# List of Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni

This list of alumni of Ethical Culture Fieldston School includes graduates and non-graduate former students.
* Jill Abramson – former executive editor of The New York Times
* Carolyn Adams – dancer, choreographer, teacher
* Debo Adegbile – civil rights attorney
* Clifford Alexander Jr. – former Secretary of the Army
* George J. Ames – former Lazard executive
* Joseph Amiel – author
* Diane Arbus – photographer
* Mary T. Bassett – Physician and public health researcher and public advocate
* Melinda Beck (illustrator) - artist
* Richard D. Brown – historian of colonial and revolutionary-era America; professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut
* Nancy Cantor – chancellor, Syracuse University
* Peter H. Christensen – academic
* Ernest Courant - physicist, known as the "father of modern particle accelerators"
* Jerry Craft – Children's book author; American cartoonist
* Andrew Delbanco – critic and author. Director, American studies, Columbia University
* Nicholas Delbanco – novelist
* David Denby – film critic, The New Yorker
* Ralph de Toledano – author
* Glen de Vries – American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology
* Joseph Leo Doob – mathematician
* Douglas Durst – real estate magnate
* Francis Fergusson – literary critic and writer
* Rita Gam – film actress
* Jim Gardner – longtime WPVI-TV news anchor
* Alan Gilbert – music director of the New York Philharmonic
* Ailes Gilmour – dancer
* Leonie Gilmour – educator and writer
* Rob Glaser – internet pioneer
* Matt Goldman, performance artist. Co-founder, Blue Man Group
* Maggie Haberman – The New York Times political reporter
* Patricia Harris – Former Deputy Mayor of NYC, President of Bloomberg Philanthropies
* Judith Lewis Herman – psychiatrist
* Susie Linfield – author, critic, editor and NYU Professor
* Charles Herman-Wurmfeld – film director
* Robert Jervis – political scientist. Adlai E. Stevenson Professor, Columbia University
* Elizabeth Jonas (neurologist) – physician, neuroscientist, and professor, Yale School of Medicine
* Bess Kalb – comedic writer, author and writer
* Rodney Jones – jazz guitarist
* Jeffrey Katzenberg – film producer, media mogul
* Yosuke Kawasaki – violinist
* Sinah Estelle Kelley – chemist
* William Melvin Kelley – author (A Different Drummer, Dunfords Travels Everywhere)
* Charlie King – New York civic leader and politician
* Arthur Kinoy – civil rights lawyer
* Ernest Kinoy – screenwriter
* Walter Koenig – actor
* Joseph Kraft – public affairs columnist
* Jake Lamar – author, writer and playwright
* Louise Lasser – actress
* Christopher Lehmann-Haupt – author, The New York Times book reviewer
* Sean Ono Lennon – musician (did not graduate from Fieldston)
* Eda LeShan – child psychologist and author
* Carl P. Leubsdorf – Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
* Doug Liman – film director (Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
* Andrew Litton – conductor, New York City Ballet
* Beulah Livingstone – motion picture publicist
* Douglas Lowenstein – president and CEO of Private Equity Council, founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
* Douglas Lowy – cancer biologist; director of U.S. National Cancer Institute
* Staughton Lynd – peace activist and civil rights activist
* Jeffrey Lyons – film critic, WNBC-TV, New York City
* Mark A. Michaels – author and sexuality educator
* Bob Marshall – conservationist, writer, and the founder of The Wilderness Society
* Andy Marvel – award-winning musician
* Grace M. Mayer – curator at The Museum of the City of New York and The Museum of Modern Art
* Jane Mayer – best selling author, investigative journalist, The New Yorker
* Zach McGowan – actor
* Marguerita Mergentime – industrial designer
* Nicholas Meyer – film director
* Jo Mielziner – stage designer
* Olivette Miller – jazz harpist
* Marvin Minsky – pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
* Tim Minton – television journalist and media executive
* Alfred Mirsky – cell biologist
* Jeannette Mirsky – writer
* Frederic S. Mishkin – governor of the Federal Reserve Board
* Joan Morgan – Jamaican-American writer and author
* Howard Nemerov – former United States Poet Laureate
* J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), physicist, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "Father of the Atomic Bomb"
* Jeremiah Ostriker – astrophysicist Columbia University, Princeton University (Provost 1995-2001)
* Eleanor Pepper (1904–1997), architect, interior designer
* Marjorie Perloff (1931–2024), poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry
* Emanuel R. Piore (1908–2000, class of 1926)chief scientist of IBM, and electrical engineering pioneer
* Belva Plain (1915–2010), author
* Susan Poser (born 1963), President of Hofstra University
* Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born 1939), author
* Eve M. Troutt Powell – Historian of Middle East Studies
* Edward R. Pressman (1943–2023), film producer
* Richard Ravitch – business and civic leader
* Nancy Reiner – graduating as Nancy Russek, cover artist of Jimi Hendrix album The Cry of Love (1971), among others
* Jonathan Rosand – neurologist Massachusetts General Hospital
* Menachem Z. Rosensaft – attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
* Dan Rottenberg – journalist and author
* Muriel Rukeyser – poet and playwright
* David Sarasohn – associate editor and syndicated columnist for The Oregonian newspaper
* James H. Scheuer – US Congressman (NY)
* Steven H. Scheuer – film and television historian and critic
* Daniel P. Schrag – climate scientist, geologist Harvard University
* Deborah Schrag – oncologist Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
* Gil Scott-Heron – musician
* Nicole Seligman – lawyer, Sony executive
* Cynthia Propper Seton – novelist
* Laura Silber – author, former journalist and Vice President for Advocacy and Communications at the Open Society Foundations
* Mariko Silver – former president of Bennington College, President of Luce Foundation
* Lucy Simon – composer, singer
* Stephen Slesinger – creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
* Tess Slesinger – author/screenwriter
* Alan B. Slifka – Investor and philanthropist; founder of Big Apple Circus
* Jay Smooth – radio host and cultural commentator
* Donald J. Sobol – author of juvenile short stories; creator of Encyclopedia Brown
* Stephen Sondheim – composer; attended the Fieldston Lower School
* Dan Squadron – New York State Senator
* Andy Stein – musician
* Stewart Stern – screenwriter
* Paul Strand – photographer and filmmaker
* A. G. Sulzberger – the chairman of The New York Times Company and the publisher of The New York Times
* James Toback – filmmaker
* Richard Tofel – journalist, attorney, administrator, non fiction writer
* Doris Ulmann – photographer of Appalachia
* Laurence Urdang – lexicographer, dictionary editor
* Helen Valentine – founder of Seventeen magazine
* Elliot Villar – actor
* Andrew Weisblum – Oscar-nominated film editor
* Andrew Weissmann – attorney and professor
* Chris Wink, performance artist; co-founder, Blue Man Group
* Howard Wolfson – deputy mayor of New York City
* Jane C. Wright – oncologist
* Keith L. T. Wright – New York State Assemblyman
* Sheryl WuDunn – investment banker, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
* Adam Yarmolinsky – academic and author who served in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations
* Eli Zabar – New York City restaurateur
* Lynn Zelevansky – museum curator