56 Notable alumni of
Knox College
Updated:
Knox College is 1229th in the world, 442nd in North America, and 414th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 56 notable alumni from Knox College sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Robert Hanssen
- Enrolled in Knox College
- In 1966 graduated with bachelor's degree in chemistry
- Occupations
- molespygovernment agent
- Biography
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Robert Philip Hanssen was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history".
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John Podesta
- Occupations
- lawyerinternational forum participantpoliticianlobbyist
- Biography
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John David Podesta Jr. is an American political consultant who has served as senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation since September 2022. Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015. Before that, he served in the Clinton administration as White House staff secretary from 1993 to 1995 and White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 1997 to 1998.
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Amy Carlson
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Amy Lynn Carlson is an American actress known for her roles as Linda Reagan in the CBS police procedural Blue Bloods, Alex Taylor on the NBC drama Third Watch, and Josie Watts in the NBC daytime soap opera Another World.
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Gene Rayburn
- Occupations
- television presenterradio personalityactorgame show hostannouncer
- Biography
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Gene Rayburn was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the American television game show Match Game for over two decades.
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Vir Das
- Occupations
- comedianactortelevision actor
- Biography
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Vir Das is an Indian comedian, actor and musician. After beginning a career in standup comedy, Das moved to Hindi cinema starring in films like Badmaash Company (2010), Delhi Belly (2011), and Go Goa Gone (2013) in supporting roles. In 2017, he performed the Netflix special Abroad Understanding. Das has appeared in approximately 35 plays, over 100 stand-up comedy shows, 18 films, eight TV shows and six comedy specials. He has written comedic columns for Femina, Maxim, Exotica, DNA and Tehelka. In 2019, he made his debut in American television with the television series, Whiskey Cavalier. He won the 2023 International Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series for the Netflix comedy special Vir Das: Landing.
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Elizabeth Eckford
- Occupations
- activist
- Biography
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Elizabeth Ann Eckford is an American civil rights activist and one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The integration came as a result of the 1954 United States Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education. Eckford's public ordeal was captured by press photographers on the morning of September 4, 1957, after she was prevented from entering the school by the Arkansas National Guard. A dramatic snapshot by Will Counts of the Arkansas Democrat showed the young girl being followed and threatened by an angry white mob; this and other photos of the day's startling events were circulated around the US and the world by the press.
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John Buford
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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John Buford Jr. was a United States Army cavalry officer. He fought for the Union as a brigadier general during the American Civil War. Buford is best known for having played a major role in the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, by identifying, taking, and holding the "high ground" while in command of a division.
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Edgar Lee Masters
- Occupations
- writerlawyerpoetplaywrightbiographer
- Biography
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Edgar Lee Masters was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of Spoon River Anthology, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs and Satires, The Great Valley, The Serpent in the Wilderness, An Obscure Tale, The Spleen, Mark Twain: A Portrait, Lincoln: The Man, and Illinois Poems. In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman.
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Charles Eastman
- Occupations
- writerombudspersonphysicianfolkloristautobiographer
- Biography
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Charles Alexander Eastman was an American physician, writer, and social reformer. He was the first Native American to be certified in Western medicine and was "one of the most prolific authors and speakers on Sioux ethnohistory and American Indian affairs" in the early 20th century.
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Whitcomb L. Judson
- Occupations
- engineerinventor
- Biography
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Whitcomb L. Judson was an American machine salesman, mechanical engineer and inventor. He received thirty patents over a sixteen-year career, fourteen of which were on pneumatic street railway innovations. Six of his patents had to do with a motor mechanism suspended beneath the rail-car that functioned with compressed air. He founded the Judson Pneumatic Street Railway.
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Eugene Field
- Occupations
- writereditorpoetchildren's writerjournalist
- Biography
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Eugene Field Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood".
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Don Marquis
- Occupations
- writerscreenwriterpoetplaywrightjournalist
- Biography
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Donald Robert Perry Marquis was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel, supposed authors of humorous verse. During his lifetime he was equally famous for creating another fictitious character, "the Old Soak," who was the subject of two books, a hit Broadway play (1922–23), a silent film (1926) and a talkie (1937).
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Ellen Browning Scripps
- Occupations
- journalistbusinesspersonwriter
- Biography
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Ellen Browning Scripps was an American journalist and philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California. She and her half-brother E. W. Scripps created the E. W. Scripps Company, America's largest chain of newspapers and patron of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, linking Midwestern industrial cities with booming towns in the West. By the 1920s, Ellen Browning Scripps was worth an estimated $30 million (or $388 million in 2020 dollars), most of which she gave away.
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Margaret A. Ryan
- Enrolled in Knox College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in political science
- Occupations
- judgelawyer
- Biography
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Margaret Ann "Meg" Ryan is a senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. She joined the court in 2006 after being nominated by President George W. Bush. Her term expired on July 31, 2020.
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Ralph Waldo Trine
- Occupations
- historianwriterphilosopher
- Biography
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Ralph Waldo Trine was an American New Thought writer, philosopher and animal welfare activist.
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Robert F. Spetzler
- Occupations
- neurosurgeon
- Biography
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Robert F. Spetzler is a neurosurgeon and the J.N. Harber Chairman Emeritus of Neurological Surgery and director emeritus of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. He retired as an active neurosurgeon in July 2017. He is also Professor of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Arizona.
