Famous Columbians

Political Figures

  • John Jay, King's College 1764 - co-author of The Federalist Papers, First Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, 1789-1794
  • Alexander Hamilton, King's College 1773-1776 - co-author of The Federalist Papers, first Secretary of Treasury (see $10 bill!)
  • John Lindsay - Mayor of New York
  • Gray Davis, CLS'61 - Governor of California 1996-
  • George Pataki, CLS'70 - Governor of New York from 1995-; one of 12 Columbians to be Governor of NY
  • Thomas Dewey, CLS 1925- Governor of New York from 1943-1955, Republican presidential candidate in 1944 and 1948 ("Dewey Defeats Truman")
  • Teddy Roosevelt, CLS 1890-1892 - U.S. President 1901-1909, Governor of New York from 1899-1900
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, CLS 1905-1907 - U.S. President from 1933-1946, Governor of New York from 1929-1932
  • Robert Moses GSAS'14 - Master builder of New York City, NYS Parks, NYS Highways, bridges, power
  • Nicholas Murray Butler CC 1882, PhD 1884 - statesman, President of Columbia, Carnegie Endowment president, Nobel Peace Prize winner,
  • Seth Low CC - Mayor of New York
  • Dwight Eisenhower - President of Columbia, U.S. President and General
  • Alan Greenspan, PhD work - Chairman of Federal Reserve Bank
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg CLS'59 - Supreme Court Justice
  • Jim McGreevey CC'78 - Governon, New Jersey
  • Karenna Gore Schiff CLS 2000 - daughter of former VP and 2000 vote-winner Al Gore
  • Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg CLS '88 - daughter of JFK
  • John D. Hawke, Jr. CLS’60 - US Treasury, Comptroller of the Currency
  • Slade Gordon CLS'53 - Senator, Washington State
  • Joel I. Klein CC'67 - Asst. Attorney General under Clinton, won U.S. v. Microsoft, CEO of Bertelsmann
  • George Stephanopolous '82 - Clinton adviser, political commentator
  • Charles F.C. Ruff CLS'63 - Washington lawyer, represented Anita Hill (vs. Clarence Thomas) and Bill Clinton (impeachment)
  • Jack Greenberg CC'45 CLS'48- litigator of Brown v. Board of Ed.
  • Benjamin N. Cardozo CLS - US Supreme Court justice, 1932-1938
  • William O. Douglas CLS'25 - US Supreme Court justice, 1939 - 1975
  • Charles Evans Hughes CC 1884 - Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court 1930-1941
  • Stanley Forman Reed CLS - US Supreme Court justice 1938-1980
  • Harlan Fiske Stone CC 1898 - Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court 1941-1946
  • Louis Henkin, CLS faculty since 1956 - human rights advocate
  • Constance Baker Motley CLS'46 - first black womam federal court judge, NYS Senator, Manhattan Borough president
  • Telford Taylor, CLS faculty 1958-1998 - chief US prosecutor at Nuremberg Trials
  • William Samuel Johnson, president of Columbia 1787-1800 - delegate from Connecticut to Constitutional Convention
  • Gouverneur Morris, King's College 1769 - delegate tfrom Pennsylvania to Contsitutional Convention and chairman of the Committee of Style.
  • Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, M.A. 1915, Ph.D. 1928 - architect of India's constitution, Minister of Law
  • Wellington Koo CC 1908 - Prime Minister of China
  • Johan Jorgen Holst CC'60 - Norwegian Foreign Minister, The Oslo Accord of 1994 between Israel and the Palestinians
  • Shao-yi Tong CC 1870s - Prime Minister of China in 1911 and first PM or Republic of China in 1912
  • Major General Stephen Kearny, CC 1812 - won the New Mexico territory in 1845, military governor of Mexico City until 1848
  • Major General Philip Kearney, CC 1835 - fought in Mexican War and Civil War
  • Major General William "Wild Bill" Donovan CC 1905 CLS 1907 - director of OSS during WWII (pre-CIA)
  • Admiral Hyman Rickover Engineering 1929 - father of the Nuclear Navy
  • Emanuel Celler CC 1910 CLS 1912 - member of Congress for a record 50 years, 1923-1973. One of 235 Columbians to servein Congress.
  • Colgate Darden CLS 1923 - Governor of Virginia 1942-1946, president of UVA
  • John Purroy Mitchell, CLS 1899 - NYC mayor 1914-1917. One of 15 Columbians to serve as Mayor.
  • DeWitt Clinton, CC 1786 MA 1789 - mayor of NYC for several terms between 1803-1815, US Senator, governor of NYS, US Presidential candidate (lost to Madison), was on the $1,000 bill.
  • Jacob Javits, Columbia 1920s - US Senator from NY.
  • Wayne Morse CLS 1932 - US Senator from Oregon
  • Jeanette Rankin, Social Work 1908-1909 - first woman elected to House of Representatives, voted against war in 1917 and 1941
  • Lister Hill CLS 1916 - US Senator from Alabama

