# List of St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) people

The following is a list of notable individuals associated with St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland and/or Santa Fe, New Mexico.

## Faculty

* Douglas Allanbrook, tutor, musician and composer
* Wye Jamison Allanbrook, tutor, musicologist
* Eva Brann, tutor, dean; 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal
* James M. Cain, novelist; professor of journalism 1923–24
* Elliott Carter, composer; tutor, 1939–1941
* William Hersey Hopkins academic, first president of Goucher College, former acting president of St. John's College
* Leon Kass, tutor at the college (1972–76); chair of the President's Council on Bioethics (2002–06)
* Jacob Klein, tutor, dean; author of Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra and Commentary on Plato's Meno; leading 20th-century Platonist
* Sara Larkin, artist; creator of Spacescapes
* Thomas Parran, sixth surgeon general of USA
* Leo Strauss (1899–1973), political philosopher; lectured at St. John's and was the Scott Buchanan Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Annapolis campus
* Victor Zuckerkandl, tutor, music theorist

## Students and Alumni

This includes graduates of both the Undergraduate and Graduate programs.

### Academics

* Rogers Albritton, philosopher; served as the chairman of both Harvard and UCLA's philosophy departments
* Amber E. Boydstun, political scientist and data scientist
* Joseph J. Himmel, Jesuit missionary and president of Georgetown University
* Thomas J.J. Altizer, theologian, author of The Gospel of Christian Atheism
* John Bremer, educator, philosopher, author; after graduating from Oxford University, he came to St. John's College in 1951 on a Fulbright Fellowship
* Graham Harman, philosopher
* Mark D. Jordan, alumnus; Andrew Mellon Professor, Harvard Divinity School; scholar of gender studies, sexual ethics, and theology
* Wilfred M. McClay, intellectual historian
* Ange Mlinko, poet and critic. Guggenheim Fellow 2014–15, Poetry Editor of the Nation, associate professor at the University of Florida
* Tom G. Palmer, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute
* Ben Sasse, president, University of Florida
* Pamela Sklar (1959–2017), psychiatrist and neuroscientist
* O. Carter Snead, legal scholar and bioethicist
* Louis Leo Snyder (1907–1993), German scholar and historian

### Writers, critics, and journalists

* Michael Anton, writer; former Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications.
* Ken Baumann, writer, publisher, and former actor
* Seth Cropsey, Director of the Center for American Seapower at the Hudson Institute; regular contributor to the National Review
* Robert A. George, journalist and news columnist
* Danny Hakim, investigative journalist at The New York Times
* William Kowalski, author, Eddie's Bastard, Somewhere South of Here, The Adventures of Flash Jackson, The Good Neighbor
* Andrew Krivak, author, National Book Award nominee for The Sojourn
* Kenneth Kronberg, printing company owner, former LaRouche movement member
* Tony Lagouranis, activist and author of Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq
* Lydia Polgreen, Editor-in-Chief for The Huffington Post, 2006 winner of the George Polk Award
* James Portnow writer, game designer, co-founder of the Extra Credits YouTube channel.
* Salvatore Scibona, alumnus and author, 2008 National Book Award finalist for his first novel The End; his fiction has appeared in many literary journals; named one of "20 under 40" notable authors by The New Yorker in 2010 and published an essay about his experience at the college in the June 13, 2011 issue
* Lisa Simeone, National Public Radio host
* Charles Van Doren, garnered notoriety for his involvement in the rigged game show Twenty-One
* Cecelia Watson, alumna and author of Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark
* Jennifer Wright, alumnus and author
* John C. Wright, alumnus and author

### Military personnel

* Lewis J. Fields (1909–1988), United States Marine Corps Lieutenant general
* William H. Harrison (1896–1955), brigadier general in the Marine Corps during World War II
* Erik S. Kristensen (1972–2005), U.S. Navy Seal, attended Graduate Institute in Annapolis, killed in action in Afghanistan
* James B. Lockwood (1852–1884), American army officer and arctic explorer.
* Robert Houston Noble, U.S. Army brigadier general, honorary Master of Arts, 1894
* Reginald H. Ridgely Jr. (1902–1979), U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general, POW during World War II

### Politicians

* Michael Anton, essayist, speechwriter and former private-equity executive who previously a senior national security official
* Joshua J. Cohen, Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland
* Clement Dorsey, Congressman for Maryland's 1st congressional district, 1825–31
* Alexander Contee Hanson, Congressman for Maryland's 3rd District, 1813–1816
* Emerson Harrington, Governor of Maryland
* J. T. C. Hopkins (1843–1922), Maryland state delegate
* Reverdy Johnson, statesman and Jurist, defense attorney of Sandford in the Dred Scott Case
* Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš, Prime Minister of Latvia, 2019-2023
* John Leeds Kerr, U.S. Representative, Maryland's 7th District
* Francis Scott Key, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; lyricist of the United States national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”
* Daniel Martin, Governor of Maryland, 1829–1830, 1831
* Keith Neville, 18th Governor of Nebraska, 1917–1919
* Thomas Parran Jr., sixth Surgeon General of the United States
* William Pinkney (1764–1822), 7th Attorney General of the United States
* Frederick Stone, U.S. Representative from Maryland's 5th congressional district (1867-71), defense counsel for Samuel Mudd
* Lucy Tamlyn, U.S. Ambassador to Benin
* Francis Thomas, Governor of Maryland, 1842–44; member of House of Representatives, 1861–69
* Tobias Watkins (1780-1855), 4th Auditor of the United States Treasury, writer, editor, and physician
* Osborne I. Yellott (1871–1922), state delegate and lawyer

### Filmmakers and musicians

* Betsy Arakawa, classical pianist
* Dimitri Devyatkin, Emmy-nominated video artist and filmmaker
* Ahmet Ertegün, founded Atlantic Records in 1947
* Jac Holzman, founded Elektra Records in 1950 while a student at St. John's
* Eilen Jewell, blues and Americana singer/songwriter with five albums (as of 2011)
* Jonathan D. Krane, film producer, Look Who's Talking, Face/Off
* Jeremy Leven, author, screenwriter and director whose works include Don Juan DeMarco
* Lhasa de Sela, singer-songwriter
* Glenn Yarbrough, original lead tenor of The Limeliters
* Lee David Zlotoff, creator of MacGyver; director of The Spitfire Grill (1996), which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival

### Businesspeople

* James H. Frame, computer programming pioneer at IBM, and former vice president of software at ITT; founded James Frame Enterprises (JFE), a software development consulting company
* Eugene V. Thaw, American art dealer and collector
* Warren Winiarski, founder of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

### Chefs

* Daniel Rose (chef) Chef with restaurants in Paris (Spring, La Bourse et la Vie) and New York City (Le Coucou)
* Miyoko Schinner, American chef, cookbook author, animal sanctuary founder and owner of cheese brand Miyoko's Creamery

### Scientists

* Cynthia Keppel, physicist
* Aron Wall 2019 Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize for fundamental insights about quantum information, quantum field theory and gravity.

## Board Members

* Austin Ligon, co-founder/CEO (retired), CarMax, Inc.
* James T. Woodward, banker and owner of a major Thoroughbred horse dynasty and member of St. John's board of visitors, recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1909; namesake of Woodward Hall