List of Colgate University people

This is a list of students, alumni, faculty or academic affiliates associated with Colgate University in the United States. As Colgate is an undergraduate school only, all the graduates listed below earned bachelor's degrees there.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Colgate alumni

The Arts

• Charles Addams (1933), New Yorker cartoonist known for macabre drawings and creator of the Addams Family
• Ralph Arlyck (1962), is a documentary filmmaker who has won many awards at film festivals including Sundance and Cannes
• Ivy Austin (1979), television and radio actress (A Prairie Home Companion, Sesame Street)
• Ken Baker (1992), E! Chief News Correspondent, Author
• Bob Balaban, television and movie actor
• Andrew Benator (1993), actor (Filmic Achievement)
• Joe Berlinger (1983), producer (Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2; documentary Brother’s Keeper)
• Jay Chandrasekhar (1991), director (Super Troopers, "Arrested Development", Club Dread, "Babymakers")
• Rex Cherryman (1916), an actor of the stage and screen whose career was most prolific during the 1920s
• George Davis (1961), writer/teacher
• Ted Griffin (1993), film writer (Ocean's Eleven, Matchstick Men)
• Kevin Heffernan (1990), actor/comedian (Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest)
• Lisa Heller (2018), singer/songwriter recognized in the performance category of the American Songwriting Awards, intern at RCA Records lisaheller.com
• Barnet Kellman (1969), producer and director of film and television (Murphy Brown, Mad About You) and multiple Emmy and DGA Award winner
• Steve Lemme (1991), actor, comedian, Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest
• Brent Maddock (1972), screenwriter (Short Circuit, Tremors)
• Paul Mariani is an American poet and a professor at Boston College
• John Marks (1931), creator of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," etc.
• Chris Paine (1983), documentary filmmaker (Who Killed the Electric Car?)
• Martin Ransohoff (1949), film producer (Martin Ransohoff Productions)
• Peter Rowan, bluegrass musician, songwriter ("Panama Red")
• David Rosengarten, chef, author and host of the Food Network show Taste
• Todd Rosenthal, Tony Award-winning scenic designer
• Jeffrey Sharp (1989), producer (Boys Don't Cry, You Can Count On Me, Proof)
• Paul Soter (1991), actor/comedian (Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest)
• Erik Stolhanske (1991), actor/comedian (Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest)
• Gillian Vigman (1994), actor/comedian ("Sons and Daughters", "MADtv")
• Mel Watkins (1962), writer, editor, social commentator
• Francesca Zambello (1978), Director of the Glimmerglass Opera and the Washington National Opera.
• Broken Lizard, comedy troupe (Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beer Fest)

Business

• Jonathan Michael Ansell (1972), Current CEO of Fusion Company
• J. Darius Bikoff (1983), creator, Energy Brands, Inc, makers of Glaceau, vitaminwater, and Glaceau smartwater.
• Lawrence Bossidy (1957), chairman, CEO, Honeywell International; former CEO, AlliedSignal Inc.
• Bruce Buck (1967), partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Chairman, Chelsea Football Club
• Steve Burke (1980), COO of Comcast and upcoming president of NBC Universal
• Chase Carey (1976), chief operating officer of News Corporation
• Ben Cohen (1973), co-founder and president, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (did not graduate)
• Robert Duffy (1962), former owner, Duffy Broadcasting
• Cyrus Eaton (1941), chairman, Eaton Corp.
• William Brian Little (1964) a founding partner of Forstmann Little & Company, the namesake of Little Hall at Colgate University
• Jim Manzi (1973), former CEO, Lotus Development Corp.
• Raymond W. McDaniel Jr. CEO, Moody's Corporation which operates Moody's Analytics and Moody's Investor Services
• Douglas Murray (1994), CEO, Big Switch Networks
• Jack Shafer (1966), former division president, Allied Domecq (Dunkin Donuts, Baskin-Robbins)
• Duncan L. Niederauer (1981), CEO, NYSE Euronext
• Thomas H. Weidemeyer, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the United Parcel Service, current director of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Culture

