# List of Taft School alumni

The following is a list of notable alumni of Taft School. The Taft School is a private, coeducational prep school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. The school was founded by Horace Dutton Taft, the brother of President William Howard Taft, in 1890.

## Academics

* T. H. Breen '60, Guggenheim fellow, history professor
* Stevan Dedijer '30, founder of the Research Policy Institute, pioneer of business intelligence
* Alfred G. Gilman '58, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine
* Mason Gross '29, President of Rutgers University
* Thomas Kuhn '40, philosopher of science, author
* Samuel T. Orton 1897, pioneer in the study of dyslexia
* Rollin G. Osterweis '26, Professor of history at Yale University

## Arts and entertainment

* Trey Anastasio '83, Phish lead guitarist
* Jeff Baxter '67, musician (Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers)
* Henry Beard '63, co-founder of National Lampoon, co-author of Bored of the Rings
* Peter Berg '80, actor/director of Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor
* Jason Blum '87, producer of "Get Out" and "Paranormal Activity", founder of Blumhouse Productions
* Mia Borders, '05, singer-songwriter
* Mary Chapin Carpenter '76, five-time Grammy Award winner
* Spencer Treat Clark '05, actor in Gladiator, Mystic River, Unbreakable, and The Last House on the Left
* Barnaby Conrad '40, author, artist, bullfighter
* Barnaby Conrad III '71, author and artist
* Dominique Dunne, actress
* Adam Duritz '82, lead singer of Counting Crows
* James Franciscus '53, actor in The Naked City, Longstreet
* Grant Goodeve, actor in Eight is Enough
* Geoffrey T. Hellman '24, longtime New Yorker columnist
* Deane G. Keller '17, painter and educator
* Alan Klingenstein '72, film producer
* Ralph Lee '53, Guggenheim fellow and Obie Award winner
* Lorenzo Mariani '73, international opera director
* Steve Sandvoss '98, actor
* Tom Santopietro '72, author and Broadway theater manager
* Fred Small '70, singer-songwriter
* Dudley Taft '84, member of Sweet Water guitars, vocals
* Karen L. Thorson '78, producer of The Wire, The Unusuals

## Business

* Henry Becton, chairman of Becton Dickinson and Company
* Thomas Ludlow Chrystie II '51, investment banker, first CFO of Merrill, Lynch & Company and inventor of the Cash Management Account
* Peter S. Kaufman '71, investment banker, president of the Gordian Group LLC
* Joseph Irwin Miller '27, industrialist, Cummins Engine Company
* John M. Schiff '21, investment banker, philanthropist, honorary chairman of Lehman Brothers
* John G. Taft '68, financier and writer
* James B. Taylor '40, Business Jet Marketing Pioneer
* George Weyerhaeuser '44, chairman and CEO, Weyerhaeuser Company

## Government officials

* William D. Brewer, U.S. Ambassador
* Nathaniel Neiman Craley, Jr. '46, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania
* Richard Funkhouser, U.S. Ambassador to Gabon
* Robert C. Hill '38, United States Ambassador to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Spain and Argentina
* William S. Mailliard '35, U.S. Congressman, California
* Manuel Rocha '69, United States Ambassador to Bolivia 2000–02
* Earl E. T. Smith '22, United States Ambassador to Cuba (1958–59)
* Michael P. W. Stone '42, U.S. Secretary of the Army
* Bob Taft '59, Governor of Ohio
* Robert A. Taft 1906, U.S. Senator from Ohio 1939–53, majority leader
* Robert Taft, Jr. '35, Republican Congressman 1963–65, 1967–71, Senator 1971–76
* William Howard Taft III '33, United States Ambassador to Ireland
* Robert F. Wagner Jr. '29, Mayor of New York
* John S. Wold '34, U.S. Congressman, Wyoming

## Legal and judiciary

* Flemming L. Norcott, Jr. '61, Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
* Robert W. Sweet '40, federal judge who heard New York Times v. Gonzales concerning the Judith Miller controversy
* Ralph K. Winter Jr. '53, federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, nominated to the court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan
* Wesley S. Williams Jr., first African-American to serve both as legal counsel to the United States Senate and president of the Harvard Law School Association

## Sports

* Amanda Boulier’11, professional hockey player of Professional Women's Hockey League the Montreal Victoire of Montreal,Quebec
* Skyler Bell '21, college football wide receiver
* Darren Bragg '87, professional baseball player
* James Driscoll '96, professional golfer
* Patrick Kerney '95, professional football player
* Allison Mleczko '93, gold medalist in first women's Olympic ice hockey game at Nagano; silver medalist in 2002
* Max Pacioretty '07, professional hockey player for the Carolina Hurricanes
* Barbara Potter '79, Hall of Fame professional tennis player
* James Stillman Rockefeller 1920, Olympic gold medalist, 8-man rowing (Paris, France)
* Ryan Shannon '01, professional hockey player
* Tammy Lee Shewchuk '96, Olympic gold medalist in women's ice hockey, Salt Lake City
* Jaime Sifers '02, professional ice hockey player
* Katey Stone '84, head coach of 2014 Olympic Team USA women's ice hockey team, coach of Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey team
* John Welchli '46, Olympic silver medalist, Melbourne, 1956

## Writing, journalism, and publishing

* Laurence Bergreen '67, historian and biographer
* Nelson Denis '72, journalist, screenwriter, former New York State Assemblyman
* Steven J. Erlanger ’70, London bureau chief (formerly Paris and Jerusalem bureau chief) for The New York Times
* Philip K. Howard '66, founder of Common Good, author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America
* Thomas Kuhn '40, author of Structure of Scientific Revolutions, coined the phrase "paradigm shift"
* John Merrow ’59, Peabody Award-winning journalist and producer
* Sumner Chilton Powell '42, Pulitzer Prize winner in history for Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town
* Josh Quittner '75, author, editor of Business 2.0
* David Kenyon Webster '40, soldier, journalist, and author