# List of Oregon State University alumni

Oregon State University is located in Corvallis, Oregon in the United States. It traces its roots to 1856, when Corvallis Academy was founded. It was not formally incorporated until 1858 when the name was changed to Corvallis College, and not chartered until 1868. In 1890 the school became known as Oregon Agricultural College, then in 1927 as Oregon State Agricultural College. Its current name was adopted in 1961. Alumni from each of these eras may be included on the list, and more than 200,000 people have attended the university since its founding.

## Activism

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Bobby Henderson | 1999–2003 | Activist and creator of Pastafarianism |
| Bruce W. Klunder | ?–1958 | Civil rights activist and Presbyterian minister |
| Ada-Rhodes Short | ?—2018 | Transgender rights activist and mechatronic design engineer |
| Katherine Ann Power | ?—2001 | Anti-war activist, convicted of armed robbery and manslaughter who spent fourteen years on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list |

## Art and architecture

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| John Clem Clarke | | painter |
| Florence Holmes Gerke | 1896-1964 | Landscape architect of the International Rose Test Garden |
| Tala Madani | 1999–2004 | Artist, painter featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial |
| Lee Arden Thomas | | Architect who designed the OSU Memorial Union. |
| Roger A. Wreth | ?–1980 | Photographer 1980 Pulitzer Prize in Photography finalist |

## Business

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Thomas J. Autzen | 1905–1909 | Plywood manufacturing pioneer |
| Mercedes Alison Bates | ?–1936 | Former vice president of General Mills' Betty Crocker Cooking division; first female officer of General Mills |
| Austen S. Cargill II | ? | Heir and major shareholder of Cargill, received a PhD from Oregon State University |
| Peggy Cherng | 1969–1971 | CEO of Panda Express |
| Randy Conrads | ?–1972 | Founder of Classmates.com |
| Jen-Hsun Huang | 1980–1984 | Co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA |
| Timothy S. Leatherman | ?–1970 | Inventor of the Leatherman tool |
| Brian McMenamin | ?–1980 | Co-founder of the McMenamins chain |
| Mike McMenamin | ?–1974 | Co-founder of the McMenamins chain |
| Bernie Newcomb | ?–1965 | Co-founder of E*TRADE |
| Hüsnü Özyeğin | | Turkish billionaire businessman, philanthropist |
| Don Robert | | CEO of Experian |
| Leonard Shoen | | Founder of U-Haul |
| John A. Young | ?–1953 | Former president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard |
| Peter Gassner | 1983–1989 | Co-founder and CEO of Veeva Systems |

## Education

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Holly Barnard | ?–2009 | Professor of Geography at University of Colorado Boulder and founder of the Critical Zone Laboratory |
| Sara Harris | | Climate scientist and 3M National Teaching Fellow at the University of British Columbia |
| Wayne L. Hubbell | ?–1965 | Jules Stein Professor of Ophthalmology at UCLA |
| Octave Levenspiel | ?–1991 | Emeritus Professor of chemical engineering at Oregon State University |
| Staci Simonich | | Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University |
| Ann Streissguth | | Endowed Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Fetal Alcohol Drug Unit at the University of Washington School of Medicine |
| Carrie Halsell Ward | 1922–1926 | College lecturer and first black student to graduate from OSU. |
| Michael Waterman | early 70s | Computational biologist; professor of biological science, mathematics, and computer science at the University of Southern California |

## Entertainment

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Trevor Bardette | | actor |
| John Brotherton | | Soap opera actor |
| George Bruns | ?–1936 | Composer |
| Meghna Chakrabarti | 1994–1998 | Journalist, radio producer, and host of the NPR program On Point |
| Pinto Colvig | ?–1911 | Voice actor; the original Bozo the Clown |
| Kevin Hagen | | Actor |
| Harley Jessup | ?–1976 | 1987 Best Visual Effects Oscar winner for the film Innerspace |
| Cathy Marshall | | News anchor |
| Beau Mirchoff | ?-2024 | Actor |
| Roger Nichols | | Recording Engineer for Steely Dan |
| Jodi Ann Paterson | ?–1998 | 2000 Playboy Playmate of the Year and model |
| Meredith Phillips | | Star of ABC reality television show The Bachelorette |
| Mike Rich | | Screenwriter |
| Laurie Roth | | Syndicated radio talk-show host |
| Travis Rush | | Country music singer |
| Kendra Sunderland | ? | Model and pornographic actress who was also expelled from the university because of public indecency. |
| Sara Jean Underwood | 2002–2007 | July 2006 Playboy Playmate of the Month, 2007 Playmate of the Year, actress, and model |

## Literature and journalism

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Chris Anderson | 1968–1972 | Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize |
| Pamela Cytrynbaum | | Journalist and restorative justice practitioner |
| Geffrey Davis | | Poet |
| Webley Edwards | ?–1927 | World War II news correspondent |
| Christopher Howell | | Poet |
| Chris Johns | 1971-1974 | Current Editor-In-Chief of National Geographic magazine |
| George Oppen | | Poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry |
| Mary Oppen | | Poet |
| Bert Sperling | 1968-1972 | Author and researcher |

