List of College of Wooster people

This page lists notable alumni and former students, faculty, and administrators of the College of Wooster.

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.

Alumni

Academia

• Karl Taylor Compton, Philosophy (1908), President of MIT 1930-1948; member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Wayne A. Cornelius, Political Science (1967), founder of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego
• Frederick Hinitt, Doctor of Divinity (1902), Presbyterian pastor; President of Centre College and Washington & Jefferson College
• Isaac C. Ketler, Presbyterian scholar, founder of Grove City College
• Shannon Boyd-Bailey McCune (1935), geographer and university administrator; President of the University of Florida and the University of Vermont
• Kimberly Bracken Long, B. Mus. (1981), Presbyterian pastor; writer; Associate Professor of Worship at Columbia Theological Seminary
• Merton M. Sealts, Jr., English (1937), Emerson and Melville scholar
• Ronald Takaki, History (1961), historian, ethnographer, professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley
• J. Campbell White, President of Wooster, 1915-1919
• Wendell L. Wylie, American Orthodontist

Business

• George Fitch, Economics (1970), politician and business consultant; co-founder of the Jamaican Bobsled Team, which debuted at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta
• Stanley Gault, Geology (1948), former CEO of Rubbermaid and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
• Charles F. Kettering, inventor of electric automobile starter motor; Vice President of General Motors Research Corporation; namesake of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; attended but did not graduate
• Blake Moore, History (1980), NFL lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers; CEO of Allianz Global Investors
• Bill Townsend, Art (1986), Internet entrepreneur, politician, founder and chairman of the Amati Foundation

Government

• Ted Celeste, member of the Ohio House of Representatives
• John Dean, Political Science (1961), White House Counsel (1970–1973) to President Richard Nixon
• Eugene DePasquale, Political Science (1993), member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
• David Dudley Dowd Jr. (1951), United States federal judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
• Charlie Earl, former Ohio state representative; candidate in the 2014 Ohio gubernatorial election
• Mark F. Giuliano, Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Donald Kohn, Economics (1964), Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve
• Ping-Wen Kuo (1911), Chinese educator and statesman
• John McSweeney (1912), member of the United States House of Representatives
• John T. Morrison (1887), sixth Governor of Idaho, 1903-1905
• Norman Morrison, Religion (1956), pacifist, Vietnam War protester
• Solomon Oliver Jr., Philosophy and Political Science (1969), U.S. District Court Chief Judge for the Northern District of Ohio

Journalism

• Vince Cellini, Speech (1981), host of The Golf Channel; former anchor for CNN Sports
• Alfred William Edel, History (1957), news anchor for ABC Radio News and Voice of America
• Daniel Howes, History (1983), business columnist for The Detroit News
• Mark Stephens, also known as Robert X. Cringely, History (1975), technology journalist for Public Broadcasting Service

Literature

• Debra Allbery, English (1979), poet (Walking Distance), winner of the 1990 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
• Frederic Lauriston Bullard (1891), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Boston Herald; Lincoln historian; writer (Famous War Correspondents)
• Mary Crow, English (1955), Poet Laureate of Colorado
• Stephen R. Donaldson, English (1968), New York Times bestselling science fiction author (Thomas Covenant)
• John Lawrence Goheen (1906), missionary, agriculturist, writer (Glimpses of Ichalkaranji)
• David Means, English (1984), short story writer (Assorted Fire Events), winner of 2000 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction

Performing arts

• James B. Allardice, Emmy Award winning television writer
• Caitlin Cary, English (1990), alt-country musician, member of the band Whiskeytown
• J.C. Chandor, Cultural Film Studies (1996), film director, Margin Call (2011)
• Divya Gopikumar, Psychology (2008), South Indian actress
• Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie or Joey Bowie), Philosophy (1995), British film director of Moon and Source Code; son of rock musician David Bowie

Science

• Arthur Holly Compton, Physics (1913), Nobel Prize-winning physicist; member of the National Academy of Sciences; Chancellor of Washington University 1945-1953
• Helen Murray Free, Chemistry (1945), elected President of the American Chemical Society in 1993; inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000
• Elizebeth Friedman, America's first female cryptologist; attended briefly but transferred elsewhere
• George E. Goodfellow (1876), physician, authority on gunshot wounds, first surgeon to perform a perineal prostatectomy
• Tim McCreight, Art (1973), artist and metalsmith; President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (1993–1994)
• James V. Neel, Biology (1935), Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics University of Michigan; Albert Lasker Award winner, National Medal of Science winner, National Academy of Sciences member; "father of modern human genetics"
• James C. Stevens, Chemistry (1975), Distinguished Fellow at Dow Chemical; inventor of constrained geometry catalyst for polyolefin manufacture; member of the National Academy of Engineering
• George W. Thorn, Biology (1927), Chief of Medicine, Bringham & Woman's Hospital Harvard University; NAS Public Welfare Medal winner; Chairman Emeritus Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• John Travis, Chemistry (1965), preventive medicine physician, founder of first wellness center in US

Sports

• Reggie Minton, Physical Education (1963), deputy executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches; head basketball coach United States Air Force Academy (1985–2000)
• Larry Shyatt, Physical Education (1973), basketball coach; head coach of Clemson University and the University of Wyoming

Faculty

• Daniel Bourne, poet, professor of English
• Jack Gallagher, composer, Olive Williams Kettering Professor of Music
• William Gass, novelist (The Tunnel), professor of philosophy and English
• Jack Lengyel, head football coach and lacrosse coach 1966–1970; head football coach at Marshall University 1971–1974
• Hayden Schilling, professor of history
• Orange Nash Stoddard, professor of natural history