List of Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni

The following is a list of notable alumni of Central High School (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania):

Notable alumni

A

• Leon Abbett – former New Jersey governor (112th Class)
• Henry David Abraham – psychiatrist, 1985 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner (214th)
• Elliott Abrams – AccuWeather meteorologist, chief forecaster (223rd Class)
• Anthony G. Amsterdam – civil rights lawyer, professor at NYU (200th Class)
• Dave Appell – musician, record producer
• Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz – poet and author (255th Class)
• Joe Augustyn – screenwriter, producer (229th Class)

B

• James P. Bagian – astronaut, physician (228th Class)
• Albert C. Barnes – art collector, founder of Barnes Foundation educational art institution (92nd Class)
• Reds Bassman – football player
• Edward Roy Becker – Federal Judge (graduated 1950)
• John C. Bell, Jr. – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (75th Class)
• Barry Bloom - infectious disease scientist, WHO (202nd Class)
• Jim Braude – talk radio host (225th Class)
• Leo Braudy – cultural historian and film critic (211th Class)
• King Britt – DJ and record producer (245th Class)
• William H. Brown, III – former Chairman of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (185th Class)
• Lou Bruce - Major League Baseball outfielder (graduated 1899)
• Doc Bushong - Major League Baseball catcher and dentist (graduated 1876)

C

• George Campbell, Jr. – President of Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (220th Class)
• Philip Casnoff – actor (226th Class)
• Cassidy – rapper (would have been the 259th class, but he did not graduate from Central High School)
• Morris I. ("Moose") Charlap – Broadway composer (186th Class)
• Noam Chomsky – linguist and political activist (184th Class)
• Ben Clime - professional football player
• Mark B. Cohen – Pennsylvania state legislator (225th Class)
• Frank "Tick" Coleman – one of the first three known African-American Eagle Scouts, educator (156th Class)
• Joel Cook – U.S. Congressman, journalist (33rd Class)
• Tarzan Cooper – basketball player for the New York Renaissance
• Bill Cosby – comedian and entertainer (left after 10th grade- 204th Class)

D

• Samuel Dash – professor at Georgetown Law (178th Class)
• James DePreist – orchestra conductor (202nd Class)
• John H. Dialogue – shipbuilder in Camden, New Jersey (5th Class)
• DJ Drama (Tyree Simmons) – hip hop artist and DJ (255th Class)
• Ignatius L. Donnelly – author, politician, U.S. Congressman (13th Class)
• Rel Dowdell - filmmaker (248th Class)
• Joseph William Drexel – banker, philanthropist (13th Class)

E

• Thomas Eakins – painter (38th Class)
• Joshua Eilberg – U.S. Congressman
• Arnold Eisen – Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary (228th Class)
• Robin Eubanks – jazz trombonist, professor at Oberlin Conservatory, and brother of guitarist Kevin Eubanks (231st Class)

F

• Douglas J. Feith – former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, a major architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq (230th Class)
• Norman Fell – actor on Three's Company (176th Class)
• Samuel Simeon Fels – manufacturer, philanthropist (72nd Class)
• Lee Felsenstein – personal computer pioneer and activist (219th Class)
• Louis Filler – historian, writer, and professor at Antioch College (151st Class, 1929)
• Larry Fine – Larry of the Three Stooges (132nd Class)
• Phillip Frost - physician, pharmaceuticals executive, philanthropist (200th Class)

G

• William Glackens – painter, co-founder of the Ashcan School art movement (92nd Class)
• W. Wilson Goode, Jr. – Philadelphia City Councilman at Large, son of former mayor W. Wilson Goode (241st Class)
• E. Urner Goodman – early leader of the Boy Scouts of America (114th Class)
• Oscar Goodman – mayor of Las Vegas, mob defense lawyer (left after 10th grade)
• Charles Goren – bridge player and author (132nd Class)
• Kermit Gosnell - abortion doctor found guilty of murder
• Shelly Gross – theatrical producer, author (170th Class)
• Richard Grossman - jazz pianist (204th Class)
• Lee Guber – theatrical producer (170th Class)
• Daniel Guggenheim – industrialist and philanthropist (66th Class)
• Simon Guggenheim – industrialist, financier, philanthropist, U.S. Senator for Colorado (87th Class)

H

• Eric M. Hammel - military historian, writer and publisher (221st Class)
• John Harbeson – architect with H2L2 (111th Class)
• Joe Harris – mathematician at Harvard University
• Joseph Smith Harris – President of the Reading Railroad (24th Class)
• Quiara Alegría Hudes – playwright and author (254th Class)

I

• Albert Innaurato – playwright, theater director, and writer (225th Class)

J

• Major Jackson – poet and professor at University of Vermont (245th Class)

K

• Louis Kahn – architect (134th Class)
• Sam Katz – perennial Philadelphia Republican mayoral candidate (226th class)
• Ted Kaufman – U.S. Senator from Delaware (206th class)
• Charles Keinath – college basketball player and coach
• Alexander Kendrick – broadcast journalist (149th Class)
• Daniel Kevles – historian of science at Yale and California Institute of Technology
• Mark Kramer – jazz pianist (220th class)

