List of Middlebury College alumni

The following is a list of Middlebury alumni, including both graduates and attendees as well as fictional alumni. For a list of Middlebury faculty, refer to the list of Middlebury College faculty.

Notable alumni

Selected Middlebury Alumni

Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary for George W. Bush

File:John martin thomas.jpg

John Martin Thomas, 9th President of Middlebury, 9th president of Penn State, and the 12th president of Rutgers University

Robert Gober, Untitled (Leg), 1989-90, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Lado Gurgenidze, 17th Prime Minister of Georgia

Ronald Harmon Brown, former Secretary of Commerce

James Cromwell, actor

Vanessa Branch, actress, star of Orbit commercials

Jim Douglas, 80th Governor of Vermont

Ted King, professional cyclist

File:Vv portrait.png

Vendela Vida, founder and editor of The Believer magazine

Brian Deese, member of the National Economic Council and special assistant to the president for economic policy

Henry Martyn Porter, American Civil War Union Army officer

Jeff Lindsay, creator of the Dexter series

John Deere, American manufacturer

Anaïs Mitchell, folk singer-songwriter

File:Twi dag att.JPG

Alexander Twilight, first African American college graduate and state legislator

Edward John Phelps, founding member and former president of the American Bar Association

Henry Schoolcraft, noted for his 1832 "discovery" of the source of the Mississippi River

File:E Mitchell.jpg

Emily Mitchell, novelist

Charles V. Dyer, prominent abolitionist and stationmaster on the Underground Railroad

Academia

College and University Presidents

• Nathan S.S. Beman – President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1845 until 1865.
• Ezra Brainerd – President of Middlebury College from 1885 until 1908.
• Martin Henry Freeman – First black president of an American college, later serving as president of Liberia College.
• Edward Hitchcock - American geologist and the 3rd President of Amherst College (1845–1854)
• Charles S. Murkland – first elected President of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts following the college's move from Hanover to Durham in the United States.
• Stephen Olin – American educator and minister, the first President of Randolph Macon College (1834–1837) and later was president of Wesleyan University (1839–1851).
• John Martin Thomas – Ninth president of Middlebury College, the ninth president of Penn State, and the twelfth president of Rutgers University.

Professors

• Mary Annette Anderson - First black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa; later a professor at Howard University
• Ana Cara - creolist, translator, and Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College.
• Paul O. Carrese – Professor of political science at the United States Air Force Academy, and author of the book The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism (University of Chicago Press).
• Peter Gries – Harold J. & Ruth Newman Chair in US-China Issues and Director of the Institute for U.S.-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma.
• Cynthia Huntington - poet, professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College
• Dan M. Kahan – Professor of Law at Yale Law School.
• Lawrence Kritzman - American scholar, the Willard Professor of French, Comparative Literature and Oratory at Dartmouth College
• Christopher Merrill - American poet, essayist, director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
• Avital Ronell - Professor of German, Comparative Literature, and English at New York University.
• Nicholas Sambanis – Professor of Political Science at Yale University.
• Suzanna Sherry – Herman O. Loewenstein Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School.
• James Reist Stoner, Jr. – Chair of the Department of Government and a professor of political science at Louisiana State University.
• Barry Sullivan – Law professor and dean of the Washington & Lee University School of Law.

Scholars

• Thomas Jefferson Conant – American Biblical scholar.
• Jenifer Fox - American educator, author, and speaker
• Edward A. Jones - African-American linguist, scholar and diplomat
• Anne Walker – Architectural historian and author in New York City.