    Scientists, Academics, and Writers

  • Leon N. Cooper CC'51 - Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972
  • Roald Hoffmann CC'58 - Nobel in Chemistry in 1981
  • Norman F. Ramsey, Jr. CC'35 - Nobel laureate in Physics in 1989
  • Melvin Schwartz CC'53 - the Nobel in Physics in 1988
  • Julian S. Schwinger CC'36 - winner of the Nobel in Physics in 1965. Full List of Columbia Nobelists below.
  • Robert Nozick CC'59 - famous philosopher, author of Anarchy, State, and Utopia
  • Jerry Fodor CC'56 - famous philosopher (mind, psychology)
  • R.W. Apple GS'61 - Senior Correspondent, Associate Editor, former Washington Bureau chief, The New York Times
  • Norman Podhoretz CC - Editor of Commentary
  • Paul Robeson CLS'23 - artist, athlete, scholar, activist
  • David Berlinksi CC - math/science writer
  • Joseph Lelyveld J'60 - Executive editor NY Times
  • Richard Smith J'70 - CEO Newsweek
  • Richard L. Berke J - Washington editor, NY Times
  • Paul Auster CC - writer, author of The New York Trilogy
  • Samuel Bard, founder of Columbia medical faculty in 1767 - personal physician to George Washington
  • Max Frankel CC'52 - Executive Editor, The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winner 1973
  • Anna Quindlen, Barnard'74 - Columnist, The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winner 1992
  • Virginia Apgar MD'33 - inventor of Apgar Score for evaluation of infants
  • Edwin Armstrong, Engineering 1913 - inventor of FM radio
  • Charles Drew MD 1940 - inventor of blood plasma preservation system
  • Dr. Benjamin Spock MD 1929 - influential doctor, books sold more copies than the Bible
  • John Stevens, King's College 1768 - built the first steam railroad in 1825, responsible for the first Patent Law in the US in 1791.
  • Will Durant, PhD 1917 - historian, co-wrote 11-volume Story of Civilization, Pulitzer Prize winner 1969
  • Charles Beard, MA 1903 PhD 1904 - major historian, founder of The New School University
  • Jane Jacobs, GS 1933-1935 - urbanist, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
  • Thomas Merton, CC - Trapist Monk, spiritual writer, prolific author of the Seventh Storey Mountain and many other books
  • Louis Rossetto, MBA - Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine

    Business

  • George Macy CC - founder of Macy's Department Stores
  • Harvey Krueger CC - Senior Managing Director, Shearson Lehman
  • Samuel Rosen CC'19 - Chairman of 20th Century Fox
  • Armand Hammer CC'19 - President, Occidental Petroleum, Arm & Hammer Products
  • David J. Stern CLS '66 - President of the NBA
  • Robert D. Marcus CLS'90 - SVP AOL Time Warner
  • Derek Q. Johnson CC'81 CLS SIPA - SVP AOL Time Warner, CEO of Apollo Theater
  • Ted Forstmann CLS'65 - CEO of McLeod USA; Forstmann Little
  • Robert Shaye CLS’64 - New Line Cinema CEO
  • Michael Lynne CLS‘64 - New Line Cinema President, COO
  • I. Lewis Libby CLS’75 - Vice-President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff
  • Stephen Friedman CLS'62 - Chairman of Goldman Sachs, National Economic Council director
  • Philip Milstein CC'71 - CEO Emigrant Savings Bank
  • Warren Buffett CBS'51 - investor, Chairman Berskshire Hathaway
  • Mario Gabelli CBS - investor
  • Michael Gould (MBA '68) - Chairman and CEO of Bloomingdales
  • Henry R. Kravis (MBA '69) - Founding partner Kohlberg, Kravitz, Roberts, and Co.
  • Rochelle Lazarus (MBA '70) - President/CEO of Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide
  • Benjamin Rosen (MBA '61) - Chairman of Compaq Computer Co. and Rosen Motor Corp.
  • Daniel Robert Piette (MBA '70) - Branch Chief Operating Officer of DMC Group, Columbia Business School BOO member
  • Lord David J. Sainsbury of Turville (MBA '71) - Minister for Science, Office of Science and Technology, British Government
  • Douglas Black CC'16 CLS'18 - president of Doubleday from 1946-1963
  • Donald Clifford Brace CC 1904 - co-founder of Harcourt Brace
  • Alfred Harcourt CC 1904 - co-founder of Harcourt Brace
  • Bennett Cerf CC 1919 J 1920 - founder of Random House
  • Alfred A. Knopf CC 1912 - founder of Alfred Knopf Publishers
  • Richard L. Simon CC 1920 - co-founder of Simon and Schuster
  • Max Lincoln Schuster CC 1919 - co-founder of Simon and Schuster
  • Roone Arledge CC'52 - Former president of ABC News and winner of 36 Emmys.
  • Howard Dietz, CC and J 1917 - MGM VP for advertising and PR; adopted Columbia's lion for MGM; lyricist.

