32 Notable alumni of Roanoke College
Updated: June 16, 2026 EliteDegrees
Roanoke College is ranked #2,905 in the world and #753 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 32 notable alumni from Roanoke College sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Roanoke College won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Arthur Seldon Lloyd
1857-1936 (aged 79)
Anglican priest
Arthur Selden Lloyd was president of the Board of Missions of the Episcopal Church. He was the coadjutor bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia from 1909 to 1911 and then Suffragan Bishop of New York from 1921 until 1936.
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2. John W. Williams
1869-1934 (aged 65)
John William Williams was an American lawyer who served as Clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1901 to his death in 1934. He served as that body's journal clerk from 1895 to 1901.
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3. Robert Spellane
1970-. (aged 56)
politician
Robert P. Spellane is an American politician who represented the 13th Worcester District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2001 to 2011.
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4. Jim Brillheart
1903-1972 (aged 69)
baseball player
James Benson Brillheart was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball who played between 1922 and 1931 for the Washington Senators (1922–23), Chicago Cubs (1927) and Boston Red Sox (1931). He was also known as 'Buck', 'Lefty', or 'Benson'. Brillheart batted right-handed and threw left-handed.
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5. Rorer A. James
1859-1921 (aged 62)
lawyer
politician
Rorer Abraham James was an early-20th-century American lawyer, newspaperman, and politician from Virginia. As a politician, he served in the Virginia House, Senate, and briefly as United States Representative.
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6. Cornelius T. Jordan
1855-1924 (aged 69)
politician
Cornelius Theodore Jordan was an American educator and politician who served as a member of the Virginia Senate, representing the state's 9th district. In 1915, he ran for Senate as an Independent, defeating Democratic incumbent William H. Landes. After caucusing with the chamber's Democrats during his four-year term, he won the party's nomination in 1919 but was bested in the...
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7. William Henry Roberts
1847-1919 (aged 72)
missionary
William Henry Roberts was a Baptist minister from the United States who worked for many years as a missionary in Burma.
8. Raymond P. Hammond
1964-. (aged 62)
poet
literary critic
Raymond P. Hammond is an American poet, critic and editor of the New York Quarterly magazine since assuming control after the death of William Packard in 2002.
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9. Henry S. Trout
1841-1918 (aged 77)
politician
banker
Henry Shaver Trout was a Virginia lawmaker who served as both state delegate and senator, and later as mayor of Roanoke, Virginia.
10. Richard Harding Poff
1923-2011 (aged 88)
lawyer
judge
politician
Richard Harding "Dick" Poff was an American politician and judge. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952 from Virginia's 6th congressional district. An attorney and a Republican, he was given strong consideration for the United States Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon and was later appointed as a justice (later senior justice) of...
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11. Ben Sanders
1865-1930 (aged 65)
baseball player
Alexander Bennett "Ben" Sanders was an American Major League Baseball player who pitched a total of five seasons for three teams.
12. James P. Woods
1868-1948 (aged 80)
lawyer
politician
James Pleasant Woods was a U.S. representative from Virginia.
13. E. J. Pipkin
1956-. (aged 70)
politician
Edward Joseph Pipkin Jr. is an American activist, politician, and Republican former member of the Maryland State Senate, had represented Maryland's 36th Senate district, and was first elected in 2002 and served until 2013. Prior to his election to the state senate, he worked in the field of business finance, trading bonds in New York City. He also founded an...
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14. Doc Ayers
1891-1968 (aged 77)
baseball player
Yancey Wyatt "Doc" Ayers was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). He was known for throwing the spitball and was one of the 17 pitchers allowed to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920. Ayers played nine seasons in the American League with the Washington Senators (1913–19) and Detroit Tigers (1919–21). He batted and threw...
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15. Shelley Olds
1980-. (aged 46)
sport cyclist
Shelley Olds is an American former professional racing cyclist.
16. James Clinton Turk
1923-2014 (aged 91)
lawyer
judge
politician
James Clinton Turk was a Virginia lawyer, state senator and for more than four decades, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia.
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17. Joel Christian Gill
1975-. (aged 51)
comics artist
Joel Christian Gill is an American cartoonist, educator, and author of a number of graphic novels from Fulcrum Publishing: Strange Fruit Vol I: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, Bass Reeves: Tales of the Talented Tenth No.1, and Bessie Stringfield: Tales of the Talented Tenth, No. 2, Strange Fruit Vol II: More Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, a picture book "Fast...
