1922 to 1934.

George Leroy Converse was an American lawyer and politician who served three terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio, representing three different districts from 1879 to 1885.

Boyd Blaine "Fox" Chambers was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Marshall University from 1909 to 1916, at Bethany College in West Virginia in 1917, and at the University of Cincinnati from 1918 to 1921, compiling a career college football record of 50–44–7. Chambers was also the...

Gibson Atherton was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1879 to 1883.

Ernest DeWitt Burton was an American biblical scholar who served as the third president of the University of Chicago from 1923 to 1925.

Edward Earle Purinton was an American businessman, naturopath, philosopher and self-help writer.

Leonard Dudley Heaton was Surgeon General of the United States Army from 1959 to 1969.

James Madison Pendleton was a leading 19th-century American Baptist preacher, educator and theologian.

Kirtley Fletcher Mather was an American geologist and faculty member at Harvard University. An expert on petroleum geology and mineralogy, Mather was a scholar, advocate for academic freedom, social activist, and critic of McCarthyism. He worked to harmonize the dialogue between science and religion, played a role in the Scopes "Monkey Trial", supported adult education programs and advocated for civil...

Leon Rutherford Taylor was an American politician who was the acting governor of New Jersey from October 28, 1913, to January 20, 1914. Taylor took office upon the resignation of James Fairman Fielder, who had stepped down to create a vacancy in the governorship and avoid constitutional limits on succeeding himself.

John H. “Jack” Wyant is an American businessman and venture capitalist who founded Blue Chip Venture Company in 1990. As of 2013, he is the company's Managing Director.

Warren King Moorehead was an American archaeologist and writer who worked on excavating and surveying various Native American sites, including Fort Ancient. Moorehead the first curator of the Ohio Archaeological Society and was deemed the "Dean of American archaeology". He died on January 5, 1939, at the age of 72, and is buried in his hometown of Xenia, Ohio.

Edmund Stuart Bittinger, better known by Ned Bittinger, is an American portrait painter and illustrator who is known for his paintings of prominent American figures. His notable works include the congressional portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Lindy Boggs for the United States Capitol, as well as Secretaries of State James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger's official State Department portraits. He has...

Lewis A. "Lee" Sachs is a United States banker who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets from 1999 to 2001.

Randal B. Hopper is a former Republican member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 18th District from 2009 until losing his seat to Jessica King in a 2011 recall election. The 18th District includes the cities of Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, and Waupun.

Robert Woodrow Levering was an American lawyer and politician who served one term as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1959 to 1961.

John Thomas Chain Jr. was a U.S. Air Force general. He was also a director of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, ConAgra Foods, Inc., and Kemper Insurance Co., as well as holding other corporate offices.

George Amos Dorsey was an American ethnographer of indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a special focus on the Caddoan and Siouan tribes of the Great Plains. He is credited with helping develop the anthropology of the Plains Indian tribes while serving as curator at the Field Museum in Chicago from 1898 until 1915. During this period, he also was...

Sue Weisenbarger Kelly is an American businesswoman and politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2007, representing New York's 19th District. She was elected to the seat that had been held by Republican Hamilton Fish IV after he dropped out of the 1994 race due to prostate cancer. Kelly defeated...

Homer Burton Adkins was an American chemist who studied the hydrogenation of organic compounds. Adkins was regarded as top in his field and a world authority on the hydrogenation of organic compounds. Adkins is known for his wartime work, where he experimented with chemical agents and poisonous gasses. Renowned for his work, Adkins eventually suffered a series of heart attacks...

Kenneth E. Melson is a former acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the United States. He was appointed to this post by Attorney General Eric Holder in 2009. He resigned as head of ATF in the aftermath of the ATF gunwalking scandal and was replaced by B. Todd Jones, a former Marine who had...

Erastus Bernard Tyler was an American businessman, merchant, and soldier. He was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and fought in many of the early battles in the Eastern Theater before being assigned command of the defenses of Baltimore, Maryland. He briefly commanded the VIII Corps.

