15 Notable alumni of Rockford University

Miriam Eliza Carey was an American librarian who helped establish the first libraries in prisons and hospitals in Iowa and Minnesota.

Jeannette Durno was a Canadian-born American pianist.

Harriet Goodrich Rosenkrans Wright was an American politician and suffragist who served in the Colorado House of Representatives.

Katherine Louise Tanner Fisk (1860s – June 27, 1926) was an American contralto. Thanks to her singing and acting qualities, she received considerable acclaim for her performances in London, Illinois, New York and California.

Mary Esther Murtfeldt was an American entomologist, botanist, botanical collector, writer and editor. She undertook research on the life histories of insects, describing several species new to science and wrote extensively on entomology. Murtfeldt created a collection of plant specimens that contributed to the scientific knowledge on the plants of Missouri.

Belle Luella Pettigrew was an American educator and missionary. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Anti-Saloon League. She served as head of the missionary and training department of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, and as South Dakota State superintendent of the press department for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.). Hailing...

Deb Patterson is currently the director of player personnel and program analytics for the Washington State women's basketball team. Patterson is the former women's basketball program head coach at Kansas State. She was relieved of her coaching duties on March 9, 2014. She is the school's all-time winningest head coach record, with 350 wins.

Helen Douglas Mankin was a 20th-century American lawyer and politician. She was the second woman to represent Georgia in the United States House of Representatives, serving part of one term from 1946 to 1947 after winning a special election to fill the seat of a predecessor who had resigned.

Catharine Gouger Waugh McCulloch was an American lawyer, suffragist, and reformer. She actively lobbied for women's suffrage at the local, state, and national levels as a leader in the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, Chicago Political Equality League, and National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was the first woman elected Justice of the Peace in Illinois.

Arthur Andrews Collins was an American radio engineer and entrepreneur. He first gained national recognition as a teenager for significant advances in radio communication. He later founded his own radio engineering and manufacturing company in 1933, Collins Radio Co. Rapidly expanding during World War II, Collins Radio eventually grew into a Fortune 500 leader in avionics, telecommunication, and military, space...

Julia Clifford Lathrop was an American social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children's welfare. As director of the United States Children's Bureau from 1912 to 1922, she was the first woman ever to head a United States federal bureau.

Ellen Gates Starr was an American social reformer and activist. With Jane Addams, she founded Chicago's Hull House, an adult education center, in 1889; the settlement house expanded to 13 buildings in the neighborhood.

Laura Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage. In 1889, Addams co-founded Hull House, one of America's most famous settlement houses, in Chicago, Illinois, providing extensive social services to poor, largely immigrant families. Philosophically a "radical pragmatist", she...

William Montague Ferry Sr. was a Presbyterian minister, missionary, and community leader who founded several settlements in Ottawa County, Michigan. He became known as the father of Grand Haven and father of Ottawa County.