    Music, Film, and the Arts

  • Lorenz Hart CC - famous Broadway lyricist
  • Oscar Hammerstein II CC - famous Broadway composer
  • Richard Rodgers CC - famous Broadway lyricist
  • Brian Dennehy CC'60 - actor, Emmy Award winner
  • Brian DePalma CC'62 - film director
  • James Cagney CC 1922 - Hollywood great
  • Milos Forman, Columbia faculty 1978-1996 - film director
  • James Schamus, Columbia faculty since 1994 - screenwriter
  • Alicia Keys CC - singer, Grammy Award winner
  • Lauryn Hill CC - singer, solo and former member of The Fugees
  • Alan Ginsberg CC'49 - "beat" poet
  • Tony Kushner CC'78 - playwright (Angels in America)
  • Terrence McNally CC'59 - playwright (Kiss of the Spider Woman)
  • Herman Wouk CC'34 - writer, Pulitzer Prize winner 1952
  • Zora Neale Hurston Barnard'28 - writer
  • Langston Hughes CC 1921-2 - poet
  • Brad Meltzer CLS’96 - legal thriller writer
  • Jack Kerouac CC - 60s "beat" writer
  • Anna Paquin CC 2004 - actor, Oscar winner
  • Julie Stiles CC 2004 - actor
  • Georgia O'Keeffe, Columbia 1914-1916 - painter
  • Ad Reihhardt, Columbia 1931-1935 - painter
  • Robert Motherwell, Columbia 1940-1941 - painter
  • Rockwell Kent, Architecture 1904 CC 1907 - painter
  • Artie Shaw, Columbia Extension 1930s - all-time great bandleader
  • Mercer Ellington - bandleader
  • Eddie Sauter - arranger for Benny Goodman, Sauter-Finnegan band
  • Archie Bleyer - bandleader
  • Eudora Welty Business 1932 - writer, Pulitzer Prize winner 1972

    Sport and Other

  • Eddie Collins CC 1907 - Baseball Hall of Fame second-baseman, A's and White Sox
  • Lou Gehrig CC'25 - Baseball Hall of Fame first-baseman, New York Yankee
  • Sandy Koufax, GS 1950s - Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher
  • Leonard Koppett, CC 1946 - sports writer for The New York Times and Baseball Hall of Fame writer
  • John Montgomery Ward CLS 1882 - major league pitcher and Baseball Hall of Famer
  • Sid Luckman CC'39 - quarterback for Chicago Bears and NFL Hall of Fame member
  • Christina Teuscher CC'2000 - Olympic gold medalist swimmer
  • Amelia Earhart, Columbia Extension - famous aviatrix

    Famous Deweys

  • John Dewey, Columbia Philosophy professor - Pragmatist philosopher, educator
  • Melvil Dewey, Columbia librarian - inventor of Dewey Decimal system
  • Thomas Dewey, CLS - Governor of New York, presidential candidate

    Columbia Nobelists (alumni and faculty)

    Columbia has 64 Nobelists, of which 9 were College alumni (more than any other college). Compare here to Princeton's 30ish, Harvard's 40ish, Stanford's 20 or so.

    (From the CU PR Office, October 2001 (already out of date!))

    Columbia's Nobel Prize Winners: Sixty-four persons who have taught or studied at Columbia University have won the Nobel Prize since it was first awarded in 1901. Twenty-one current or former faculty members have won the prize for work done while at Columbia; 17 Nobels have gone to other faculty or former faculty for work done elsewhere; 37 have been won by Columbia alumni. Columbia has eight Nobel laureates on its faculty at present. Faculty or alumni from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science are indicated by an underscore.