• Peter Ackerman (1968), the founding chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
• Jack L. Anson (1948), was an important leader in the American college interfraternity movement, and was known as "Mr. Fraternity."
• Thomas J. Pilgrim, in 1829, founded the first school in Texas, an all-boys school called the "Austin Academy"
• Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the international fraternal order of the Knights of Pythias
• Tim Walsh (1987), inventor of the game TriBond
• Ed Werner (1971) and John Haney (1972), co-inventors of Trivial Pursuit
• Armand Zildjian, (1944), former CEO of the Avedis Zildjian Company, the maker of cymbals, started in 1623 in Istanbul

Education

• Jack L. Anson (1948), former executive director, North-American Interfraternity Conference
• Dr. Samuel H. Archer (1902), fifth president of the Morehouse College, selecting that school's colors (maroon and white) to reflect his own alma mater
• Andrew Dolkart (1973), James Marston Fitch Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University
• Emil Frei (1944), physician, oncologist and the Richard and Susan Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
• Hall Gardner (1976), currently a professor of International Politics at the American University of Paris
• Charles A S Hall (1965), currently a professor at State University of New York in the College of Environmental Science & Forestry
• A. Thomas McLellan, psychiatry professor at the University of Pennsylvania
• Charles Franklin Phillips, (1931), economics professor at Colgate, President of Bates College
• Mark Robbins, dean of Syracuse University's School of Architecture
• Kevin M. Ross (1994), president of Lynn University

Government & Politics

• Doug Bailey (1954) Founder of The Hotline
• A. Peter Burleigh (1963), U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines
• Kristie Canegallo (2001), Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Implementation
• James Colgate Cleveland (1942) Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire's 2nd district
• E. Virgil Conway (1951), former chairman and CEO, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• James Courter (1963), former New Jersey congressman and candidate for governor
• Kathleen Doherty (1985), America’s first female Ambassador to Cyprus
• Perry Duryea Jr. (1942), former minority leader/speaker of New York State Assembly
• Bruce S. Fein (1984), U.S. Administrative Law Judge, Office of Disability Adjudication & Review, Social Security Administration
• Louis Frey (1955), former congressman from Florida
• Dario Frommer (1974), former majority leader of California State Assembly
• Alan Frumin (1968), U.S. Senate parliamentarian
• Drew Gattine (1983), Member of the Maine House of Representatives, Chair of Health and Human Services Committee
• Gary A. Lee (1960), Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York.
• Richard Harrington Levet, (1916) United States federal judge
• James Howard Holmes (1965), State Department Special Advisor, former U.S. Ambassador to Latvia, Former Director of the Office of Strategic Nuclear Policy in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
• Charles Evans Hughes (1884), Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court 1930-41 (transferred to Brown University).
• Monique Mehta, humanitarian and political activist
• Thomas R. Morgan (1952), USMC General, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1986–1988
• Harlow S. Orton (1837), member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1878 to 1895, the author of Vosburg v. Putney.
• Sarah Peake (1979), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 4th Barnstable district
• Peter N. Perretti, Jr. (1953) the Attorney General of New Jersey from 1989 – 1990
• Peter Peyser (1943), former U.S. congressman 1971-77, 1979–83
• Adam Clayton Powell (1930), N.Y. congressman
• William P. Rogers (1934), former U.S. Secretary of State, Attorney General
• Peter Tarnoff (1958), former U.S. Undersecretary of State
• Donald S. Taylor (1919), judge, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Div. 1948-1968
• Dean P. Taylor (1925), U.S. Congressman, New York 1943-1961
• Claudia Tenney (1983), New York State Assemblywoman
• Gary Trauner (1980), politician from Wyoming
• Martha M. Walz (1983), Democratic member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
• F. Clifton White (1940) U.S. political consultant, best remembered as the moving force behind the Draft Goldwater Committee
• Dennis Vacco (1974), 62nd New York State Attorney General