Arts

Fine arts

• Peter Gallo – reclusive artist and writer known for his mixed media works which often combine a variety of unconventional materials.
• Robert Gober – Sculptor whose works are exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Menil Collection, the Tate Modern and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
• Woody Jackson – American artist best know for his Holy Cow brand and advertising work for Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
• Nancy Rosen – Founded Nancy Rosen Incorporated, an organization which plans and implements public art programs and collections, including the Art-for-Public-Spaces program for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
• Timothy Rub – Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Literature

• Julia Alvarez – Award-winning author, poet, and writer-in-residence at Middlebury.
• Eva Blank - Co-author of The Jokelopedia: The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever (2000)
• Stacie Cassarino – Award-winning American poet and author of the collection Zero at the Bone
• T Cooper – American novelist.
• Frances Frost - American poet, novelist and mother of poet Paul Blackburn
• Patricia Goedicke – American poet.
• Justin Haythe – American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.
• Hall J. Kelley – Explorer, settler, and writer; strong advocate for U.S. settlement of the Oregon Country in the 1830s.
• Richard E. Kim - Korean-American writer and professor of literature; author of The Martyred (1964), The Innocent (1968), and Lost Names (1970); Guggenheim Fellow (1966) and was recipient of a Fulbright grant
• Jeff Lindsay - American playwright and crime novelist, best known for his novels about sociopathic vigilante Dexter Morgan.
• Judy Malloy – Poet whose works inhabit the intersection of hypernarrative, magic realism, and information art.
• Louise McNeill – American poet, essayist, and historian of Appalachia.
• Wesley McNair - American poet, writer, editor, and professor
• Emily Mitchell – Anglo-American novelist.
• Wendy Mogel – Speaker and author who looks at every day parenting problems through the lens of the Torah, the Talmud, and important Jewish teachings.
• Jacqueline S. Moore – American poet and author of Moments of My Life.
• Dan O'Brien - American playwright whose plays include The Cherry Sisters Revisited, The Voyage of the Carcass, The Dear Boy, The House in Hydesville, and The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.
• John Perkins – Activist and author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
• John Godfrey Saxe - American poet perhaps best known for his re-telling of the Indian parable "The Blindmen and the Elephant"
• Lewis Robinson – Writer, author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories
• Michael Tolkin – American film maker and novelist whose screenplays include The Player (1992), which he adapted from his 1988 novel by the same name

Music

• Ezra Axelrod - recording artist and gay rights activist based in London.
• Dispatch – Prominent American indie jam band, comprising Chad Urmston, Brad Corrigan, and Pete Heimbold, which was formed at Middlebury
• Bill Homans – American blues musician who performs under the stage name Watermelon Slim.
• Anais Mitchell – Folk singer-songwriter
• John Valby – Musician and comedian

Television and film

• James Cromwell – Actor noted for his roles in Babe, L.A. Confidential, The Queen, and 24.
• Anna Belknap – Actress (CSI: NY)
• Vanessa Branch – British actress, model, former Miss Vermont, noted for her role as the woman in the Orbit Gum commercials.
• Jeffrey Bushell - American writer, has written for The Bernie Mac Show, Drawn Together, MADtv, What I Like About You, and Zoey 101
• Sam Daly - American actor featured on U.S. production of The Office
• Emily McLaughlin – American soap opera actress
• Amanda Peterson - American actress, star of Can't Buy Me Love
• Rodney Rothman – Writer, screenwriter, author of Early Bird; Film Writer/Producer (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Year One) Television writer (Late Show with David Letterman and Undeclared)
• Shawn Ryan – creator of the FX television series The Shield and CBS series The Unit.
• John Tinker – Executive Producer of Chicago Hope and writer for L.A. Law
• Jake Weber – English actor, possibly best-known for his role as Michael in Dawn of the Dead and starring opposite Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black
• Julia Whelan – Actress, noted for her role on Once and Again.
• Cassidy Freeman - Actress.

Theater

• William Burden – American opera singer
• Eve Ensler – Author, playwright, feminist theorist, and peace activist best known for her play, The Vagina Monologues
• Rebecca Gilman – American playwright.
• Amanda Plummer – American Tony Award-winning actress.

