100 Notable alumni of Kenyon College

Daniel Sheldon Norton was an American lawyer and politician who served in the Minnesota State Senate and as a U.S. senator from Minnesota.

The Right Reverend Joseph Sakunoshin Motoda was the first Japanese born Bishop of Tokyo in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Anglican Church in Japan.

Rolla Eugene Dyer was an American physician born in Delaware County, Ohio. Dyer received his B.A. in 1907 from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and his M.D. in 1914 from the University of Texas. He joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1916.

Katherine Simonds Dhanani is an American diplomat. She was nominated as the Ambassador of the United States to Somalia, having been nominated for the position on 25 February 2015 by U.S. President Barack Obama. Dhanani is the first official U.S. envoy to the country in over two decades. On May 11, 2015, it was reported that Dhanani had withdrawn her...

John Levi Cable was a U.S. representative from Ohio and a great-grandson of Joseph Cable.

Kevin O'Donnell was the fourth director of Peace Corps, serving from July 1, 1971 to September 30, 1972.

Guy Morrison Bryan was a U.S. representative from Texas.

John Barbee Minor was an American jurist and professor of law. He practiced law in Virginia before teaching at the University of Virginia School of Law from 1845 to 1895.

Ralph Pomeroy Buckland was a U.S. representative from Ohio, as well as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and an executive of the Union Pacific Railroad following the war.

John Cradlebaugh was the first delegate to the United States House of Representatives from Nevada Territory.

David Goodwillie is an American novelist, memoirist and journalist. He has published three books: the novels Kings County and American Subversive, and the memoir Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

Harry Sterling Wolverton, nicknamed "Fighting Harry", was an American professional baseball player. He played all or part of nine seasons in Major League Baseball from 1898 through 1905 and 1912. He played for the Chicago Orphans, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators, Boston Beaneaters, and New York Highlanders, primarily as a third baseman. He also managed the Highlanders in 1912.

Sylvester Horton Rosecrans was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Columbus in Ohio from 1868 until his death in 1878. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in Ohio from 1862 to 1868.

Henry Blackstone Banning was a lawyer and three-term U.S. Representative from Ohio, as well as an infantry officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Charles Douglas "Cully" Stimson is an American lawyer and government official. Stimson served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs from 2005 until his resignation on February 2, 2007, following a controversy about his statements on legal representation for prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Following his time in the George W. Bush administration, Stimson joined The Heritage Foundation,...

Robert Crosser was an American lawyer and politician who served 19 terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio. He remains the longest-serving member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Ohio, serving from 1911 to 1919, then again from 1923 until 1955.

Alexa O'Brien is an American investigative researcher, journalist, analyst, and activist who focuses on intelligence and national security. She extensively documented Chelsea Manning's court-martial, and has researched and reported on topics including WikiLeaks' leak of United States diplomatic cables and Guantanamo Bay files, the war on terror, and the Arab Spring.

Allison Joseph is an American poet, editor and professor. She is author of eight full-length poetry collections, most recently, Confessions of a Bare-Faced Woman (Red Hen Press, 2018).

Brigadier General Herbert Towle Perrin was a United States Army officer, with the rank of brigadier general. He served during World War II and received the second highest military award, the Distinguished Service Cross, for his leadership as the acting commander of the 106th Infantry Division.

John Grant Mitchell was an Ohio lawyer and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was active in several important campaigns and battles in the Western Theater, including the Chickamauga, Atlanta, and Franklin-Nashville and Carolinas campaigns. He commanded a brigade of veteran infantry in many of these operations.

John Rinka is an American former college basketball player best known for his high-scoring offensive ability and accurate jump shot while at Kenyon College from 1966 to 1970. A 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) shooting guard, Rinka is in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) top ten in all-time scoring despite playing before the advent of the three–point line...

Albert Taylor Bledsoe was an American Episcopal priest, attorney, professor of mathematics, and officer in the Confederate army and was best known as a staunch defender of slavery and, after the South lost the American Civil War, an architect of the Lost Cause. He was the author of Liberty and Slavery (1856), "the most extensive philosophical treatment of slavery ever...

James Gray Carr is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Wendy Sue Swanson is an American pediatrician, educator and author, known for her Seattle Mama Doc blog.

Preston Bierce Plumb was a United States senator from Kansas, as well as an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

William Howard Harsha Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and World War II veteran who represented Ohio as a Republican in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 1961, to January 3, 1981.

John Brewster Hattendorf, FRHistS, FSNR, is an American naval historian. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than fifty books, mainly on British and American maritime history and naval warfare. In 2005, the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings described him as "one of the most widely known and well-respected naval historians in the world." In reference to his...

