List of Mercer University people

Mercer University is an independent, private, coeducational, university with a Baptist heritage located in the U.S. state of Georgia.

Mercer was founded in 1833 and is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music, engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, law, theology, and continuing and professional studies. Mercer enrolls approximately 7,500 students in its eleven colleges and schools.

Alumni

This is a list of notable Mercer alumni.

Arts, media, and industry

• Steve Berry - author of six novels including several New York Times bestsellers
• J. Buford Boone - Pulitzer Prize winning author (1957); recognized for editorials against segregation
• David Bottoms - Georgia Poet Laureate
• Harry Stillwell Edwards - former editor, Macon Telegraph; author of 19 books including the Southern classic Eneas Africanus
• Nancy Grace - anchor for Court TV, legal commentator, and guest host for Larry King Live; hosts her own show, Nancy Grace on CNN
• John Hogan — founding president, Radio and Television News Directors Association, the world's largest organization devoted to broadcast journalism
• Malcolm Johnson - Pulitzer Prize winning author (1949); his reports were the basis for On the Waterfront, which starred Marlon Brando
• Anne B. Kerr - president, Florida Southern College
• William Heard Kilpatrick - career educator; first president of the Bennington College board of trustees, 1931-1938
• Andrew Light - moral philosopher; author and editor of 17 books on environmental ethics, philosophy of technology, and aesthetics
• J. Thomas McAfee - chairman and president, Hallmark Systems, an Atlanta health care corporation; the McAfee family provided founding endowments for the university's McAfee School of Theology and Townsend School of Music
• Reg Murphy - former president and vice chairman, National Geographic Society; publisher, Baltimore Sun; editor and publisher, San Francisco Examiner; and editor, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; author of Uncommon Sense: The Achievement of Griffin Bell
• George P. Oslin - former Western Union executive; invented the singing telegram in 1933
• Lyman Ray Patterson - noted law professor and copyright scholar; former dean, Emory University School of Law
• James Rachels - moral philosopher, university professor, and author; best known for his writing on euthanasia
• Ferrol Sams - widely read Southern author noted for Run with the Horsemen and Whisper of the River among other works
• Neil Skene - president and publisher, Congressional Quarterly, 1990-1997
• Jack Tarver - publisher, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1958-1976; chairman, Associated Press, 1977-1983, namesake of the Jack Tarver Library on the Macon campus
• Steve Stoler - news reporter for WFAA in Dallas, Texas; noted for his coverage of the Branch Davidian Waco Siege in Waco, Texas
• Ellis Paul Torrance - educator known for pioneering research in creativity; namesake of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development
• Phil Walden - music pioneer and founder of Capricorn Records; represented Otis Redding and The Allman Brothers

Law

• A. Harris Adams - Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals
• Griffin B. Bell - Federal Appeals Court Judge, 1962-1976; 72nd Attorney General of the United States, 1977-1979
• John S. Bell - Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals, 1960-1979; Chief Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals, 1969-1979
• Reason C. Bell - Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court, 1943-1946; Associate Justice, 1932-1943 and 1946-1949; Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals, 1922-1932
• William Augustus Bootle - Federal District Judge, 1954-2005; ordered the first admission of an African-American to the University of Georgia in 1961
• G. Harrold Carswell - Federal Appeals Court Judge, 1969-1970; unsuccessful nominee to the United States Supreme Court, 1970
• Brainerd Currie - law professor; noted conflict of laws scholar who developed the characterisation concept of governmental interest analysis
• Thomas Hoyt Davis - Senior Judge, Federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, 1945-1969
• Beverly D. Evans, Jr. - Georgia Supreme Court Justice, 1904-1917; Federal District Judge for the Southern District of Georgia, 1917-1922
• M. Yvette Miller - Judge, Georgia Court of Appeals; the first African-American woman to serve on the court
• Carlton Mobley - Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court, 1972-1974; Associate Justice, 1954-1972; United States Representative, Georgia's 6th Congressional district, 1932-1933
• W. Louis Sands - Chief Judge, Federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia; the first African-American to serve on the court
• Jay Sekulow - chief counsel, American Center for Law and Justice
• Evett Simmons - former president, National Bar Association
• Hugh Thompson - Georgia Supreme Court Justice
• Additional Walter F. George School of Law alumni are listed on the school's Wikipedia entry