Athletics

• Hedda Berntsen – Norwegian world champion skier and 2010 Olympic silver medalist
• John Bower – an American nordic combined skier who competed in the 1960s and later went on to become a coach of the American nordic skiing team for the 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympic team
• H. Adams Carter – American mountaineer and language teacher.
• Archibald Crowell – Director 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics
• Simi Hamilton - American cross country skier who has competed since 2000
• Steve Hauschka - An NFL placekicker for the Atlanta Falcons.
• Thomas M. Jacobs – American Olympic nordic skier who competed in the 1950s.
• Andrew Johnson – Member of the U.S. 2006 Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team.
• Britton Keeshan – One of the youngest persons to climb the tallest mountains on all seven continents (the Seven Summits) as of May 24, 2004.
• Ted King - American cyclist.
• Bill Kuharich - Vice President of Player Personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League
• Garrott Kuzzy - American cross country skier who has competed since 2001
• Kevin Mahaney - American competitive sailor who won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona
• Donald Rowe - former coach of the University of Connecticut men's basketball team
• Chris Waddell - most decorated male skier in Paralympic history and first paraplegic man to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Business

• Louis Bacon – Hedge fund manager, one of Forbes Magazine's 400 wealthiest Americans
• Paul Banas - founder and CEO of GreatDad.com, a parenting website aimed at fathers
• Herbert J. Boner - former CEO of Monsanto
• Randy Brock - Executive VP, Fidelity Investments; former Vermont Auditor of Accounts (2005-2007); Vietman War veteran, recipient of the Bronze Star
• Sean Casten - businessman and writer known for his work on industrial energy recycling; president and CEO of Recycled Energy Development
• Roger Chapin – Businessman-turned-fundraiser, self-described "nonprofit entrepreneur," and founder of numerous charities variously under scrutiny for questionable ethics.
• John Deere – Blacksmith, inventor and founder of John Deere & Company
• Jim Davis – Chairman of New Balance, one of Forbes Magazine's 400 wealthiest Americans
• Patrick Durkin – Former Managing Director of Credit Suisse First Boston.
• Peter T. Francis – President and CEO of JM Huber Corporation.
• Rick Fritz - Former President of BancBoston Capital, subsidiary of FleetBoston Financial
• Stephen J. Harasimowicz – Managing Director, Head of Trading for Columbia Management, the asset management branch of Bank of America.
• Ann Williams Jackson - founding publisher of InStyle Magazine, Group President of Real Simple, Parenting and InStyle magazines
• Reuben Mark – Former CEO, Colgate-Palmolive
• John E. Martin - Former CEO, Taco Bell
• William H. Porter - prominent New York City banker
• Carolyn Reidy – President and CEO of Simon & Schuster
• Felix Rohatyn – President of Rohatyn Associates LLC; former partner and Managing Director of Lazard; Commander in the Légion d'honneur; member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• Raymond J. Saulnier – American economist, who was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) from 1956 to 1961 under President Dwight David Eisenhower.
• Vivian Schiller – President and CEO of National Public Radio; New York Times senior vice president / general manager for NYTimes.com
• Dan Schulman – President of Sprint's Prepaid Group, former CEO of Virgin Mobile USA
• Peter Smith – former President of StarKist Seafood. Currently President and CEO of New World Pasta, the largest pasta and Rice manufacturer in North America.
• Christopher Tsai - Chief Investment Officer of Tsai Capital Corporation, major collector of contemporary Chinese art, son of noted financier Gerald Tsai

Journalism

• Elizabeth Farnsworth – Journalist and co-anchor of PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
• Trip Gabriel – New York Times Style editor
• Ralph Gardner, Jr. – freelance American Journalist for the New York Times and New York Magazine.
• Mel Gussow – Influential American theater critic who wrote for The New York Times for 35 years.
• Andrea Koppel – Former U.S. State Department correspondent for CNN.
• Alexandra Kotur - Style director and contributing editor for American Vogue; author of Carolina Herrera: Portrait of a Fashion Icon
• Dori J. Maynard - President of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, California
• Walter R. Mears – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
• Andrew Meldrum – American journalist and former correspondent of The Economist and The Guardian in Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2003.
• Jeanne Meserve – CNN correspondent.
• Mark Patinkin – Columnist at the Providence Journal.
• Andrew Purvis -American journalist, John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University, former bureau chief for Time magazine's Berlin bureau.
• Jane Bryant Quinn – Contributing Editor for Newsweek and former author of the twice-weekly column, “Staying Ahead,” syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group.
• Robert Schlesinger – Author, opinion editor for US News & World Report, Huffington Post blogger, and co-founder of the blog RobertEmmet.
• Frank Sesno – Washington Bureau Chief and White House correspondent for CNN; Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and George Washington University.[8]
• Vendela Vida – Novelist, journalist, and editor; co-founded and co-edits the monthly periodical The Believer.
• David Wolman – American author and journalist whose writing has appeared in publications such as Wired, Newsweek, Discover, National Geographic Traveler, New Scientist and Outside.
• Janine Zacharia – Journalist, Middle East correspondent for the Washington Post, former diplomatic reporter for Bloomberg News.

