# List of Goshen College people

This is a list of notable individuals associated with the American Goshen College, a private liberal arts college located in Goshen, Indiana. The list includes students, alumni, and faculty.

## Academia and theology

* Stephen Ainlay, 18th president of Union College (since 2006)
* Harold S. Bender (class of 1918), former president, American Society of Church History and author of The Anabaptist Vision (1944)
* Denise Konan (class of 1988), Professor of Economics and Dean of the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
* Alan Kreider (class of 1962), professor, writer and speaker
* John W. Meyer (class of 1955), professor, sociologist
* John Mark Ramseyer (class of 1976), Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at the Harvard Law School
* Emma Richards, first ordained female Mennonite minister
* Said Sheikh Samatar (class of 1973), Somali scholar, historian and writer
* Janneken Smucker (class of 1998), Historian, author, quilt thought leader, podcast host, professor at West Chester University
* Rebecca Stoltzfus (B.A. 1984 Chemistry), professor and vice provost at Cornell University
* John Howard Yoder, Christian theologian, ethicist, and Biblical scholar best known for his radical Christian pacifism
* Howard Zehr, "father of restorative justice"; assisted with the founding of a victim-offender reconciliation program

## The arts

* Abbie Adams, contemporary artist and illustrator
* Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, OBE (class of 2008), editor and literary critic
* Howard Dyck, Canadian conductor and radio broadcaster
* Vance George, Grammy Award–winning choral director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus (1982–2006)
* Luke and Jesse Miller, members of the electronic jam band Lotus
* Sofia Samatar, professor, editor and writer
* James C. Strouse, independent filmmaker, writer and director who wrote the comedy-drama film Lonesome Jim (2005) and directed the drama film Grace Is Gone (2007)
* Rudy Wiebe, taught at Goshen College from 1963 to 1967

## Politics

* Christine Kaufmann, member of the Montana House of Representatives
* Arthur L. Gilliom, 25th Indiana Attorney General
* Jesse B. Martin, Canadian bishop and peace activist
* David Dale Reimer, U.S. Ambassador to Mauritius and the Seychelles.

## Popular culture

* Justin Yoder, first child with a disability to drive a soapbox in the All-American Soapbox Derby

## Science, technology and medicine

* David Bartel (class of 1982), biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, member of the Whitehead Institute, investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
* Philip A. Beachy, Gallo Professor of Developmental Biology at Stanford University
* Roger N. Beachy, biologist and the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
* O.J. Eigsti, Goshen College professor and developer of the seedless watermelon
* Owen Gingerich, astronomy professor at Harvard University

## Sports

* Jason Booth, pitching coach for the University of Saint Francis baseball team and manager of the Hamilton Thunderbirds
* Errick McCollum, professional basketball player
* Katie Sowers, first openly gay and first female coach in Super Bowl history

## Past presidents of the college

* Rebecca J. Stoltzfus, 2017–present
* Kenneth Newbold (interim president), 2017
* James E. Brenneman, 2006–17
* John D. Yordy (interim president), 2004–06
* Shirley H. Showalter, 1997–2004
* Henry D. Weaver (Interim president), 1996
* Victor S. Stoltzfus, 1984–96
* J. Lawrence Burkholder, 1971–84
* Paul E. Mininger, 1954–70
* Carl Kreider (acting president), 1950–51, 1970–71
* Ernest E. Miller, 1940–54
* Sanford C. Yoder, 1923–40
* Daniel Kauffman, 1922–23
* Irvin R. Detweiler (acting president), 1920–22
* Henry Frank Reist, 1919–20
* George J. Lapp, 1918–19
* John E. Hartzler, 1913–18
* Noah E. Byers, 1901–13
Principals of the Elkhart Institute (Elkhart Institute was the former name of Goshen College.)
* Noah E. Byers, 1898–1903
* Willis E. Tower, 1895–98
* Reverend F. A. Hosmer, 1894–95