# List of Washington and Lee University people

Below is a list of notable associated people of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, United States. The year after each name designates the graduation year, if the person is an alumnus.

## Law and politics

* Robert H. Adams 1806 - United States Senator from Mississippi
* Samuel B. Avis, Law - United States Congressman from West Virginia, 1913–1915
* Ronald J. Bacigal, Law 1967 - professor of law, University of Richmond School of Law
* Robert D. Bailey Jr., Law - West Virginia Secretary of State, 1965–1969
* Meredith Attwell Baker, 1990 - former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner; President of CTIA – The Wireless Association
* Newton D. Baker, Law 1894 - Secretary of War under President Woodrow Wilson, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, and named partner at BakerHostetler
* Matt Bevin 1989 - 62nd Governor of Kentucky
* Bill Brock 1953 - former U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1971–77), chairman of the National Republican Party (1977–81); U.S. Trade Representative (1981–85); Secretary of Labor (1985–87)
* Franklin Brockson, Law - United States Congressman from Delaware, 1913–1915
* William T. Brotherton Jr., Law - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of West Virginia, 1989–1994
* Clarence J. Brown, Law 1915 - President of Brown Publishing Company and US Congressman from Ohio, 1939–1965
* Nathan P. Bryan, Law 1895 - U.S. Senator from the State of Florida, Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
* William James Bryan, Law 1899 - U.S. Senator from Florida
* Archibald C. Buchanan, Law 1914 - Justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
* Bruce L. Castor Jr., Law 1986 - district attorney, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (2000–2008); Commissioner, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (2008–2016); Attorney General (interim) and first Solicitor General of Pennsylvania 2016; president, Pennsylvania District Attorneys' Association, Presidential Impeachment Lead Defense Counsel 2021
* Lewis Preston Collins II, Law - lieutenant governor of Virginia
* Christian Compton 1950, Law 1953 - Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, 1974–2006
* Edward Cooper, Law 1892 - U.S. Congressman from West Virginia, 1915–1919
* Spencer Cox, W&L law, 2001 — inaugurated as governor of Utah in 2021; chairman of the Republican Governors Conference
* William Fadjo Cravens, Law - U.S. Congressman from Arkansas
* T. Kenneth Cribb Jr. 1970 - former Reagan aide and former president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
* John J. Crittenden 1805 - Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives; U.S. Senator, Governor of Kentucky, U.S. Attorney General under Presidents William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore; proposed the Crittenden Compromise to keep the Union intact
* George William Crump 1804 - member of the United States House of Representatives; first recorded streaker in American history
* John J. Davis, Law 1856 - United States Representative from West Virginia
* John W. Davis 1895, Law 1892 - 1924 Democratic nominee for United States President; Ambassador to Britain; Solicitor General; argued more cases before the Supreme Court than anyone else in the twentieth century; American Bar Association President; first President of the Council on Foreign Relations; named partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell
* Mark Steven Davis, Law 1988 - United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia
* Rita Davis, B.A., English, 1993 - Counsel to the Honorable Governor Ralph S. Northam, Governor of Virginia
* John W. Eggleston, Law 1910 - Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, 1958–1969
* Gay Elmore, Law - two-time Southern Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year
* Sarah Feinberg (1999) - interim president of the New York City Transit Authority, and former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration
* John P. Fishwick Jr., Law - United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
* Henry S. Foote, 1919 - 19th governor of Mississippi
* Vance A. Funk, III, Law 1968 - Mayor of Newark, Delaware
* Maciej Golubiewski (born 1976) - Polish political scientist and Consul General of the Republic of Poland in New York City
* John Goode, Law - 3rd Solicitor General of the United States; United States Congressman from Virginia
* John W. Goode - attended undergraduate school 1939–1942 but transferred to the University of Texas at Austin - attorney and Republican political figure in his native San Antonio, Texas
* Bob Goodlatte, Law 1977 - U.S. Congressman from Virginia
* R. Booth Goodwin, Law 1996 - United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia
* Herbert B. Gregory, Law 1911 - Justice on the Virginia Supreme Court, 1930–1951
* Robert J. Grey Jr., Law 1976 - American Bar Association President 2004–2005
* Morgan Griffith, Law 1983 - Congressman from Virginia
* Duncan Lawrence Groner, Law 1894 - U.S. Attorney; Federal District Judge for United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia; Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
* Pike Hall Jr., attended 1940s - judge in Shreveport, Louisiana
* Alexander Harman, Law - Justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia, 1969–1979
* James Hay, Law 1877 - United States Representative from Virginia; Federal Judge on the United States Court of Claims
* George Washington Hays, Law - Governor of Arkansas, 1913–1917
* Homer A. Holt 1918, Law 1923 - Governor of West Virginia, 1937–1941
* Linwood Holton, 1944 - Governor of Virginia, 1970–1974
* James Murray Hooker, Law 1896 - U.S. Congressman from Virginia
* J. Bennett Johnston Jr. 1953 - U.S. Senator from Louisiana, 1972–1997; Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist
* Jerrauld Jones, Law 1980 - Judge on the Norfolk Circuit Court
* Walter Kelley, 1977, Law 1981 - former federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia and current partner at Hausfeld
