# List of St. Olaf College people

This list of St. Olaf Alumni contains links to Wikipedia articles about notable alumni and other people connected to St. Olaf College, a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota.

## Notable alumni
### Composers and conductors

* Kenneth Jennings, class of 1950
* Dale Warland, class of 1954
* David Boe, class of 1958
* René Clausen, class of 1974
* Anton Armstrong, class of 1978
* Timothy Mahr, class of 1978
* Bradley Ellingboe, class of 1980
* Craig Hella Johnson, class of 1984
* Jocelyn Hagen, class of 2003

### Politicians, Statesmen and Judges

* Russell A. Anderson, class of 1964, Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
* August H. Andresen, class of 1912
* Arnie Arnesen, class of 1975, fellow of Harvard Institute of Politics and member of New Hampshire House of Representatives
* David Bly, class of 1974?, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
* Satveer Chaudhary, class of 1991, former member of the Minnesota State legislature
* Raymond Cox, class of 1974, former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
* Kim Elton, class of 1968, former member of the Alaska Senate
* Arlen Erdahl, class of 1953, United States Representative from Minnesota
* Joan Ericksen, class of 1977, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
* Tom Fiebiger, class of 1978, member of the North Dakota Senate
* Mary Forsythe, class of 1922, member of Minnesota House of Representatives
* Ian C. Kelly, class of 1977, US Ambassador to Georgia and US Ambassador to OSCE
* David L. Knutson, class of 1982, Minnesota State Senator of District 37, 2003-2004
* John Marty, class of 1978, member of the Minnesota Senate
* David Minge, class of 1963, United States Representative from Minnesota
* Erik Paulsen, class of 1987, United States Representative from Minnesota
* Kristi Pursell, class of 2003, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
* Al Quie, class of 1950, 35th Governor of Minnesota
* Karl F. Rolvaag, class of 1941, 31st Governor of Minnesota
* Steve Sviggum, class of 1979, Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives
* Eric C. Tostrud, class of 1987, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
* Andrew Volstead, class of 1881, US house of representatives for Minnesota, introduced National Prohibition Act

### Writers

* Robert Bly, class of 1950 (transferred out), leader of the Mythopoetic men's movement
* Kristina Halvorson, class of 1993
* Michelle Hoover, class of 1994
* Siri Hustvedt, class of 1977
* Kij Johnson, class of 1982
* Peg Kerr, class of 1982
* Sarah Lindsay, class of 1980
* Timothy Mason, class of 1972, playwright
* Danel Olson, class of 1983
* Emily Rapp, class of 1996
* Mark Rein-Hagen, class of 1988, author of Vampire: The Masquerade
* Ole Rolvaag, class of 1905, author of Giants in the Earth

### Religion

* Johan Arnd Aasgaard, class of 1898, American Lutheran church leader
* James Reeb, class of 1950, minister, pastor, and Civil Rights activist, 1927-1965
* Stuart E. Barstad, class of 1951?, Chief of Chaplains of the United States Air Force from 1985 to 1988
* David Ede, class of 1957, American scholar of Islam
* Alan M. Olson, class of 1961, philosopher, Boston University, 1974-2013

### Other

* Ernest Lawrence, class of 1922, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935
* Einar Haugen, class of 1928, Harvard professor of Scandinavian and linguistics
* Edward Sövik, class of 1939, architect and later St. Olaf faculty member
* Roger Grimsby, class of 1950, television news anchor
* Willis H. Flygare, class of 1958, chemist credited with "outstanding contributions to the understanding of molecular electronic structure"
* John Enemark, class of 1962, American biochemist
* Barry Morrow, class of 1970, Oscar-winning screenwriter
* Gretchen Morgenson, class of 1976, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
* Cheryl Willman, class of 1977, cancer researcher and executive director of Mayo Clinic Cancer Programs
* David L. Rose, class of 1989, tech entrepreneur and inventor
* Margaret Sordahl, ornithologist
* Ward Sutton, class of 1989, cartoonist and illustrator, 2018 Herblock Award winner
* Dean Buntrock, founder and former chairman and CEO of Waste Management, Inc. and largest school benefactor
* Jason DeRose, class of 1997, Western Bureau Chief for National Public Radio News
* Amanda Cox, class of 2001, Editor of The Upshot section of the New York Times
* Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, class of 2009, the first openly transgender person to work as a White House staffer
* Lukas Warren, icon, self proclaimed master of tempo and sneaker collector. He directs the nationally recognized varsity show choir group, “Riverside Company”, in Hastings, Minnesota.

### Fictional

* Jay Gatsby, titular character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, attended for two weeks, did not graduate

## Notable faculty

* Anton Armstrong, conductor of the St. Olaf Choir
* Kenneth O. Bjork, historian and educator
* F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the St. Olaf Choir
* John Ferguson, organist and composer
* Dave Hauck, Swimming coach for St. Olaf College for over 40 years from 1973-2016, winning 43 Minnesota Conference (MIAC) championships. Also served 30 years as Assistant Football Coach, 9 years as Men's Gymnastic's Coach for Men, seven years as Men's Golf Coach, and six as a softball coach.
* Kenneth Jennings, composer and former conductor of the St. Olaf Choir
* Robert Jenson, theologian
* Chris Meidt, head football coach (2002–2007), assistant coach with Washington Commanders
* Anantanand Rambachan, Hindu scholar
* Ole Rolvaag, author
* Edward Sövik, class of 1939, architect and later St. Olaf faculty member
* Lynn Steen, mathematician
* Charles Taliaferro, philosopher