Journalism

• Jack Belden (1932), war correspondent, Life, Time, author, China Shakes the World
• Gloria Borger (1974), U.S. News & World Report, Washington Week, CBS special correspondent
• Monica Crowley (1990), Richard Nixon biographer; political and international affairs analyst, Fox
• Thomas A. Dine (1962), president, Radio Free Europe
• Jeff Fager (1977), Chairman CBS News; executive producer, 60 Minutes
• Howard Fineman (1970), chief political correspondent, senior editor, Newsweek
• Michael Gordon (1972), chief military correspondent, bestselling author, New York Times
• Chris Hedges (1979), war correspondent, New York Times
• Bud Hedinger (1969), talk radio host
• Michael Hiltzik (1973), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Los Angeles Times
• Christina Kelly (1983), teen magazine editor
• David Lloyd (1983), is a sportscaster for ESPN
• Austin Murphy, (1983), Senior writer, Sports Illustrated
• Kevin Phillips (1961), publisher, American Political Research Corp.
• Andy Rooney (1942), CBS-TV: 60 Minutes commentator, columnist
• David Talbot (1986), Chief Correspondent, Technology Review
• Rob Stone, (1991),Reporter and Commentator, Fox Soccer
• Priit Vesilind (1964), National Geographic Society Expedition's Editor and Senior Writer
• Bob Woodruff (1983), ABC News foreign correspondent
• Lee Woodruff (1982), wife of Bob Woodruff and author of In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing

Literature

• Bill Barich (1965), author of Laughing in the Hills (1980), Hard to Be Good; Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California
• Philip Beard (1985), novelist
• Frederick Busch (1967), author, Fairchild Professor of Literature at Colgate (1976 to 2003)
• Pamela Druckerman (1991), novelist, Bringing Up Bébé (The Penguin Press: 2012)
• Kim Edwards (1981), novelist
• Stephanie LaCava, (2004), author of An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris
• Michael Lassell (1969), professional writer and editor
• John McGahern, novelist, Adjunct Professor of English at Colgate (1981 to 2006)
• Nathaniel Schmidt (1887), author, Baptist minister, educator and orientalist
• Theodore Pratt, writer, journalist, author of numerous novels set in Florida

Religion

• David Standish Ball (1950), bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Albany, N.Y.
• George Ricker Berry (1897) - Professor of Semitic Languages - also Professor Emeritus of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School.
• James A. Corbett (1954), co-founder of the Sanctuary movement
• Harry Emerson Fosdick (1900), pastor/author

Science, technology and medicine

• Oswald Avery (1900), helped lead groundbreaking DNA research
• Albert Allen Bartlett (1944), physicist at University of Colorado Boulder, super conducting quantum interference device; arithmetic, population & energy
• David DeWitt (1970), technical fellow at Microsoft, leading the Microsoft Jim Gray Systems Lab at Madison, Wisconsin
• Gerald Fischbach, (1960), Scientific director overseeing the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative
• Emil Frei, (1944), Helped to establish the concept of combinatorial chemotherapy as a way of treating cancer
• Jay Jordan, president and CEO of OCLC
• Alan A. Jones (1966), leading researcher in the field of NMR and polymer physics and professor of chemistry at Clark University
• Cris Kobryn (1974), technologist, system architect, entrepreneur
• Rudolph Leibel, (1963), Scientist at Columbia University whose co-discovery at Rockefeller University of the hormone leptin, and cloning of the leptin and leptin receptor genes, has had a major role in the area of understanding human obesity.
• Cyrus Colton MacDuffee (1917), former president of the Mathematical Association of America (M.A.A)
• A. Thomas McLellan (1970), Executive Director of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia
• Kevin Padian (1972), President of the National Center for Science Education
• H. Guyford Stever (1938), former head of National Science Foundation/NASA