## Military

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Edward C. Allworth | ?–1916 | Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor |
| Rex T. Barber | ?–1940 | World War II pilot credited with killing Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto |
| Marion Eugene Carl | ?–1938 | World War II flying ace; record-setting test pilot; United States Marine Corps (USMC) Major General |
| Elmer E. Hall | | World War II Brigadier General, USMC |
| John Noble Holcomb | 1967 | Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor |
| Ulysses G. McAlexander | | Commander of Army ROTC. Earned the nickname "Rock of the Marne" during World War I. |
| Anthony E. Van Dyke | ?–1978 | USMC Colonel and current commander of Marine forces at Henderson Hall |

## Politics

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Cecil D. Andrus | 1952 | Governor of Idaho (1971–1977, 1987–1995) and U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1977–1981) |
| Earl I. Anzai | ?–1964 | Attorney General of Hawaii (1999–2002) |
| Brad Avakian | ?–1984 | Commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (2008–2019 ) |
| Rod Chandler | ?–1968 | U.S. Representative of Washington (1983–1993) |
| Charles Crookham | 1941–1943 | Attorney General of Oregon (1992–1993) |
| John Ensign | ?–1981 | U.S. Representative of Nevada (1995–1999); Nevada U.S. Senator (2001–2011) |
| John Hubert Hall | ?–1923 | Governor of Oregon (1947–1949); member of the Oregon House of Representatives (1936–1947) |
| Julia Butler Hansen | 1924–1926 | U.S. Representative of Washington (1960–1974) |
| Darlene Hooley | ?–1961 | U.S. Representative of Oregon (1997–2009) |
| Elaine Hopson | 1960 | Oregon state representative |
| Hector Macpherson, Jr. | 1936–1940 | Oregon State Senator (1971–1974) |
| Douglas McKay | ?–1917 | Governor of Oregon (1949–1952) and U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1953–1956) |
| Paul Peek | ?–? | California Secretary of State (1940–1943); Speaker of the California State Assembly (1939) |
| Pou Sohtireak | ?–1980s | Cambodian Minister for Industry, Mines and Energy |
| Norris Poulson | 1923 | U.S. Representative of California (1943–1945, 1947–1955); mayor of Los Angeles, California (1953–1961) |
| Frederick Steiwer | ?–1902 | Oregon U.S. Senator (1927–1937) |
| Lowell Stockman | ?–1922 | U.S. Representative of Oregon (1943–1953) |
| Jolene Unsoeld | 1949–1951 | U.S. Representative of Washington (1989–1995) |
| Robert M. Veatch | 1868–1871 | Oregon Representative (1883–1886), Senator (1887–1892), and mayor of Cottage Grove, Oregon |
| James K. Weatherford | 1868–1872 | Oregon Representative, Speaker of the House (1876), Senator, and mayor of Albany, Oregon |
| Mary Carlin Yates | ?–1968 | U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi and U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana |
| Irwandi Yusuf | 1993 | Governor of Indonesian province of Aceh |

## Religion

| Bobby Henderson | ?–2003 | Activist and creator Pastafarianism |
| Katharine Jefferts Schori | ?–1983 | Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and oceanographer |

## Science and engineering

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Charity Dean | | Epidemiologist, assistant director of the California Department of Public Health, and co-founder and CEO of The Public Health Company. |
| Paul H. Emmett | 1917–1922 | Manhattan Project research staff member and member of the United States National Academy of Sciences |
| Milton Harris | 1924–1926 | Founded the Harris Research Laboratories, which later merged with Gillette. |
| Donald M. Kerr | ?–1969 | Wildlife biologist and founder of the High Desert Museum |
| Ann Kiessling | ?-1971 | Reproductive biologist and leading stem cell researcher |
| Linus Pauling | 1917–1922 | 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 1962 Nobel Peace Prize recipient |
| Glenn Odekirk | 1923–1927 | Hughes Aircraft Aerospace Engineer, helped design the H-4 Hercules |
| William Oefelein | ?–1988 | NASA astronaut |
| Donald Pettit | ?–1978 | NASA astronaut |
| Stephen O. Rice | | Pioneer in the related fields of information theory, communications theory, and telecommunications |
| J. Michael Scott | ?–1973 | Ornithologist (research scientist), Peace Corps volunteer |
| Ernest H. Taves | | Psychiatrist, author, and UFO skeptic |
| William Tebeau | 1948 | Chemical engineer and first African-American male graduate |
| Earl A. Thompson | | Inventor of the manual transmission synchronizer in 1923 and leader of the team at General Motors Corporation that developed the first Hydramatic automatic transmission in 1940 |
| Marta Torres | | Marine geologist known for her work on the geochemistry of cold seeps and methane hydrates |
| Warren Washington | 1954? - 1958 | Atmospheric scientist |
| Omran Al Mazrouei | 2010 - 2016 | Senior Climate Change Negotiator, the twenty eighth session of the conference of parties (COP28, Dubai). Awarded UAE president Zayed II first order medal. |

## Technology

| Name | Attended | Notability |
| Philip Emeagwali | 1974–1977 | 1989 Gordon Bell Prize winner |
| Douglas Engelbart | ?–1948 | Inventor of the computer mouse and winner of the National Medal of Technology |
| Bobby Henderson | 1999–2003 | Activist and created Pastafarianism |
| Jensen Huang | 1980–1984 | Founder of Nvidia |