William I. Hitchcock is the William W. Corcoran Professor of History at the University of Virginia. His work focuses on the history of the 20th century.

Guy Despard Goff was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia. Earlier in his career, he was United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin and served in various roles in the United States Department of Justice.

Amos Neuser Guiora is an Israeli-American professor of law at S. J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, specializing in institutional complicity, enabling culture, and sexual assaults. Guiora’s scholarship explores institutional complicity in relation to the victimization of young people by college sports coaches, trainers, doctors, and Catholic priests. As a result of this work, Guiora has become not...

Brenda Wren Burman is an American attorney and government official who served as commissioner of the United States Bureau of Reclamation from 2017 to 2021. Prior to assuming that position, she served as director of water strategy at the Salt River Project. Burman served in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and...

James Steven Gwin is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

John Celivergos Zachos was a Greek-American physician, literary scholar, elocutionist, author, lecturer, inventor, and educational pioneer. He was an early proponent of equal education rights for African Americans and women. During the American Civil War, he was the superintendent at Port Royal and a main figure in the Port Royal Experiment. In his book, Phonic Primer and Reader he developed...

Daniel Mark Epstein is an American poet, dramatist, and biographer. His poetry has been noted for its erotic and spiritual lyricism, as well as its power—in several dramatic monologues—in capturing crucial moments of American history. While he has continued to publish poetry he is more widely known for his biographies of Nat King Cole, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Bob Dylan...

Lucy Vinis is an American politician. She was elected mayor of Eugene, Oregon, in 2016, and started her term in January 2017.

Murray Horwitz is an American playwright, lyricist, NPR broadcaster, and arts administrator.

Beshara Doumani is a Palestinian-American academic who previously served as the president of Birzeit University from 2021 to 2023. He is the Mahmoud Darwish Professor of Palestinian Studies at Brown University. His research focuses on groups, places, and time periods marginalized by mainstream scholarship on the early modern and modern Middle East. He is also a public intellectual who writes...

Jonathan Mannion is an American photographer and film director best known for his portraits of hip-hop artists and for shooting numerous iconic album covers. He has shot album covers for hip hop and R&B performers including Dr. Dre, Jay Z, Aaliyah, Tank, Outkast, Nas, Nicki Minaj, Brandy and Kendrick Lamar.

Thomas Stanley Matthews, known as Stanley Matthews in adulthood, was an American attorney, soldier, judge and Republican senator from Ohio who became an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from May 1881 to his death in 1889. A progressive justice, he was the author of the landmark rulings Yick Wo v. Hopkins and Ex parte Crow Dog.

Matthew Segal is an American entrepreneur and media executive who co-founded ATTN:, a social video publisher and entertainment studio with a mission to convey important topics through entertainment. The company was acquired by Blackstone's Candle Media for a reported 150 million dollars. Segal previously co-founded OurTime.org, a national voter empowerment network for young Americans. In January 2025, he was given...

Jenna Blum is an American writer who has written three novels, Those Who Save Us, The Stormchasers, and The Lost Family. In 2013, she was selected by the Modern Scholar series to teach an audio lecture course entitled The Author at Work: The Art of Writing Fiction. Blum leads novelists as part of the Grub Street writing center, a Boston-based...

Jeff Bell is an American executive. He serves as President of Pittsburgh Tomorrow, a non-profit focused upon growing Western Pennsylvania's economy and population. Previously, he served as CEO of PPLSI, and is best known for creating the Jeep Rubicon and 4-door Wrangler, launching the Chrysler 300, Halo 3, Gears of War, growing Xbox Live with Netflix and Rock Band, and...

Justin Roberts is an American singer-songwriter of children's music. He performs with the Not Ready for Naptime Players. In 2010, his album Jungle Gym was nominated in the "Best Musical Album for Children" category for the 53rd Grammy Awards, Recess was nominated in the same Grammy category in 2013, for the 56th Grammy Awards, and "Lemonade" was nominated in 2017...

Philemon Beecher Van Trump was an American pioneering mountaineer and writer who lived in the state of Washington. He is best known for the first documented ascent of Mount Rainier in 1870.

Henry Winter Davis was a United States representative from the 4th and 3rd congressional districts of Maryland, well known as one of the Radical Republicans during the Civil War. He was the driving force behind the abolition of slavery in Maryland in 1864, and it was largely because of him that Maryland did not secede. He was an author and...

Maria Saskia Hamilton was an American poet, editor, and professor and university administrator at Barnard College. She published five collections of poetry, the final of which, All Souls, was posthumously published in September 2023. Her academic focus was largely on the American poet Robert Lowell; she edited several collections of the writings and personal correspondence of Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick, and...

