# List of Kenyon College people

Here follows a list of notable people associated with Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. This list includes the college's notable alumni, organized by their fields of endeavor, in addition to notable members of its faculty and a complete chronological list of the presidents of the college.

## Distinguished graduates

* Selected Kenyon alumni
* 19th President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes, class of 1842
* US Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, class of 1834
* Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, class of 1948
* Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman, class of 1949
* Academy Award and Primetime Emmy Award-winning actress Allison Janney, class of 1982
* Comedian Jonathan Winters, class of 1950
* Actor and filmmaker Josh Radnor, class of 1996

### Academia

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| C. Lawrence Evans | Newton Family Professor of Government at William & Mary and former chair of the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association | 1980 |
| Amos N. Guiora | Professor of law at University of Utah and Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate General's Corps (Lt. Col. Ret.) | 1979 |
| John Allen Gable | Executive director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association from 1974 to his death in February 2005; considered the world's leading authority on Theodore Roosevelt | 1965 |
| Constantinos Patrides | Professor of English Literature, University of Michigan | 1952 |

### Activism

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Ron Link | Former fire fighter and actor (patient advocate) | |
| Leopoldo López | Venezuelan politician in Opposition to Chávez and Maduro | 1993 |

### Business

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Arjav Ezekiel | Restaurateur and sommelier | |
| Hugh Forrest | Media executive, co-CEO, SXSW | 1984 |

### Law

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| James G. Carr | Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio | 1966 |
| James Gwin | Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio | 1976 |
| David Davis | Senator, Supreme Court Justice | 1832 |
| Thomas Stanley Matthews | Senator, Supreme Court justice | 1840 |
| Paul Niemeyer | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit | 1962 |
| Kathleen M. O'Malley | Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio | 1979 |
| William Rehnquist | Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the United States | (attended) |
| Augustus J. Ricks | Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio | (attended) |
| William F. Turner | First Chief Justice of the Territory of Arizona | 1842 |

### History, Literature, and Journalism

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Jim Bellows | Journalist, newspaper editor | 1947 |
| Jenna Blum | Writer | 1992 |
| Scott Carney | Investigative journalist | 2000 |
| Caleb Carr | Novelist, military historian | 1977 |
| Jay Cocks | Film critic, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter | 1966 |
| Stephanie Danler | Novelist | 2006 |
| E. L. Doctorow | Novelist, cultural critic | 1952 |
| William Gass | Writer, winner of the American Book Award | 1947 |
| David Goodwillie | Novelist | 1994 |
| John Green | Author; winner of Michael L. Printz Award for Looking for Alaska | 2000 |
| Saskia Hamilton | Poet | 1989 |
| John Hattendorf | Maritime historian | 1964 |
| Anthony Hecht | Poet | |
| Laura Hillenbrand | Writer, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend | (attended) |
| Scott Kenemore | Writer | 2000 |
| P. F. Kluge | Writer | 1964 |
| Robert Lowell | Poet; two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Poet Laureate 1947-1948 | 1940 |
| Robie Macauley | Writer, editor of Playboy | 1941 |
| Greg Melville | Writer, journalist | 1992 |
| Robert Mezey | Writer | (attended) |
| Alexa O'Brien | Journalist, activist | |
| Riley Redgate | Writer | 2016 |
| Ransom Riggs | Writer | 2001 |
| Peter Taylor | Writer, winner of Pulitzer Prize | 1940 |
| Daniel Torday | Writer | 2000 |
| Fred Waitzkin | Writer | 1965 |
| Andrew Welsh-Huggins | Journalist, author | |
| Rachel DeLoache Williams | Writer | 2010 |
| Matthew Winkler (journalist) | Co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News | 1977 |
| James Wright | Poet, winner of Pulitzer Prize | 1952 |

### Military

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Ralph P. Buckland | Brigadier General, Union Army, during the Civil War | |
| John G. Mitchell | Brigadier General, Union Army, during the Civil War | 1859 |

