# List of Grinnell College alumni

This list of Grinnell College alumni includes graduates, non-graduate former students, and current students of Grinnell College, Iowa, US.

## Academia and research

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Barber, Benjamin | 1960 | Political theorist, author of Jihad vs. McWorld |
| Buckley, Oliver | 1909 | President and director of Bell Labs, namesake of the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize |
| Cech, Thomas | 1970 | Co-winner of 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
| Chai, May-lee | 1989 | Author, professor and American Book Award winner |
| Coleman, Mary Sue | 1965 | President of the University of Iowa (1995–2002) and the first female president of the University of Michigan (2002–2014) |
| Evrigenis, Ioannis D. | 1993 | Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Classics at Tufts University |
| Golbeck, Amanda L. | 1974 | Lead editor of Leadership and Women in Statistics, winner of 2016 Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies Elizabeth L. Scott Award |
| Grinker, Roy Richard | 1983 | Anthropologist, editor of Anthropological Quarterly |
| Harshbarger, Frances | 1923 | One of the first female American mathematicians to receive a doctorate |
| Herriott, Frank Irving | 1890 (BS) 1893 (MS) | Acting professor of political science (1895–1898) |
| Hughes-Schrader, Sally | 1917 | Professor of Zoology at Duke University, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |
| Koenker, Roger | 1969 | Professor of Economics at University College London |
| Manlove, Jennifer | | Sociological research scientist at Child Trends |
| Maxwell, David | 1966 | President of Drake University |
| Merrill, Thomas W. | 1971 | Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law at Columbia Law School |
| Myers-Scotton, Carol | 1955 | Linguist |
| Noyes, William | 1879 | Analytical and organic chemist; determined atomic weights |
| Patterson, Clair | 1943 | Geochemist, first person to accurately date the age of the Earth, responsible for the removal of lead from gasoline |
| Risser, Paul | 1961 | President of Miami University and Oregon State University |

## Arts

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Cannon, Kevin | 2002 | Comics writer and artist |
| Cannon, Zander | 1995 | Comics writer and artist |
| Clarke, Cornelia | 1909 | Nature photographer |
| Cooper, Martha | 1963 | Icon of the Street art movement and author of Subway Art |
| Hancock, Herbie | 1960 | Jazz musician and composer |
| Irwin, Pat | 1977 | Composer, musician, and guitarist |
| Macy, Jesse | 1870 | Political scientist and historian |
| Manuel, Philip | 1913 | Pianist, harpsichordist, teacher |
| Meglioranza, Thomas | 1992 | Operatic baritone |
| Mura, David | 1974 | Writer, memoirist and poet |
| Wills, Edwina Florence | 1937 | Artist and composer |

## Business and finance

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Brue, Nordahl | 1967 | Founder of Bruegger's Bagels |
| Chambers, John B. | 1977 | Chairman of the Sovereign Debt Committee at Standard and Poor's |
| Little, Caroline | 1981 | North America CEO of Guardian News & Media |
| McCulley, Paul | 1979 | Economist, managing director at PIMCO |
| Moujaled, Maijid | 2014 | Co-founder (with Ham Serunjogi '16) of Chipper Cash, one of the most successful fintech companies in Africa |
| Rosenfield, Joseph | 1925 | Businessman, made initial contribution to Intel and donated it to Grinnell College; called the "Patriarch of Iowa Business" by Des Moines Register |
| Schulhof, Mickey | 1964 | Former president of Sony America, first American asked to serve on the board of directors for Sony, patent holder |
| Serunjogi, Ham | 2016 | Co-founder (with Maijid Moujaled '14) of Chipper Cash, one of the most successful fintech companies in Africa |
| Vanderpoel, Waid | 1943 | Economist and former chief investment officer of the First National Bank of Chicago |

## Entertainment

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Atherton, Matthew | 1995 | Winner of the reality show Who Wants to Be a Superhero? |
| Bergl, Emily | 1997 | Actress, best known for Men in Trees |
| Cooper, Gary | 1926 (did not graduate) | Actor, best known for High Noon, received five Oscar nominations for Best Actor |
| Coyote, Peter | 1964 | Actor, author, narrated the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Oscar telecasts |
| Koenig, Walter | 1958 (transferred) | Actor, best known as Chekov in Star Trek |
| McCallie, Ellen | 1992 | Scientist on BBC's Rough Science series |
| Nanjiani, Kumail | 2001 | Stand-up comedian, Academy Award-nominated writer, actor and comedian, best known for role on TV series Silicon Valley and co-authorship and performance in film The Big Sick |
| Rissien, Edward L. | 1949 | Film producer |
| Roberts, Ian | 1987 | Actor, founder of Upright Citizens Brigade |
| Rosenfeld, Win | 2000 | Screenwriter and producer, president of Monkeypaw Productions |