David Battle Turpie was an American politician who served as a Senator from Indiana from 1887 until 1899; he also served as Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus from 1898 to 1899 during the last year of his tenure in the Senate.

James Brown Clay was an American politician and diplomat who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Kentucky's 8th congressional district from 1857 to 1859.

Clarence Coles Phillips was an American artist and illustrator who signed his early works C. Coles Phillips, but after 1911 worked under the abbreviated name, Coles Phillips. He is known for his stylish images of women and a signature use of negative space in the paintings he created for advertisements and the covers of popular magazines.

Kathleen McDonald "Kate" O'Malley is a former United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She is currently of counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell.

David Meerman Scott is an American online marketing strategist and author of several books on marketing, including The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

Zachary Thompson Space is an American lawyer and politician and the former U.S. Representative for Ohio's 18th congressional district, serving from 2007 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. After serving in Congress, Space became a lobbyist and was a principal for Vorys Advisors LLC, a subsidiary of the law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. He...

Charles Griffin was a career officer in the United States Army and a Union general in the American Civil War. He rose to command a corps in the Army of the Potomac and fought in many of the key campaigns in the Eastern Theater.

Harvey Franklin Lodish is a molecular and cell biologist, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and lead author of the textbook Molecular Cell Biology. Lodish's research focused on cell surface proteins and other important areas at the interface between molecular cell biology and medicine.

Bridget Ann Brink is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Ukraine from 2022 to 2025. A member of the United States Foreign Service, she previously served as the United States ambassador to Slovakia from 2019 until 2022 and has held various positions in the State Department since 1996.

Anthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.

Paul Victor Niemeyer is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

Stephen Marvin Young was an American lawyer, World War I veteran, journalist and politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A member of the Democratic Party, he served two terms as a United States senator from Ohio from 1959 until 1971.

Joseph Whitehouse Hagin II is an American political aide who served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018, a role he also served in for President George W. Bush from 2001 until July 2008. In September 2008, he was interim CEO of Jet Support Services Inc. Joe Hagin co-founded Command...

Matthew Winkler is an American journalist who is a co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, part of Bloomberg L.P. He is also co-author of Bloomberg by Bloomberg and the author of The Bloomberg Way: A Guide for Reporters and Editors.

Michael Jonathan Green is an American Japanologist currently serving as CEO of the United States Studies Centre and senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also a member of Radio Free Asia's board of directors and Center for a New American Security (CNAS)'s board of advisors.

Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He wrote numerous dark fantasy and horror stories. As an editor, he created a three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction restored to its original form as...

Christopher William Creighton is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach at Eastern Michigan University, a position he has held since the 2014 season. Creighton has served as the head coach at three other schools: Ottawa University (1997–2000), Wabash College (2001–2007), and Drake University (2008–2013).

Jonathan Rothschild is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 41st mayor of Tucson, Arizona from 2011 to 2019. From 2001 to 2011, Rothschild was managing partner at the law firm Mesch Clark Rothschild.

James Monsees is an American businessman, and the co-founder and former chief product officer of Juul Labs, an electronic cigarette company.

William Justus Goebel was an American Democratic politician who served as the 34th governor of Kentucky for four days, having been sworn in on his deathbed a day after being shot by an assassin. Goebel is the only sitting state governor in United States history to die by assassination.

Elizabeth Ann Fletcher is an American attorney and politician from Texas. A Democrat, she has represented Texas's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. The district, which was once represented by former President George H. W. Bush, includes parts of southwestern Houston and Harris County, as well as northern portions of Fort Bend County.

Emily Gould is an American author, novelist and blogger who worked as an editor at Gawker. She has written several short stories and novels and is the co-owner, with fellow writer Ruth Curry, of the independent e-bookstore Emily Books.

John William Snow is an American economist, attorney, and businessman who is the former CEO of CSX Corporation and served as the 73rd United States secretary of the treasury under U.S. President George W. Bush. He replaced Secretary Paul H. O'Neill on February 3, 2003, and was succeeded by Henry Paulson on July 3, 2006. Snow submitted a letter of...

James Gamble was an Irish-American soap industrialist. He was the co-founder of Procter & Gamble Company in 1837, along with William Procter.

William Louis Veeck Jr., also known as "Sport Shirt Bill" and "Wild Bill" was an American Major League Baseball franchise owner and promoter. Veeck was at various times the owner of the Cleveland Indians, the St. Louis Browns, and the Chicago White Sox.