### Performing arts

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Nick Bakay | Actor, comedian | 1981 |
| Annie Blackman | Musician | 2020 |
| Adam Davidson | Academy Award-winning director | 1986 |
| Frank Dicopoulos | Actor | 1979 |
| Chris Eigeman | Actor | 1987 |
| Allison Janney | Actress, seven-time Emmy Award and Academy Award winner | 1982 |
| Wendy MacLeod | Playwright, screenwriter | 1981 |
| Amy Malkoff | Recording artist | 1988 |
| Paul Newman | Actor, Emmy Award and Academy Award winner | 1949 |
| Kris Osborn | CNN anchor | 1992 |
| Alfred Humphreys Pease | Composer | |
| Nicholas Petricca | Lead singer of Walk The Moon | 2009 |
| Josh Radnor | Actor and filmmaker | 1996 |
| Justin Roberts | Children's musician | 1992 |
| Jonathan Winters | Actor and comedian | (attended) |
| Damian Young | Actor | 1983 |

### Philanthropy

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Kevin O'Donnell | Director of the U.S. Peace Corps | 1947 |

### Politics

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Bridget A. Brink | U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia (2019–2022) and Ukraine (2022–present) | |
| Sally Cluchey | Maine state senator | 2008 |
| David Davis | Senator, Supreme Court Justice | 1832 |
| Henry Winter Davis | US Congressman for Maryland's 3rd and 4th district | 1837 |
| Dan Frankel | Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1999-present | 1978 |
| Lizzie Pannill Fletcher | US Congresswoman for Texas' 7th district, 2019–present | 1997 |
| Barry Goode | California judge, former legal officer for California Gov. Gray Davis | 1969 |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | President of the United States | 1842 |
| Bill Harsha | Member of the United States House of Representatives, 1961-1981 | 1943 |
| Thomas Stanley Matthews | Senator, Supreme Court justice | 1840 |
| Anthony Banning Norton | Publisher of newspapers in Ohio and Texas, Know Nothing Texas state representative | 1840 |
| Olof Palme | Prime Minister of Sweden | 1948 |
| Diana Schaub | President's Council on Bioethics; Professor of Political Science at Loyola University Maryland | |
| John W. Snow | Secretary of the Treasury | (attended) |
| Zack Space | Congressman, Ohio Congressional District 18 | 1983 |
| Edwin Stanton | Secretary of War during the Lincoln administration | 1834 |
| Peter Stautberg | Member of Ohio House of Representatives | 1993 |
| Evan B. Stotsenburg | President Pro Tempore of the Indiana Senate, Indiana Attorney General | |
| Tommy Vietor | National security spokesman for Barack Obama | 2002 |

### Religion

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Rev. James P. deWolfe | Fourth Episcopal Bishop of Long Island, 1942-1966; charter member of the Sigma Pi fraternity's Lambda chapter at Kenyon | 1917 |
| Rev. William Crane Gray | First Episcopal Bishop of Southern Florida, 1893-1913 | 1859 |
| Rev. S. Arthur Huston | Episcopal Bishop of Olympia, 1925-1944 | 1900 |
| Rev. Arthur C. Lichtenberger | 21st Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church; in 1961 he became the first Episcopal leader to meet with a pope; posthumously received the Founders Award from Sigma Pi fraternity in 2010 | 1923 |
| Rev. Donald MacAdie | Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, 1958-1963 | 1922 |
| Rev. Arthur R. McKinstry | Former Episcopal Bishop of Delaware; 1948 Lambeth Conference attendee; officiated the marriage of Lyndon B. Johnson to Lady Bird Johnson; charter member of the Sigma Pi fraternity's Lambda chapter at Kenyon | Ph.B., 1918 and M.A., 1920 |
| Rev. Philip McNairy | Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, 1971-1977 | 1932 |
| Rev. Joseph Schereschewsky | Anglican Bishop of Shanghai, China, 1877-1884 | |
| Rev. George R. Selway | Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, 1964-1972 | 1929 |
| Rev. William E. Swing | Episcopal Bishop of California, 1980-2006 | 1958 |
| Rev. Charles D. Williams | Fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, 1906-1915 | 1883/4 |