Thomas Elliott Skidmore was an American historian and scholar who specialized in Brazilian history.

Randolph Marshall Hollerith is an American Episcopal priest. Since August 2016, he has been the dean of Washington National Cathedral, the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and the seat of the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Cornelius Springer Hamilton was a 19th-century lawyer and politician who was a U.S. representative from Ohio, serving from March 4, 1867 until his death in December of that same year.

Carleton "Carty" S. Finkbeiner is an American Democratic politician and former mayor of Toledo, Ohio.

Edgar Johnson Goodspeed was an American theologian and scholar of Greek and the New Testament, and Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of the University of Chicago until his retirement. He taught for many years at the University of Chicago, whose collection of New Testament manuscripts he enriched by his searches. The University's collection is now named in his honor.

Edward Andrew Deeds was an American engineer, inventor and industrialist prominent in the Dayton, Ohio, area. He was the president of the National Cash Register Company and, together with Charles F. Kettering, founded Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco), an early innovator in automotive technology. Deeds partnered with Orville Wright in an early airplane manufacturing venture and led the military aircraft...

James M. Petro is an American lawyer and politician of the Republican Party who served as the Attorney General of Ohio. Previously, Petro also served as Ohio State Auditor and he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio during the 2006 Ohio primaries, but lost to Ken Blackwell.

Pam Houston is an American author of short stories, novels and essays. She is best known for her first book, Cowboys Are My Weakness (1992), which has been translated into nine languages, and which won the 1993 Western States Book Award. Cowboys Are My Weakness was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992.

John Robic is an American men's basketball coach. He most recently served as an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining the Wildcats staff, he served as assistant coach at the University of Memphis and head coach at Youngstown State University.

Roderick Henry Scribner was an American animator. He was best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons. He worked during the Golden age of American animation. He famously becomes known for Tweety, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck.

Jeffrey Hatcher is a much-produced American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the stage play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, which he later adapted into a screenplay, shortened to just Stage Beauty (2004). He also co-wrote the stage adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie with author Mitch Albom, and Three Viewings, a comedy consisting of three monologues - each of which takes place...

Tony Patrick Hall is an American politician, businessman, and diplomat who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 3rd congressional district from 1979 to 2002. Hall had previously served in both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly during the years 1969 to 1979.

Judson Harmon was an American Democratic politician from Ohio. He served as United States Attorney General under President Grover Cleveland and later served as the 45th governor of Ohio.

Douglas James Holtz-Eakin is an American economist. He was formerly an economics professor at Syracuse University, director of the Congressional Budget Office, and chief economic policy adviser to Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Holtz-Eakin is currently president of the American Action Forum, a conservative advocacy group.

Maria Magdalene Tatar is an American academic whose expertise lies in children's literature, German literature, and folklore. She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Chair of the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University.

Priscilla Star Diaz, known professionally as MISSPSTAR and formerly P-Star, is an American rapper, singer, actress and dancer. Diaz is best known for her role as Jessica Ruiz in the 2009 PBS Kids Go revival of The Electric Company and as the focus of the PBS Independent Lens documentary P-Star Rising.

Joe Banner is an American football executive who was the former president of the Philadelphia Eagles (2001–2012), former chief executive officer of the Cleveland Browns (2012–2013), and former front office consultant for the Atlanta Falcons (2014–2015). Banner's tenure in Philadelphia stacks up with the most accomplished executives in NFL history. Under his leadership, the Eagles went to five NFC Championship...

Claudia Rae Sahm is an American economist, currently serving as Chief Economist for New Century Advisors. She is also the founder of Sahm Consulting. Claudia was formerly director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, and a Section Chief at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where she worked in various capacities from 2007...

William Yale Giles is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the honorary National League (NL) President. He is also the chairman emeritus and former part-owner of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Philadelphia Phillies.