    Category
    Year Laureate
    Chemistry
    1932 Irving Langmuir (Metallurgical Eng. degree 1903, M.A. 1906)
    1934 Harold C. Urey, faculty member (1929-45)
    1946 John H. Northrop (B.S. 1912, M.A. 1913, Ph.D. 1915)
    1972 William H. Stein (Ph.D. 1938)
    1981 Roald Hoffmann (B.A. 1958)
    1985 Herbert A. Hauptman (M.A. 1939)
    1989 Sidney Altman (graduate student, teaching assistant, 1960-62)
    2001 William S. Knowles (Ph.D. 1942)
    Economic Science
    1971 Simon S. Kuznets (B.S. 1923, M.A. 1924, Ph.D. 1926)
    1972 Kenneth J. Arrow (M.A. 1941, Ph.D. 1951)
    1976 Milton Friedman (Ph.D. 1946), former faculty member (1964-65)
    1982 George J. Stigler, former faculty member (1947-58)
    1992 Gary S. Becker, former faculty member (1957-70)
    1993 Robert W. Fogel (M.A. 1960)
    1996 William S. Vickrey (M.A. 1937, Ph.D. 1948), faculty member (1946-96)
    1997 Robert C. Merton (B.S. 1966)
    1999 Robert Mundell, faculty member (1974- )
    2000 James Heckman, faculty member (1970-1974)
    2001 Joseph Stiglitz, faculty member (2001-)
    Literature
    1987 Joseph Brodsky, former faculty member (1978-1985)
    1991 Nadine Gordimer, former faculty member (1971-72, 1976-78, 1983)
    1992 Derek Walcott, former faculty member (1979, 1981-83, 1984)
    Peace
    1906 Theodore Roosevelt (Law, 1880-82)
    1931 Nicholas Murray Butler (B.A. 1882, M.A. 1883, Ph.D. 1884), president of Columbia (1902-45)
    Physics
    1923 Robert A. Millikan (Ph.D. 1895)
    1938 Enrico Fermi, then former faculty member (1936), later faculty member (1939-45)
    1944 I.I. Rabi (Ph.D. 1927), faculty member (1929-88)
    1949 Hideki Yukawa, then faculty member (1949-54)
    1955 Polykarp Kusch, faculty member(1937-72) Willis E. Lamb, former faculty member (1938-52, 1960-61)
    1957 Tsung-Dao Lee, faculty member (1953- ), now University Professor
    1963 Maria Goeppert Mayer, former faculty member (1940-46)
    1964 Charles H. Townes, former faculty member (1948-61)
    1965 Julian S. Schwinger (B.A. 1936, Ph.D. 1939)
    1972 Leon N. Cooper (B.A. 1951, M.A. 1953, Ph.D. 1954)
    1975 James Rainwater (M.A. 1941, Ph.D. 1946), faculty member (1939-86) Aage Bohr, former faculty member (1949-50)
    1976 Samuel C.C. Ting, former faculty member (1964-67)
    1978 Arno A. Penzias (M.A. 1958, Ph.D. 1962)
    1979 Steven Weinberg, former faculty member (1957-59)
    1980 Val L. Fitch (Ph.D. 1954), former faculty member (1953-54)
    1981 Arthur L. Schawlow, former faculty member (1949-51, 1960)
    1988 Leon M. Lederman (M.A. 1948, Ph.D. 1951), faculty member (1951-89) Melvin Schwartz (B.A. 1953, Ph.D. 1958), faculty member (1958-66, 1991- ) Jack Steinberger, faculty member (1950-70, 1985-86, 1988- )
    1989 Norman F. Ramsey (B.A. 1935, Ph.D. 1940), former faculty member (1941-47)
    1995 Martin L. Perl (Ph.D. 1955)
    1998 Horst L. Stormer, faculty member (1998-)
    Physiology or Medicine
    1933 Thomas Hunt Morgan, faculty member (1904-28)
    1946 Hermann J. Muller (B.A. 1910, M.A. 1911, Ph.D. 1916), former faculty member (1918-20)
    1950 Edward C. Kendall (B.S. 1908, M.A. 1909, Ph.D. 1910)
    1956 Andre F. Cournand, faculty member (1935-88) Dickinson W. Richards (M.A. 1922, M.D. 1923), faculty member (1925-73)
    1958 Joshua Lederberg (B.A. 1944), faculty member (1990- )
    1964 Konrad E. Bloch (Ph.D. 1938), former faculty member (1938-46, 1966)
    1967 George Wald (M.A. 1928)
    1969 Salvador E. Luria, former faculty member (1940-42)
    1973 Konrad Lorenz (Columbia College, 1922-23)
    1976 Baruch S. Blumberg (M.D. 1951)
    1980 Baruj Benacerraf (B.S. 1942)
    1989 Harold E. Varmus (M.D. 1966)
    1990 E. Donnall Thomas, former faculty member (1955-1963)
    1998 Louis J. Ignarro (B.S. pharmacology, 1962)
    2000 Eric Kandel, faculty member (1972- )

    Links

    Link to a long list of Famous "Conservative" Columbians
    Alumni news from Columbia Law School

    • Updated April 14, 2001 || Errors? Additions? Think you should be listed here? Email the webmaster