Sports

• Ockie Anderson (1916), was an All-American football player and coach for the Buffalo All Americans Champion in cross country and indoor track (3000m)
• Peter Baum (2013), is the winner of the Tewaaraton Trophy in 2012.
• Kathryn Bertine (1997), professional racing cyclist, writer and former figure skater and triathlete
• Jamaal Branch (2005), running back, New Orleans Saints practice squad, winner of the 2003 Walter Payton Award for Division I-AA football
• Tad Brown (1986), CEO, Houston Rockets
• Tom Burgess (1986), former quarterback, Ottawa Rough Riders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, MVP of 1990 Grey Cup
• Frank Castleman (1906), while at Colgate, he won the silver medal in the 200 metre hurdles at the 1904 Summer Olympics
• Joe Castiglione (1968), former TV play-by-play man for the Cleveland Indians, currently radio play-by-play man for the Boston Red Sox
• Beth Combs, former coach
• David Conte (1971), Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations and Director of Scouting for the New Jersey Devils
• Brad Dexter (1996), former minor-league hockey player, now assistant coach of the Colgate men's hockey team
• Nate Eachus (2011), Running Back for the Kansas City Chiefs
• Rich Erenberg (1984), former running back, Pittsburgh Steelers
• Dan Fortmann (1936), Hall of Fame guard, Chicago Bears in the 1930s
• Adonal Foyle (1998), center, Orlando Magic
• David McIntyre, (2010), is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who is currently with the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League (NHL).
• David Gagnon (1990), former goalie, Detroit Red Wings
• Kenny Gamble (1988), former running back, Kansas City Chiefs, also an assistant athletic director at Colgate and executive with Reebok
• Greg Hadley (2010), Former linebacker and current coach for St. Lawrence University
• Nick Hennessey (2009), offensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills
• Marvin Hubbard (1968), fullback for the Oakland Raiders (1969–1975), Detroit Lions (1977)
• Greg Manusky (1988), former linebacker, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, and Kansas City Chiefs, now defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers
• Andy McDonald (2000), center for the St. Louis Blues
• Mike Milbury (1974), former defenseman for the Boston Bruins, former coach for Boston and the New York Islanders, former General Manager of the Islanders, and TV analyst for ESPN, NBC, TSN, and NESN
• Joey Mormina (2005), defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins
• Cory Murphy (2001), defenseman for the New Jersey Devils
• Mark Murphy (1977), former safety, Washington Redskins, former Athletic Director at Colgate and Northwestern University, President of the Green Bay Packers
• Lyndsay Meyer (1996), Competitive ski mountaineer
• Clem Neacy (1924), former end and tackle, Milwaukee Badgers and Chicago Bears
• Bill Parcells (1958), NFL Head coach, Pro Football Hall of Fame member
• Babe Parnell, National Football League player
• Steve Poapst (1991), former defenseman, Chicago Blackhawks
• Doug Reffue (1992), Vice President for Operations for Sports Club/LA
• Eugene Robinson (1985), former safety, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, and Seattle Seahawks
• Steve Spott (1990), Head Coach Toronto Marlies (OHL)
• Ebba St. Claire (1941) professional baseball player
• Ray Appenheimer (1994), professional runner for Nike, USATF, NCAA national indoor 3000m runner-up
• Mark van Eeghen (1974), former running back, Oakland Raiders
• Ernest Vandeweghe (1949), former player for New York Knicks, former surgeon for Los Angeles Lakers
• Ryan Vena (2000) Professional Arena Football Player (quarterback) for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers
• Jesse Winchester (2008), center for Ottawa Senators
• Kyle Wilson (2006), centre for the Columbus Blue Jackets

Current faculty

• Anthony Aveni, professor of astronomy and anthropology, one of the founders of archaeoastronomy
• Peter Balakian, professor of English, poet and writer
• DeWitt Godfrey, associate professor art and art history
• Thomas J. Balonek, professor of physics and astronomy
• Jerry Balmuth, professor of philosophy and religion
• Joscelyn Godwin, professor of musicology
• John Knecht, professor of art and art history
• Jane Pinchin, professor of English
• Graham Russell Gao Hodges, professor of history and Africana & Latin American studies

List of presidents

• Nathaniel Kendrick (1836–1848)
• Stephen William Taylor (1851–1856)
• George Washington Eaton (1856–1868)
• Ebenezer Dodge (1868–1890)
• George William Smith (1895–1897)
• George Edmands Merrill (1899–1908)
• Elmer Burritt Bryan (1909–1921)
• George Barton Cutten (1922–1942)
• Everett Needham Case (1942–1962)
• Vincent MacDowell Barnett, Jr. (1963–1969)
• Thomas A. Bartlett (1969–1977)
• George D. Langdon, Jr. (1978–1988)
• Neil R. Grabois (1988–1999)
• Charles Karelis (1999–2001)
• Rebecca Chopp (2002–2009)
• Jeffrey Herbst (2010 –2015)