## Government, law, and public policy

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Adams, Henry Carter | 1874 | Economist, promoter of the American Economic Association, led movement to regulate "natural monopolies" in economic life |
| Adelman, Kenneth | 1967 | Deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, National Editor of Washingtonian magazine |
| Blake, Charles | 2005 | Democratic member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Little Rock, Arkansas |
| Cîțu, Florin | 1996 | Prime Minister of Romania (2020–2021) |
| Cole, Tom | 1971 | Representative from Oklahoma, Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee |
| Cyr, Frank W. | 1923 (transferred) | Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, "father of the yellow school bus" |
| Edwards, Richard | | University administrator and professor of economics |
| Flanagan, Hallie | 1911 | Director of the Federal Theater Project; first woman to win a Guggenheim |
| Garang, John | 1969 | Vice president of Sudan, leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army |
| Grossberg, Daniel | 2006 | Kentucky state representative |
| Hall, Chris | 2007 | Iowa State Representative |
| Hopkins, Harry | 1912 | WPA administrator and architect of the New Deal |
| Katayama, Sen | 1892 | Co-founder of the Japan Communist Party |
| Kenyon, William | 1890 | Senator from Iowa and Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit |
| Lucero, Rebecca | 2003 | Minnesota human rights commissioner, led state civil rights investigation of Minneapolis Police Department following the murder of George Floyd |
| Moose, George | 1966 | Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador to Benin and Senegal |
| Railsback, Tom | 1954 | Representative from Illinois |
| Rawson, Charles | | Senator from Iowa |
| Savage, Ezra P. | | Twelfth governor of Nebraska and tenth lieutenant governor of Nebraska |
| Strangio, Chase | 2004 | Deputy director for Transgender Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union, included in 2020's Time 100 most influential people in the world |
| Thielmann, Greg | 1972 | Intelligence analyst for the United States Department of State and critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq |
| Wearin, Otha | 1924 | Representative from Iowa |
| Welch, Joseph | 1914 | Head attorney for the United States Army during the Army-McCarthy Hearings |
| Wheat, Alan | 1972 | Representative from Missouri |
| Wilson, George | 1904 | Senator from Iowa, Governor of Iowa |
| Wingate, Henry | 1969 | Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi |
| Wu, K. C. | 1923 | Governor of Taiwan Province, Mayor of Shanghai |

## Journalists and media personalities

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Giddins, Gary | 1970 | Jazz columnist for The Village Voice |
| Ho, Soleil | 2009 | Food writer and restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle |
| Hodierne, Robert | 1968 | Editor of the Army Times and Pulitzer Prize winner |
| Jacobs, Ben | 2006 | Political reporter for The Guardian |
| Jacobson, Walter | 1959 | Chicago news personality |
| Kaltenbach, Frederick Wilhelm | c1918 (did not graduate) | English-language Nazi propagandist during World War II |
| Kempenaar, Adam | 1997 | Host of podcast and public radio show Filmspotting |
| Mirk, Sarah | 2008 | Bitch Media, Portland Mercury |
| Montaño, Armando | 2012 | Associated Press |
| Shaw, Albert | 1879 | Co-owner of the Grinnell Herald, journalist, and editor of the American edition of The Review of Reviews |
| Smith, Roberta | 1969 | Art critic for The New York Times |
| David Bundy | 1989 | Editor-In-Chief for The Lincoln Journal Star |

## Literature, writing, and translation

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Clampitt, Amy | 1941 | Poet and author |
| Feldman, David | 1971 | Author of the Imponderables series of books |
| Hall, James Norman | 1910 | Author, best known for Mutiny on the Bounty |
| Hirsch, Edward | 1972 | Poet, president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |
| Lord, Sterling | 1942 | Literary agent, founder of Sterling Lord Literistic |
| Nagamatsu, Sequoia | 2004 | Author of How High We Go in the Dark |
| Poe, Marshall | 1984 | Historian, author, founder of MemoryArchive |
| Swanson, Harold Norling | 1922 | First editor of College Humor, well-known Hollywood literary agent |
| Tanenhaus, Sam | 1977 | Historian, journalist and biographer of Whittaker Chambers |
| Wade Benjamin, Ali | 1992 | Author and finalist for the 2015 National Book Award |
| Zentner, Alexi | 1995 | Canadian short story writer and novelist, winner of O. Henry Prize |

## Medicine and surgery

| Name | Class year | Notability | Reference |
| Whitaker, Eric E. | 1987 | Executive vice president, Strategic Affiliations and Associate Dean, Community-Based Research, University of Chicago; internal medicine physician | |
| Wolf, James S. | 1957 | Kidney transplantation pioneer; academic organ transplant surgeon; Associate Dean of Medical Education, Northwestern University Medical School; President (1990–91) and co-founder of United Network for Organ Sharing | |

## Military

| Name | Class year | Notability | Reference |
| Bates, Norman | 1865 | Medal of Honor recipient | |
| Berg, Russell | 1940 | U.S. Air Force brigadier general | |

## Social reforms

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Bartlett, Dana | 1882 | Congregationalist minister, author |
| Friedrich, Bruce | 1996 | Senior Policy Director for Farm Sanctuary |
| Giwa, Latoya | 2009 | Doula, nurse, lactation consultant, and advocate; co-founder of Birthmark Doula Collective and the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center |
| King, Bernice | 1985 | Minister, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. (transferred to Spelman College) |
| Noun, Louise | 1929 | Feminist activist, civil libertarian, author |
| White, George Edward | 1882 | American Congregationalist missionary, president of Anatolia College, witness to the Armenian genocide |
| White-Means, Shelley | 1977 | Health economist who works to reduce health disparities in Memphis, Tennessee |

## Sports

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Coggeshall, Harris | 1929 | Tennis player, runner-up in doubles in the 1930 National Clay Court Championships and the 1929 National Indoor Championship, runner-up in the 1928 Cincinnati Masters |
| Moran, Hap | 1926 | All-Pro football halfback for the New York Giants |
| Shoemaker, Ian | 1996 | College football coach |
| Taylor, Morgan | 1926 | Track and field hurdler, gold medalist for the U.S. in the 1924 Summer Olympics |
| Thorburn, Christine | 1992 | Cyclist, two-time Olympian for the U.S. |

## Technology

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Borenstein, Nathaniel | 1980 | Designer of the MIME protocol for sending multimedia e-mail |
| Noyce, Robert | 1949 | Co-founder of Intel, co-inventor of integrated circuit, recipient of National Medal of Science |
| Ulery, Dana | 1959 | Chief scientist for the Army Research Laboratory computing sciences |