* James L. Kemper, Law 1842 - Governor of Virginia; Confederate General wounded during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg
* Jackson L. Kiser, Law 1952 - Judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
* Ruby Laffoon, Law 1890 - Governor of Kentucky
* Joseph Rucker Lamar, Law 1878 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of the United States Supreme Court (1911–1916), Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia (1903–1905)
* Edwin Gray Lee, Law 1859 - brigadier general in the Confederate States of America
* Harry Jacob Lemley, Law 1910 - federal judge on both the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
* Scott Marion Loftin, Law 1899 - U.S. Senator from Florida; president of the American Bar Association
* Mary Beth Long, Law 1998 - former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs at the United States Department of Defense and former attorney with Williams & Connolly LLP
* Daniel B. Lucas, Law - poet; justice on the Supreme Court of West Virginia, 1889-1892
* J. Michael Luttig 1976 - Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Council and Counselor to the Attorney General; former United States Circuit Court of Appeals judge; twice considered by President George W. Bush for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court; current executive vice president and general counsel, The Boeing Company
* John Ashton MacKenzie, Law 1939 - federal judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
* John Otho Marsh Jr., Law 1951 - Secretary of the Army, 1981–1989, United States Congressman
* Robert Murphy Mayo, Law 1859 - United States Representative from Virginia
* Hayes McClerkin 1953 - former Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives; Texarkana, Arkansas, attorney
* Alexander McNutt - 12th Governor of Mississippi
* Thomas Chipman McRae, Law - Governor of Arkansas, United States Representative
* John Marks Moore - Secretary of State of Texas, 1887–1891
* Jackson Morton 1814 - U.S. Senator from Florida
* Robert Mosbacher 1947 - Secretary of Commerce, 1989–1992
* Mark Obenshain, Law 1987 - member of the Senate of Virginia; Republican nominee for Attorney General of Virginia in the 2013 Virginia election
* Robert E. Payne, Law 1967 - Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
* Mosby Perrow Jr. - Virginia Senator (1943–1964); key figure in Virginia's abandonment of "Massive Resistance" to desegregation
* Archer Allen Phlegar - Virginia Supreme Court justice, Virginia State Senator
* Miles Poindexter, Law 1891 - Senator from the State of Washington
* Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. 1929, Law 1931 - Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1972–1987); president of the American Bar Association; named partner at Hunton Williams Gay Powell & Gibson
* William Ray Price Jr., Law 1978 - longest-serving judge and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri
* Prescott Prince, Law 1983 - attorney defending Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
* Lacey E. Putney, Law - longest-serving member of the Virginia House of Delegates in the history of the Virginia General Assembly
* Heartsill Ragon, Law - U.S. Congressman from Arkansas; federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
* Robert W. Ray, Law 1985 - partner at Pryor Cashman LLP in New York City and former head of the US Office of the Independent Counsel (succeeded Kenneth Starr)
* Alfred E. Reames, Law 1893 - U.S. Senator from Oregon
* Pat Robertson 1950 - Christian televangelist; founder of several organizations, including Christian Broadcasting Network, the Christian Coalition, the American Center for Law and Justice, and Regent University; host of The 700 Club; candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1988
* Daniel K. Sadler, Law - Justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court
* Jared Y. Sanders Jr., attended 1912–1913 - member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 6th congressional district
* Tom Sansonetti, Law 1976 - United States Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division
* William H. Smathers - Senator from the State of New Jersey
* Abram Penn Staples, Law 1908 - Attorney General of Virginia; justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
* Lawrence Vess Stephens, Law 1877 – Governor of Missouri
* Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr. 1943, Law 1947 - Justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
* Charles L. Terry Jr. - Governor of Delaware 1961–1965
* Thomas Todd 1783 - United States Supreme Court Justice nominated by Thomas Jefferson
* Paul S. Trible Jr. Law 1971 - former US Senator from Virginia, president of Christopher Newport University
* William M. Tuck, Law 1921 - Governor of Virginia
* Henry St. George Tucker III, Law 1876 - U.S. Congressman from Virginia; president of the American Bar Association
* James Clinton Turk, Law 1952 - federal judge and chief judge (1973–1993) on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
* David Gardiner Tyler, Law 1869 - U.S. Representative, son of President John Tyler, present at Lee's surrender at Appomattox
* Sol Wachtler, Law - former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1985–1993)
* John W. Warner Jr. 1949 - former secretary of the Navy and retired U.S. Senator from Virginia; for a time, a husband of Elizabeth Taylor
* Junius Edgar West, Law - 22nd Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
* Kennon C. Whittle, Law 1914 - Justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia and president of the Virginia Bar Association
* H. Emory Widener Jr., Law 1953 - Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
* Seward H. Williams, Law 1895 - U.S. Congressman from Ohio
* Joe Wilson 1969 - Congressman from South Carolina who shouted "You lie!" at President Obama during the 2010 State of the Union address
* John Minor Wisdom 1925 - Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
* Harry M. Wurzbach, Law 1896 - U.S Congressman from Texas