Law

• Frederick Howard Bryant - Federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York
• John C. Churchill - Lawyer and politician from New York
• Albert Wheeler Coffrin - Federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Vermont
• Roswell M. Field – Prominent antebellum lawyer who represented Dred Scott
• Marilyn Jean Kelly – Jurist in the U.S. state of Michigan, Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court.
• Samuel Nelson – Former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Edward John Phelps – Second controller of the United States Treasury; a founding member and president of the American Bar Association
• William K. Sessions III – Chief Judge on the United States District Court for the District of Vermont and Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission.
• Henry Franklin Severens - Federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan and United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Martha B. Sosman – Lawyer and jurist from Massachusetts, served as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Philanthrophy

• Nínive Clements Calegari - CEO of 826 National and the founding executive director of 826 Valencia where she also serves on the board of directors. 826 Valencia and the eight related locations of 826 National are a group of non-profit writing centers for students ages 6–18.
• Eileen Rockefeller Growald – Philanthropist and fourth-generation member of the Rockefeller family; founder of the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA), Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Economic Learning (CASEL), Champaign Valley Greenbelt Alliance (CVGA), and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
• John B. Kassel – President of the Conservation Law Foundation
• Dana Reeve – Philanthropist and actress; founder and former Chair of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation; wife of actor Christopher Reeve
• Alan Reich - Founder of the National Organization on Disability
• John Wallach – Founder of Seeds of Peace.
• Miron Winslow – American Congregationalist missionary in Ceylon.

Politics

Presidents and Prime Ministers

• Lado Gurgenidze – 17th Prime Minister of Georgia.

Diplomats

• John Beyrle – U.S. Ambassador to Russia
• Edward John Phelps - Envoy to Great Britain (1885 to 1889); senior counsel for the United States before the international tribunal at Paris to adjust the Bering Sea controversy.
• Felix Rohatyn – U.S. Ambassador to France under President Bill Clinton
• Joel Turrill - Judge, politician, and diplomat from New York

US Senators and Representatives

• Eli Porter Ashmun - Federalist United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1816 to 1818.
• Elbert S. Brigham - U.S. Representative from Vermont
• Titus Brown - United States Representative from New Hampshire
• Daniel Azro Ashley Buck - U.S. Representative from Vermont
• Alexander W. Buel – Former United States Congressman from Michigan.
• Davis Carpenter – Former United States Representative from New York.
• Carlos Coolidge – American Whig politician.
• Bill Delahunt- United States Congressman from Massachusetts
• John Dickson - U.S. Representative from New York
• William Alanson Howard – U.S. Congressman from Michigan and Governor of Dakota Territory.
• Calvin T. Hulburd – Former United States Representative from New York.
• Rollin Carolas Mallary – Former U.S. Representative from Vermont.
• James Meacham - United States Representative from Vermont
• Frank Pallone – U.S. Congressman from New Jersey
• John Mason Parker - U.S. Representative from New York
• Samuel B. Pettengill - U.S. Representative from Indiana, nephew of William Horace Clagett
• Charles Nelson Pray - U.S. Representative from Montana
• Albio Sires – Member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey's 13th congressional district.
• Stanley R. Tupper - U.S. Representative from Maine
• John Wolcott Stewart – Former U.S. Senator and Representative from Vermont, and from the family for which Stewart Dorm on the Middlebury campus is named
• James Wilson II - U.S. Representative from New Hampshire
• Silas Wright – Former Chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Democratic Senator, and Governor of New York [9]