### Sciences

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Carl Djerassi | Creator of the birth control pill; winner of the National Medal of Science | 1943 |
| Rolla Dyer | Developer of the typhus vaccine; director of the National Institutes of Health | 1907 |
| Harvey Lodish | Professor, co-founder of Genzyme Corporation | 1962 |

### Sports

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Chris Creighton | Football Coach, Eastern Michigan University | 1990 |
| Don McNeill | Tennis player | 1940 |
| John Rinka | Basketball player and coach | 1970 |
| Shaka Smart | Men's basketball head coach, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Texas at Austin, Marquette University | 1999 |
| Bill Veeck | MLB owner and baseball player | (attended) |

### Visual arts

| Name | Occupation | Class year |
| Carl Andre | Artist | (attended) |
| Claire Beckett | Photographer | |
| Jim Borgman | Cartoonist, known for Zits | 1976 |
| Meg Cranston | Artist | 1982 |
| Eric Gaskins | Fashion designer | |
| Graham Gund | Architect | 1963 |
| David Horvitz | Artist | |
| C. Cameron Macauley | Photographer and film producer | 1949 |
| Jonathan Mannion | Photographer and director | 1993 |
| Coles Phillips | Artist | 1904 |
| Bill Watterson | Cartoonist, known for Calvin and Hobbes | 1980 |
| Victoria Wyatt | Art historian | 1977 |

## Notable faculty members

* Chauncey Colton, Homiletics
* Virgil Aldrich, Philosophy
* Katherine Elkins, Integrated Program for Human Studies
* Robert O. Fink, Classics
* Bruce Haywood, German; Provost
* Jed Hoyer, Kenyon Baseball Coach; Executive Vice President and General Manager, Chicago Cubs
* Lewis Hyde, English
* Randall Jarrell, English
* P. F. Kluge, English
* Perry Lentz, English
* Robie Macauley, English
* Wendy MacLeod, Theater
* George E. McCarthy, Sociology
* Otto Nikodym, Mathematics
* Paul Radin, Anthropology
* John Crowe Ransom, English
* Charles Ritcheson, History
* Richard G. Salomon, History
* Benjamin Schumacher, Physics
* Joan Slonczewski, Biology
* Anna Sun, Sociology, Asian Studies
* Denham Sutcliffe, English
* Allen Tate, English
Visiting faculty
* John Kinsella, English
* Claire Messud, English
* Barry Unsworth, English
* Katharine Weber, English
* James Wood, English

## Presidents of the College

* Philander Chase (1825–1831)
* Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1832–1840)
* David Bates Douglass (1840–1844)
** Samuel Fuller (acting, 1844–1845)
* Sherlock A. Bronson (1845–1850)
* Thomas M. Smith (1850–1854)
* Lorin Andrews (1854–1861)
** Benjamin L. Lang (acting, 1861–1863)
* Charles Short (1863–1867)
* James Kent Stone (1867–1868)
* Eli Todd Tappan (1868–1875)
** Edward C. Benson (acting, 1875–1876)
* William B. Bodine (1876–1891)
* Theodore Sterling (1891–1896)
* William Foster Peirce (1896–1937)
* Gordon Keith Chalmers (1937–1956)
** Frank E. Bailey (acting, 1956–1957)
* F. Edward Lund (1957–1968)
* William G. Caples (1968–1975)
* Philip H. Jordan Jr. (1975–1995)
** Reed S. Browning (acting, 1989)
* Robert A. Oden Jr. (1995–2002)
** Ronald A. Sharp (acting, 2002–2003)
* S. Georgia Nugent (2003–2013)
* Sean M. Decatur (2013–2022)
** Jeff Bowman (acting, 2022–2023)
* Julie Kornfeld (2023-)