## Business

* Drew Baur 1966 - businessman and owner of St. Louis Cardinals
* Berry Boswell Brooks - cotton broker and big-game hunter
* Christopher Chenery 1909 - industrialist and horse breeder of Secretariat
* Richard L. Duchossois - industrialist, investor, and director of Churchill Downs
* Kenn George 1970 - businessman/investor and former member of the Texas House of Representatives
* Rupert H. Johnson 1962 - vice chairman of Franklin Resources; donor of $100 million, the largest gift in Washington and Lee's history, mostly directed to honors scholarships
* Julius Kruttschnitt 1873 - Southern Pacific Railroad executive
* H. F. Lenfest 1953 - philanthropist and CEO of Lenfest Group; gave the second largest donation in W&L's history, a $33 million challenge gift requiring a 1:1 match, on March 21, 2007 (As of December 31, 2009, over $20 million of the $33 million goal had been met)
* Sydney Lewis 1940, Law 1943 - Virginia businessman; art collector; founder of Best Products; recipient with his wife, Frances, of 1987 National Medal of the Arts
* Bill Miller 1972 - chairman and former chief investment officer of Legg Mason Capital Management
* Warren Stephens 1979 - American businessman; chairman, president, and CEO of Stephens Inc.

## Academia

* David Lawrence Anderson - founder and first president of Soochow University, China
* George A. Baxter - president of W&L and Hampden-Sydney College
* J. Bowyer Bell 1953 - historian, artist and art critic
* John Chavis 1799 - educator and Presbyterian minister, among the first U.S. college graduates of color
* George H. Denny - Professor of Latin and President at Washington and Lee University; president of the University of Alabama
* Charles A. Graves, Law 1872 - professor at W&L Law and at the University of Virginia School of Law
* William B. Hesseltine 1922 - history professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
* Milton W. Humphreys - alumnus; introduced the Roman pronunciation of Latin at Washington and Lee as a professor; first Professor of Latin and Greek at Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin; taught at the University of Virginia; president of the American Philological Association, 1882-1883
* Robert Huntley 1950, Law 1957 - former dean of W&L Law, former president of Washington and Lee University, former president, chairman, and CEO of Best Products
* William Swan Plumer 1825 - professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (1854-1862); professor of didactic and polemic theology at Columbia Theological Seminary(1867-1875); professor of pastoral, casuistic, and historical theology at Columbia (1875-1880)
* John Thomas Lewis Preston 1828 - founder of Virginia Military Institute
* Henry L. Roediger III 1969 - cognitive psychologist and researcher at Washington University in St. Louis
* Kenneth P. Ruscio 1976 - professor of public policy, president of Washington and Lee University
* Jeffrey L. Seglin, (1978), writer of weekly column "The Right Thing," faculty member, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
* Robert Shepherd 1959, Law 1961 - professor emeritus of law at the University of Richmond School of Law
* Robert Waymouth 1982 - professor of chemistry at Stanford University
* Charles M. Williams 1937 - Harvard Business School professor