State Governors

• Jim Douglas – 80th Governor of Vermont
• Lyman Enos Knapp - American Republican politician who was the Governor of the District of Alaska from 1889 to 1893
• James Tufts - United States politician and acting governor of Montana Territory in 1869

State Senators and Representatives

• Claire D. Ayer – Democratic member of the Vermont State Senate, representing the Addison senate district, majority leader of the Vermont Senate as of Fall 2006.
• Merritt Clark - Democratic politician from Vermont; he was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1832-33, 1839, and 1865-66, and to the Vermont Senate in 1863-64 and 1868-69, as well as the 1870 Vermont Constitutional Convention
• George Z. Erwin – Former member of the New York State Senate.
• Solomon Foot – Former U.S. Senator and President pro tempore of the United States Senate during the Civil War.
• Rand Knight – American ecologist, businessman, and a Democratic Party politician in Georgia.
• Robert Stafford – Former Governor of Vermont and United States Senator from Vermont.
• William M. Straus – Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
• Alexander Twilight – First African American to graduate from an American college; first African American elected to public office, serving as a Representative in the Vermont House of Representatives.

Military

• Paul Eaton – Retired United States Army General known for his outspoken criticisms of George W. Bush's administration.
• Henry Martyn Porter - American Civil War Union Army Officer who served as a Colonel and commander of the 7th Vermont Infantry

Other

• Adrian Benepe – Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
• Ron Brown – Former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
• Barbara Comstock – Republican political consultant, lobbyist, attorney, and campaign and media advisor; co-founder and co-principal of Corallo Comstock, a public policy and public relations firm.
• Brian Deese – member of the National Economic Council and special assistant to the president for economic policy
• Charles V. Dyer - prominent Chicago Abolitionist and Stationmaster on the Underground Railroad
• Ari Fleischer – Former White House Press Secretary and field director for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
• Beriah Green – American reformer and noted abolitionist.
• Richard P. Mills – Commissioner of Education for Vermont and New York State.
• Reuben Post - Presbyterian clergyman who served two separate terms as Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives (1824 and 1831) and also served as Chaplain of the Senate of the United States (1819)
• Jeremiah Rankin – Abolitionist, champion of the temperance movement, minister of Washington's First Congregational Church, and correspondent with Frederick Douglass.
• William Slade - American Whig and Anti-Masonic politician

Science

• Louis Winslow Austin - physicist
• Arthur H. Bulbulian - pioneer in the field of facial prosthetics
• Calvin C. Chaffee - doctor and politician, outspoken opponent of slavery.
• Roger L. Easton - principal inventor and designer of the Global Positioning System and recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation
• Edwin James, botanist on the Long Expedition, U.S. Army surgeon, and first white person to climb Pikes Peak.
• Henry Schoolcraft – American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his "discovery" in 1832 of the source of the Mississippi River.
• Jill Seaman - physician specializing in infectious diseases for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and winner of a 2009 MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award"

Fictional alumni

The First Wives Club (1992)

• Snake Jailbird – Fictional character and criminal on the animated television series The Simpsons who repaid his Middlebury College student loans after robbing Springfield landmark Moe's Tavern. Voiced by Hank Azaria.
• Brenda Cushman, Elise Elliot, and Annie Paradis – The three main characters in Olivia Goldsmith's first novel The First Wives Club (1992). The women, who in the novel met while students at Middlebury College (class of 1969), were portrayed by Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton in the 1996 film adaptation.
• Mr. Wolfe – A teacher in George Lucas' 1973 film American Graffiti. The character, played by Terry McGovern, is a confidant of Curt Henderson's, played by Richard Dreyfuss. In their one conversations together, Mr. Wolfe tells Curt that he "got drunk as hell the night before" going to college, and that he "barfed on the train all next day." When Curt asks him where he went to school, Mr. Wolfe replies, "Middlebury, Vermont... On a scholarship... [I stayed only] one semester. After all that, I came back here... I guess I just wasn't the competitive type."
• Ruth Cole, protagonist of John Irving's A Widow for One Year.

External links

• Middlebury College official website
• Alumni Achievement Award Winners