Laura Hillenbrand is an American author. Her two bestselling nonfiction books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (2010), have sold over 13 million copies, and each was adapted for film. Her writing style is distinct from New Journalism, dropping "verbal pyrotechnics" in favor of a stronger focus on the...

Sarah Longwell is an American political consultant and publisher of the conservative news and opinion website The Bulwark. A former member of the Republican Party, she is the founder of the Republican Accountability Project, which spent millions of dollars to defeat then-President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2024. According to The New Yorker, Longwell has "dedicated her career to fighting...

Carl Djerassi was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is best known for his contribution to the development of oral contraceptive pills, nicknamed the "father of the pill".

Nicholas Bakay is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer and sports commentator. He is known as the voice of Salem Saberhagen on ABC/The WB's Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Sabrina: The Animated Series, and Norbert Beaver on The Angry Beavers. He played Karl on the Fox sitcom 'Til Death as well as serving as a producer of the show. He...

Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the Mayflower. His ancestors and contemporary family were important subjects in his poetry. Growing up in Boston also informed his poems, which were frequently set in Boston and the New England region. Literary scholar Paula Hayes...

Edgar Lawrence Doctorow was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known for his works of historical fiction.

John Sherman was an American politician from Ohio who served in federal office throughout the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State. Sherman sought the Republican presidential nomination three times, coming closest...

Ransom Riggs is an American writer and filmmaker best known for the book Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 27th United States secretary of war under U.S. president Abraham Lincoln during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize the massive military resources of the North and guide the Union to victory. However, he was criticized by many Union generals, who perceived Stanton as...

Christopher Eigeman is an American actor and film director.

Thomas Frederick Vietor IV is an American political commentator and podcaster. He was a spokesman for President Barack Obama and the United States National Security Council from 2011 to 2012. He is a co-founder of Crooked Media with fellow former Obama staffers Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett, and co-hosts the podcasts Pod Save America and Pod Save the World.

Jonathan Harshman Winters III was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. He started performing as a stand-up comedian before transitioning his career to acting in film and television. Winters received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the American Academy of...

William Boyd Watterson II is an American cartoonist who authored the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. The strip was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson concluded Calvin and Hobbes with a short statement to newspaper readers that he felt he had achieved all he could in the medium. Watterson is known for his negative views on comic syndication and licensing,...

Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza is a Venezuelan opposition leader. López was elected mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas in the regional elections held in July 2000. He is the National Coordinator of another political party, Voluntad Popular, which he founded in 2009. He is a Venezuelan politician, economist, and sociologist.

Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress. Known for her performances across the screen and stage, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and seven Primetime Emmy Awards, in addition to nominations for two Tony Awards.

Joshua Thomas Radnor is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the Emmy Award–winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). He made his writing and directorial debut with the 2010 comedy drama film Happythankyoumoreplease, for which he won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and was nominated for the...

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. He served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861 and was known as a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, Hayes left a fledgling political career to join the Union army. He was...

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.

Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, who has been described as "one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars." He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear for Best Actor, a Cannes Film Festival Award...

William Howard Gass was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven volumes of essays, three of which won National Book Critics Circle Award prizes and one of which, A Temple of Texts (2006), won the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism....

John Lincoln Green was an American professional football defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He played five seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1947 to 1951. He went to one Pro Bowl during his five-year career. Green played college football at the University of Tulsa and was selected in the sixteenth round of the 1944 NFL draft.

Shaka Dingani Smart is an American men's college basketball coach and former college basketball player. He is the current head men's basketball coach at Marquette University.

John James McCook, was a patriarch of the Fighting McCooks, one of the most prolific families in United States Army history. Five of his sons became prominent soldiers, chaplains, or sailors, as well as eight of his nephews.

Randall Jarrell /dʒəˈrɛl/ jə-REL was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poet Laureate of the United States.

Matthew Hillsman Taylor Jr., known professionally as Peter Taylor, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Born and raised in Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, he wrote frequently about the urban South in his stories and novels.

Donald T. McNeill was an American radio personality, best known as the creator and host of The Breakfast Club, which ran for more than 35 years.

Junzō Shōno was a Japanese novelist. A native of Osaka, he began writing novels after World War II. He won the 1954 Akutagawa Prize for his book Purusaido Shokei (Poolside Scene). Shōno's other award-winning books include Seibutsu (Still Life), for which he won the Shinchosha literary prize, Yube no Kumo (Evening Clouds), which was awarded the 1965 Yomiuri Prize, and...

Sir David Michael Davis KCB MP is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Goole and Pocklington. He was previously the MP for Haltemprice and Howden and, before that, for Boothferry, where he was first elected in 1987. He served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2003 to 2008 and Secretary of State for Exiting...