Politics

• Doug Barnard - United States Representative, Georgia's 10th Congressional district, 1977-1993
• Allen D. Candler - Governor of Georgia, 1898-1902; United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1883-1891; namesake of Candler County, Georgia
• Cathy Cox - Georgia Secretary of State, 1999-2007; first woman elected to this position
• Edward E. Cox - United States Representative, Georgia's 2nd Congressional district, 1925-1952
• Nathan Deal - United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district
• Walter F. George - United States Senator from Georgia, 1922-1957, served as President pro tempore, 1955-1957; namesake of Mercer's Law School
• Robert W. Everett - United States Representative, Georgia's 7th Congressional district, 1891-1893
• Thomas W. Hardwick - United States Senator from Georgia, 1915-1919; Governor of Georgia, 1921-1923; as Governor, appointed Rebecca L. Felton as the first female United States Senator
• Richard B. Hubbard - Governor of Texas, 1876-1879; US Ambassador to Japan, 1885-1889
• William D. Jelks - Governor of Alabama, 1901-1907
• Thomas G. Lawson - United States Representative, Georgia's 8th Congressional district, 1891-1897
• Rufus E. Lester - United States Representative, Georgia's 1st Congressional district, 1889-1906
• Henry Dickerson McDaniel - Governor of Georgia, 1883-1886
• Charles L. Moses - United States Representative, Georgia's 4th Congressional district, 1891-1897
• William J. Northen - Governor of Georgia, 1890-1894; president, Southern Baptist Convention, 1899-1901; served as a Mercer University trustee for 44 years, 1869-1913
• James W. Overstreet - United States Representative, Georgia's 1st Congressional district, 1906-1907 and 1917-1923
• John Oxendine - Georgia Insurance Commissioner
• Homer C. Parker - United States Representative, Georgia's 1st Congressional district, 1931-1935
• John Peyton - Mayor, Jacksonville, Florida, the most populous city in Florida and the thirteenth most populous in the United States
• Dwight L. Rogers - United States Representative, Florida's 6th Congressional district, 1945-1954
• William J. Sears - United States Representative, Florida's 4th Congressional district, 1915-1929; United States Representative, an at-large Florida district, 1933-1937
• Chauncey Sparks - Governor of Alabama, 1943-1947
• Malcolm C. Tarver - United States Representative, Georgia's 7th Congressional district, 1927-1947
• Sandra L. Thurman - Director, Office of National AIDS Policy, 1997-2001; the first Presidential Envoy for AIDS Cooperation, 2000-2001; referred to as the nation's "AIDS czar" in the administration of President Bill Clinton
• Carl Vinson - United States Representative for over 50 years, 1914-1965; long-time Chairman, House Armed Services Committee; has been called the "patriarch of the armed services" and the "father of the two-ocean navy"; namesake of the USS Carl Vinson
• William S. West - United States Senator from Georgia, 1914-1914
• J. Mark Wilcox - United States Representative, Florida's 4th Congressional district, 1933-1939
• John S. Woods - United States Representative, Georgia's 9th Congressional district, 1931-1935 and 1945-1953; Chairman, House Un-American Activities Committee, 1949-1953
• Ten Mercerians have served as governors - of the states of Alabama, Georgia, New Hampshire, and Texas and of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
• Additional Walter F. George School of Law alumni are listed on the school's Wikipedia entry

Military

• Ross W. Crossley, Brigadier General, US Army - Commanding General, V Corps Artillery, 1983-1985; Chief of Staff, V Corps, 1985-1988
• Benjamin S. Griffin, General, US Army - Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command, 2004-2008
• Richard E. Hawes, Rear Admiral, US Navy - commanded several vessals during World War II; recipient of the Navy Cross; namesake of the USS Hawes
• Michael L. Howard, Colonel, US Army - Commander, 4th Brigade (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, the only airborne brigade in the Pacific Theater
• Claude M. Kicklighter, Lieutenant General, US Army - Commanding General, United States Army, Pacific, 1989-1991; after military retirement, served in senior civilian positions in the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs; Assistant Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs, 2001-2005; Inspector General, Department of Defense, 2007-2008
• C. Stewart Rodeheaver, Brigadier General, US Army - Deputy Commanding General, First United States Army
• William T. Thielemann, Brigadier General, US Army - Commander, 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized), Georgia Army National Guard, 1995-1997
• George J. Walker, Brigadier General , US Army - Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, U.S. Army Forces Command, 1987-1989; member, Military Intelligence Hall of Fame
• Perry L. Wiggins, Brigadier General, US Army - Assistant Division Commander for Operations, 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley
• Blanton Winship, Major General, US Army - The Judge Advocate General (TJAG), 1931-1933; Governor of Puerto Rico, 1934-1939
• Zachery S. Mitcham Major, US Army - First African American Division Automation Management Officer to serve during Stabilization Forces Operation (SFOR) 4 for the Multi-National Division in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Task Force Eagle Headquarters in Tuzla. First African American Chief Information Security Officer for the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Other public service

• John Birch - missionary and spy in China during World War II; namesake of the John Birch Society
• Walter C. Dowling - US Ambassador to South Korea, 1956-1959; US Ambassador to Germany, 1959-1963
• Charles Kelsey Dozier - missionary and founder of Seinan Gakuin University in Japan
• J. Truett Gannon - influential Baptist minister; chairman, Truett-McConnell College Board of Trustees, 1985-1987; chairman, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Board of Trustees, 1987-1990; president, Georgia Baptist Convention, 1990-1992
• Louie D. Newton - influential Baptist minister; president, Southern Baptist Convention, 1947-1948; president, Georgia Baptist Convention, 1950-1951; paster of Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta for more than 40 years; namesake of Mercer's Newton Chapel
• Lamar R. Plunkett - past chair, University System of Georgia Board of Regents; past chair, Mercer Board of Trustees; former Georgia state senator; namesake of the Lamar R. Plunkett Lecture Series at the University of West Georgia; namesake of the Lamar R. Plunkett Award presented by the Southern Regional Education Board
• Charles "Jack" Pritchard - US Ambassador and Special Envoy for Negotiations to North Korea, 2001-2003
• Steadman V. Sanford - former chancellor, University System of Georgia; namesake of Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia

Athletics

• Wally Butts - head football coach, University of Georgia, 1939-1960; athletic director, 1939-1963; member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame
• Andrea Congreaves - women's basketball player in the WNBA and in Europe
• Wesley Duke - former tight end for the Denver Broncos, 2005 AFC West Champions
• Sam Mitchell - head coach, Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association; 2007 NBA Coach of the Year
• Bill Yoast - high school football coach made famous in the film Remember the Titans
• Ten Mercerians have been Major League Baseball players