Robert James Dold Jr. is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district from 2011 to 2013 and again from 2015 to 2017. He is a member of the Republican Party. Prior to his election, Dold ran his family-owned business, Rose Pest Solutions. In 2010, Dold defeated Democratic Party nominee Dan Seals to replace...

Robert Woodward Rahal is an American racing driver and motorsports executive. As a driver, he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. As co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2004 and 2020 with drivers Buddy Rice and Takuma Sato, respectively.

Andrew Robert Levitt, better known by the stage name Nina West, is an American drag queen, queer activist, actor, and singer-songwriter based in Columbus, Ohio. She rose to national prominence with her appearance on the eleventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race, where she placed sixth and won Miss Congeniality. In 2024, she competed in season 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race...

Bruce Cumings is an American historian of East Asia, professor, lecturer and author. He is the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in History, and the former chair of the history department at the University of Chicago. He formerly taught at Northwestern University and the University of Washington. He specializes in modern Korean history and contemporary international...

José Rivera is a playwright and the first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Academy Award for the movie The Motorcycle Diaries.

Richard Green Lugar was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party.

Alexander Everett Moffat is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2016 to 2022. In 2023, he made his Broadway debut in The Cottage.

Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer. She was described by The New York Times in 1990 as "An endearing theatrical chameleon who has as many characters at her fingertips as Lily Tomlin does".

James Christopher Frey is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, A Million Little Pieces (2003) and My Friend Leonard (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stories were later found to be exaggerated or fabricated, sparking a media controversy. His 2008 novel Bright Shiny Morning was also a bestseller.

Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes was an American college football coach and player. He served as the head football coach at Denison University from 1946 to 1948, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, from 1949 to 1950, and Ohio State University from 1951 to 1978, compiling a career college football coaching record of 238–72–10. Hayes is widely considered the greatest Ohio State...

Conrad John Schuck Jr. is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is best known for his role as Sergeant Charles Enright in the 1970s crime drama McMillan & Wife. He also played Herman Munster in the late-1980s – early 1990s sitcom The Munsters Today, playing the role originated by Fred Gwynne in the 1960s sitcom The Munsters.

Franklin Edward Cover was an American actor best known for his role in The Jeffersons, Tom Willis, half of one of the first interracial marriages to be seen on prime-time television.

John Hamilton Davidson is an American actor, singer, and game show host known for hosting Time Machine, Hollywood Squares, and That's Incredible! in the 1980s, and a revival of The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991.

Michael Dammann Eisner is an American businessman and media proprietor who served as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film studio Paramount Pictures from 1976 to 1984, and had brief stints at the major television networks NBC, CBS, and ABC.

William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American attorney who served as the 16th chief justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005, having previously been an associate justice from 1972 to 1986. Considered a staunch conservative, Rehnquist favored a conception of federalism that emphasized the Tenth Amendment's reservation of powers to the states.

Jennifer Anne Garner is an American actress. Born in Houston, Texas and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, Garner studied theater at Denison University and began acting as an understudy for the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City. She had a starring role on the Fox teen drama series Time of Your Life (1999–2000) and supporting roles in the films...

Steven John Carell is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Michael Scott in the NBC sitcom The Office (2005–2011, 2013), and also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, and director. Carell has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for The Office. He was recognized as "America's Funniest Man" by Life.

Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. was an American actor. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show, titled Mark Twain Tonight!, that he developed while studying at Denison University. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1966 for his portrayal of Twain. He continued to perform his signature role for more than...

Christopher Atkins Bomann is an American actor and businessman. He starred in the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon and played Peter Richards on Dallas (1983–1984).

August F. Foerste was an American geologist, science teacher, and paleontologist from Ohio.

Edmund Burke Fairfield was an American minister, educator and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He served as the 12th lieutenant governor of Michigan and as the second Chancellor of the University of Nebraska.

Edward Ford Weber was an American lawyer, military veteran and politician from Ohio. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from 1981 to 1983.

Andrew Scott Hanen is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.