## Literature and journalism

* Samuel Zenas Ammen - literary editor of The Baltimore Sun; founder of the Kappa Alpha Order
* Terry Brooks, Law 1969 - author of fantasy fiction, 12 million copies in print
* David Brown, Law - former host of the Marketplace radio program
* William Alexander Caruthers - author of novels, including The Kentuckian in New York (1834)
* Kelly Evans 2007 - journalist; co-host of Worldwide Exchange and Squawk on the Street on the CNBC business news channel
* Jerry Hopkins 1957 - journalist, biographer, author - longtime editor of and contributor to Rolling Stone magazine, biographer of Jim Morrison No One Here Gets Out Alive, Elvis Presley, Yoko Ono, David Bowie and others
* Alex S. Jones 1968 - Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter for The New York Times; director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy
* Philippe Labro - French author, journalist and film director
* Rebecca Makkai 1999 - author of novels, including Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers, and short stories
* Roger Mudd 1950 - Congressional Correspondent for CBS and PBS; host on the History Channel; member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity
* Frederick Ramsay 1958 - medical school academic and administrator; mystery writer
* Mark Richard 1986 - author and winner of the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award
* Tom Robbins - author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (did not graduate; attended for two years before moving to New York to become a poet)
* Tom Wolfe 1951 - writer (creator of New Journalism); author of The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and The Bonfire of the Vanities, with I Am Charlotte Simmons chronicling college life; former trustee; in 2005, became the only outside speaker in recent times to deliver the undergraduate commencement address

## Science and technology

* Jennifer Dowd 1996 - social scientist and public health researcher
* Joseph L. Goldstein 1962 - won Nobel Prize for Medicine for research in cholesterol metabolism and discovery that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that extract cholesterol from the bloodstream
* William Wilson Morgan 1924–26 undergraduate classes (graduated from University of Chicago 1927) - astronomer; co-developed the MK system for the classification of stars, and classification systems for galaxies and clusters; Director of Yerkes Observatory

## Art, entertainment, and athletics

* Rob Ashford 1982 - choreographer and director; eight-time Tony Award nominee (winning one), five-time Olivier Award nominee, Emmy Award winner, Drama Desk winner, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner
* Fielder Cook 1946 - three-time Emmy Award-winning director and producer; director of The Homecoming (TV, 1971), which begat series The Waltons
* Kate Cordsen 1986 - photographer and contemporary artist; first female graduate of W&L
* Dom Flora 1958 - basketball standout
* Warren Giles - executive in Baseball Hall of Fame
* Jay Handlan 1952 - basketball standout who once scored 66 points in a single game
* Mike Henry - writer, comedian, producer, Family Guy
* T. C. Lin - Taiwanese filmmaker, photographer, and writer
* Walt Michaels 1951 - head coach of NFL's New York Jets, 1977–1982; fullback for Generals, led them to 1951 Gator Bowl against Wyoming
* Meagan Miller 1996 - opera singer
* Mike Pressler 1982 - head lacrosse coach at Bryant University; former coach at Duke University who resigned during Duke lacrosse case
* W. Stanley Proctor - sculptor
* Gordon P. Robertson, Law - CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network
* Cy Twombly 1953 - abstract artist
* Justin Walker - actor, Christian Stovitz in the 1995 comedy film Clueless

## Religion

* Steve Breedlove - Anglican cleric, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Christ Our Hope in the Anglican Church in North America

## Faculty

* John White Brockenbrough - federal judge, founder, and former Dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law
* Martin P. Burks - former Dean of W&L Law and justice on the Virginia Supreme Court
* Judy Clarke - criminal defense attorney for Ted Kaczynski, Zacarias Moussaoui, Eric Rudolph, Susan Smith, Jared Lee Loughner, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
* Creigh Deeds (born 1958), Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia in 2009 and Virginia State Senator
* Nora Demleitner (born 1966), former dean of W&L Law and Hofstra University School of Law
* Edward Southey Joynes - Professor of Modern Languages
* Donald W. Lemons - Justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
* James G. Leyburn (1902–1993), sociologist, former dean
* Lee McLaughlin (1917–1968), American football player with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) and a head football coach at Washington and Lee University.
* Jeffrey P. Minear - counselor to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
* Clark R. Mollenhoff, journalism professor 1976–1991, former Washington bureau chief Des Moines Register, Pulitzer Prize winner in 1958
* Blake Morant, dean of the George Washington University School of Law
* Fred Perry (1909–1995), tennis champion; won 8 Grand Slams and coached the W&L tennis team
* Marvin Banks Perry Jr. (1918–1994), president of Goucher College and Agnes Scott College.
* Rodney A. Smolla - Dean of Widener University School of Law; former dean of W&L Law; First Amendment scholar; former president of Furman University
* Waller Redd Staples - member of the Confederate House of Representatives; justice on the Virginia Supreme Court
* Barry Sullivan - former dean of W&L Law; professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law
* John Randolph Tucker - Virginia Attorney General, former dean, and former president of the American Bar Association

## Trustees and benefactors

* Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper; founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company
* George Washington, first president of the United States, general of the Continental Army

## Presidents

See List of presidents of Washington and Lee University.