L

• Cato T. Laurencin – orthopaedic surgeon, professor, chemical engineer (235th Class)
• Conrad C. Lautenbacher – Navy Vice Admiral (213th Class)
• Thomas F. Lewis – member, U.S. House Of Representatives (1942)
• Betty Liu – news anchor for Bloomberg Television (250th Class)
• Alain LeRoy Locke – author, philosopher, first African-American Rhodes Scholar (107th Class)
• Jerome Lowenthal – classical pianist, chair of Juilliard School Piano Department (192nd Class)

M

• John Marzano – Major League Baseball catcher and broadcast analyst (240th Class)
• Gary K. Michelson – orthopedic spinal surgeon (225th Class)
• Jeffrey Milarsky – conductor of contemporary music (243rd Class)
• Roger M. Milgrim – intellectual property lawyer and treatise author (202nd Class)
• Samuel Brown Wylie Mitchell – founder of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity
• Louis J. Mordell – mathematician at University of Cambridge (111th Class)
• Joel Myers – founder of AccuWeather (208th Class)

N

• Robert N. C. Nix, Jr. – former Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (186th Class)

O

• Eric Owens – opera singer (247th Class)

P

• Robert E. Pattison – former Governor of Pennsylvania (55th Class)
• Thomas May Peirce - founder of Peirce College (32nd Class)
• David Pincus – clothing manufacturer, art collector (181st Class)
• Ramon L. Posel – founder of Ritz Theaters (186th Class)
• Hilary Putnam – philosopher (182nd Class)

R

• Jed S. Rakoff – United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York (215th Class)
• David Raksin – composer, "Grandfather of Film Music" (153rd Class)
• Conyers Read – historian (1899)
• Ralph T. Reed – former CEO of American Express (114th Class)
• William Reed – sprinter
• Allen Rosenberg – rower and rowing coach
• Arnold Roth – cartoonist, humorist (186th Class)

S

• Shunsuke Sato – world-renowned young violinist (261st Class)
• Morton Livingston Schamberg – modern artist
• Joseph Shallit - mystery novelist (156th Class)
• Arthur M. Shapiro - ecologist (220th Class)
• Bree Sharp – singer and songwriter (252nd Class)
• Lee M. Silver – professor of molecular biology, Princeton University (227th Class)
• Richard Bruce Silverman – chemistry professor, inventor of Lyrica (221st Class)
• John French Sloan – painter (92nd Class)
• Ben Stahl – labor and civil rights activist
• Julie Stevens – actress, film director and producer (246th Class)
• Frank R. Stockton – writer and humorist (19th Class)
• Charles Stone III – film and ad director (243rd Class)

T

• John Baxter Taylor, Jr. – track and field athlete, first African-American Olympic gold medalist (107th Class)
• Teller – magician (224th Class)
• Howard Temin – geneticist, shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine (196th Class)
• Dylan Tichenor – film editor (245th Class)
• Arthur Tracy – vaudeville performer, singer, actor, known as "The Street Singer" (130th Class)

W

• Phil Walker – Guard on the 1977-1978 NBA champion Washington Bullets (231st class)
• John Wallowitch – composer, songwriter and cabaret performer (181st Class)
• Louis J. Weichmann – one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the conspiracy trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination
• Andrew Weil – physician, author, proponent of integrative medicine (212th Class)
• Edward Weinberger – TV producer and writer (204th Class)
• Stephen William White – translator of Jules Verne and secretary of the Northern Central Railway (31st class)
• R. Seth Williams – District Attorney of Philadelphia (244th Class)
• Alan Wolfe – political scientist and sociologist (213th Class)
• Alexander Woollcott – drama critic for The New Yorker (110th Class)
• Jeremiah Wright – former Senior Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (211th Class)
• Ed Wynn (until age 15) – entertainer, actor, comedian, producer (110th Class)

Y

• Charles Yerkes – industrialist and financier (27th Class)
• Will Yip – record producer, songwriter, and musician (264th Class)

Guide to class numbers

Since graduates are usually identified in the school community by class number, the year in which they graduated is not immediately obvious. This section explains the relation between class number and graduation date.

The first class graduated in June 1842. Through much of the school's history, there were two graduating classes per year, in January and June. But in some years, including all years after 1965, there was only one graduating class, in June. The following list details the correspondence between class number and graduation date.

1 June 1842
  2 June 1843
  3 January 1844
  4 June 1844
... 2 classes per year ...
 75 January 1880
 76 June 1880
 77 June 1881
 78 June 1882
 79 January 1883
... 2 classes per year ...
 95 January 1891
 96 June 1891
 97 June 1892
... 1 class per year ...
116 June 1911
117 January 1912
118 June 1912
.... 2 classes per year ...
223 January 1965
224 June 1965
225 June 1966
... 1 class per year ...

Thus, for classes graduating after 1965, the class number equals the graduation year minus 1741.

See also

• Central High School (Philadelphia)