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18. Ted Brown
1924-2005 (aged 81)
radio personality
Theodore David Brown was an American radio personality who worked at several stations in New York City including WMGM, WNEW and WNBC during the 1950s and 1960s, the golden age of AM radio.
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19. Richard L. Pratt, Jr
1953-. (aged 73)
theologian
Richard Linwood Pratt Jr. is an American theologian, author, and founder and President of Third Millennium Ministries. Pratt claims that Third Millennium was launched in response to the lack of training of Christian leaders around the world, and that "where the church is growing the fastest, those Christian leaders have the least amount of training". The stated aim of Third...
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20. Rob Balder
1969-. (aged 57)
singer-songwriter
journalist
Robert T. Balder is a professional cartoonist and singer-songwriter. He graduated from Roanoke College with a major in English in 1993 and, after a variety of jobs, entered a seven-year career in IT, starting as a manager of database development, which he left for his current career.
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21. Stuart T. Saunders
1909-1987 (aged 78)
executive
Stuart Thomas Saunders, Sr. was an American railroad executive best known for his tenure with Penn Central.
22. Frankie Allen
1949-. (aged 77)
basketball coach
Frankie Allen is an American men's college basketball coach who most recently coached at Maryland Eastern Shore. He was also the head coach at Virginia Tech, Tennessee State and Howard, as well as an assistant at Radford and UMBC. His greatest success was at Tennessee State where he won three Ohio Valley Conference titles and was the 1993 national Coach...
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23. Kim Kyu-sik
1881-1950 (aged 69)
poet
teacher
diplomat
politician
Kim Kyu-sik, also spelled Kimm Kiusic, was a Korean politician and academic during the Korean independence movement and a leader of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Kim served in various roles in the provisional government, including as foreign minister, ambassador, education minister and finally as the vice president from 1940 until the provisional government's dissolution on March...
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24. Alice White
1904-1983 (aged 79)
actor
film actor
Alice White was an American film actress. She first came to the public’s attention during the late silent era as a rival to Clara Bow, before starring in First National/Warner Brothers films Broadway Babies, Naughty Baby, Hot Stuff, and Sweet Mama.
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25. Sam Rasoul
1981-. (aged 45)
politician
Salam "Sam" Rasoul is an American politician serving as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the 38th district. He is one of the three Muslim members of the Virginia General Assembly. In November 2020, Rasoul announced his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 2021. Despite a significant fundraising advantage, Rasoul placed 2nd in the Democratic primary...
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26. Henry H. Fowler
1908-2000 (aged 92)
lawyer
politician
Henry Hammill Fowler was an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Lyndon B. Johnson.
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27. Rick Boucher
1946-. (aged 80)
lawyer
politician
Frederick Carlyle Boucher is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 9th congressional district from 1983 to 2011. The district, which is massively rural, covers the majority of southwest Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, he was defeated in his bid for re-election by Republican Morgan Griffith in 2010.
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28. Carol M. Swain
1954-. (aged 72)
writer
jurist
political scientist
university teacher
Carol Miller Swain is an American political scientist and legal scholar who is a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University. She is a frequent television analyst and has authored and edited several books. Her interests include race relations, immigration, representation, evangelical politics, and the United States constitution.
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29. John McAfee
1945-2021 (aged 76)
politician
computer scientist
engineer
businessperson
programmer
John David McAfee was a British and American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time U.S. presidential candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016 and in 2020. In 1987, he wrote the first commercial anti-virus software, founding McAfee Associates to sell his creation. He resigned in 1994 and sold his remaining stake in...
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30. John Payne
1912-1989 (aged 77)
stage actor
entrepreneur
actor
voice actor
singer
John Howard Payne was an American film actor who is mainly remembered from film noir crime stories and 20th Century Fox musical films, and for his leading roles in Miracle on 34th Street and the NBC Western television series The Restless Gun.
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31. Joshua Soule Zimmerman
1874-1962 (aged 88)
lawyer
politician
Joshua Soule Zimmerman was an American lawyer, politician, and orchardist in the U.S. state of West Virginia. In the early years of the 20th century, Zimmerman served as the Prosecuting Attorney for Hampshire County and as a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates.
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32. Prince Yi Kang
1877-1955 (aged 78)
politician
Yi Kang, Prince Imperial Ui, also known as Prince Uihwa (1891–1900) or King Ui (1900–1955) was the second son of Emperor Gojong of Korea and his concubine, Lady Jang, who was a court lady-in-waiting.
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