10 Notable alumni of Union University
Updated: June 12, 2026 EliteDegrees
Union University is ranked #3,113 in the world and #807 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 10 notable alumni from Union University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Union University won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Haywood Yancey Riddle
1834-1879 (aged 45)
lawyer
politician
Haywood Yancey Riddle was an American politician, attorney, and educator who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee's 4th congressional district.
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2. William Hicks Jackson
1835-1903 (aged 68)
animal breeder
William Hicks "Red" Jackson was a career United States Army officer who graduated from West Point. After serving briefly in the Southwest and resigning when the American Civil War broke out, he served in the Confederate Army, gaining the rank of brigadier general by the end of the war.
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3. Joseph B. Palmer
1825-1890 (aged 65)
politician
Joseph Benjamin Palmer was an American lawyer, legislator, and soldier. He served as a Confederate general in the American Civil War, during which he was wounded four times. After the conflict he resumed his law practice in Tennessee.
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4. Howell Edmunds Jackson
1832-1895 (aged 63)
lawyer
judge
politician
Howell Edmunds Jackson was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1893 until his death in 1895. His brief tenure on the Supreme Court is most remembered for his opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., in which Jackson argued in dissent that a...
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5. John May Taylor
1838-1911 (aged 73)
lawyer
judge
politician
John May Taylor was a U.S. representative from Tennessee.
6. Katrina Robinson
1981-. (aged 45)
politician
Katrina Robinson is an American former politician who served in the Tennessee Senate from the 33rd district from 2019 to 2022 as a member of the Democratic Party. She was the first sitting member of the state senate to be indicted since Operation Tennessee Waltz and later became the first person to ever be expelled from the state senate.
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7. Steve Gaines
1957-. (aged 69)
pastor
John Steven Gaines is an American Southern Baptist pastor who has served as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He resigned as senior pastor on September 22. 2024, to pursue an itinerant preaching ministry at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova (a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee), one of the largest congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention and has visited Israel...
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8. Andrew J. May
1875-1959 (aged 84)
lawyer
judge
politician
Andrew Jackson May was a Kentucky attorney, an influential New Deal-era politician, and chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee during World War II, famous for his role as chief architect of the Peacetime Selective Service act. May was implicated in the leak of classified naval information, and later an unrelated conviction for bribery. May was a Democratic member of...
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9. David Alexander Nunn
1833-1918 (aged 85)
diplomat
lawyer
politician
David Alexander Nunn was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee's 8th congressional district.
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10. Thomas Jefferson Murray
1894-1971 (aged 77)
district attorney
lawyer
politician
Thomas Jefferson Murray, usually known as Tom J. Murray, was an American politician and a Democratic U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1943 to 1966.
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