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Otto Harbach
- Occupations
- songwriterscreenwriterlibrettistlyricistjournalist
- Biography
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Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading Broadway composers of the early 20th century, including Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg. Harbach believed that music, lyrics, and story should be closely connected, and, as Oscar Hammerstein II's mentor, he encouraged Hammerstein to write musicals in this manner. Harbach is considered one of the first great Broadway lyricists, and he helped raise the status of the lyricist in an age more concerned with music, spectacle, and stars. Some of his more famous lyrics are "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine".
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S. S. McClure
- Occupations
- publisherjournalist
- Biography
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Samuel Sidney McClure was an American publisher who became known as a key figure in investigative, or muckraking, journalism. He co-founded and ran McClure's Magazine from 1893 to 1911, which ran numerous exposées of wrongdoing in business and politics, such as those written by Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, and Lincoln Steffens. The magazine ran fiction and nonfiction by the leading writers of the day, including Sarah Orne Jewett, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Joel Chandler Harris, Jack London, Stephen Crane, William Allen White and Willa Cather.
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Bob Kiss
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Bob Kiss is an American politician and former mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Kiss was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from January 2001 until he stepped down to assume office as mayor of Burlington, following his election to that office in March 2006. He is a member of the Vermont Progressive Party. Kiss won re-election in 2009, and was endorsed by Vermont's Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. In November 2011, Kiss announced that he would not seek re-election in the 2012 Burlington mayoral election.
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Hiram Rhodes Revels
- Enrolled in Knox College
- Studied in 1855-1857
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Hiram Rhodes Revels was an American Republican politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. Elected by the Mississippi legislature to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era, he was the first African American to serve in either house of the U.S. Congress.
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Don Harmon
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Don Harmon is an American attorney serving as a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 39th District since 2003. His district includes Chicago's Austin neighborhood and the suburbs of Oak Park, Addison, Bensenville, Elmwood Park, Franklin Park, Melrose Park, Northlake, River Grove, Rosemont, Schiller Park, and Stone Park.
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Earnest Elmo Calkins
- Occupations
- advertising person
- Biography
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Earnest Elmo Calkins was a deaf American advertising executive who pioneered the use of art in advertising, of fictional characters, the soft sell, and the idea of "consumer engineering". He co-founded the influential Calkins & Holden advertising agency. His work was recognized with many awards during his lifetime and was called the "Dean of Advertising Men" and "arguably the single most important figure in early twentieth century graphic design."
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Charles William Gordon
- Occupations
- novelistwriterpastor
- Biography
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Charles William Gordon, CMG, also known as Ralph Connor, was a Canadian novelist, using the Connor pen name while maintaining his status as a church leader, first in the Presbyterian and later the United Church in Canada.
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Joseph J. Sisco
- Occupations
- diplomatacademic administratorcolumnist
- Biography
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Joseph John Sisco was a diplomat who played a major role in then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East. His career in the State Department spanned five presidential administrations.
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Julie Morrison
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Julie A. Morrison is a member of the Illinois Senate from the 29th district. The 29th district includes all or parts of Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Bannockburn, Deerfield, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, Northbrook and North Chicago. Prior to her service in the Illinois Senate, she was the West Deerfield Township Supervisor.
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John Huston Finley
- Occupations
- journalistnewspaper editorwritereditor
- Biography
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John Huston Finley was Professor of Polities at Princeton University from 1900 to 1903, and President of the City College of New York from 1903 until 1913, when he was appointed President of the University of the State of New York and Commissioner of Education of the State of New York. A promenade along the western bank of the East River between 63rd Street and 125th Street in Manhattan was named the John Finley Walk in 1940 because he had often walked the perimeter of Manhattan.
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Joe Moore
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Joseph A. Moore is a former Chicago politician. Moore was first elected to Chicago City Council as the alderman for the 49th ward, which includes the majority of Rogers Park and portions of West Ridge, in 1991. Moore won re-election six times, before losing to challenger Maria Hadden in 2019.
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George S. Benson
- Occupations
- missionary
- Biography
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George Stuart Benson was an American missionary, college administrator, and conservative political activist. After fleeing communist uprisings in China as a missionary, Benson became an anticommunist and conservative activist, taking stances against the New Deal, and later, racial integration. Benson served for many years as the president of Harding College, and oversaw a large propaganda network through his National Education Program, which sponsored short cartoons, "Freedom Forums" (gatherings of business people to promote the American way), and lecture tours for Benson.
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Don Samuelson
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Donald William Samuelson was an American Republican politician who served as the 25th governor of Idaho, from 1967 to 1971. He is the state's most recent incumbent governor to lose a re-election bid (1970).
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Peter Cozzens
- Years
- 1957-.. (age 67)
- Occupations
- historianwritermilitary commander
- Biography
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Peter Cozzens is an American historian and retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer. He has written and/or edited over seventeen books on the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
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Henry Thomas Rainey
- Occupations
- politicianjudgelawyer
- Biography
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Henry Thomas Rainey was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party from Illinois, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1921 and from 1923 to his death in 1934. He rose to Speaker of the House, during the famous Hundred days of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.
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John Sanborn Phillips
- Occupations
- journalistbusinesspersoneditor
- Biography
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John Sanborn Phillips attended Knox College in Illinois, where he worked on the student newspaper and met S. S. McClure. After earning an associate's degree, he entered Harvard College as a junior, and graduated in 1885, magna cum laude. In 1887 McClure hired him to manage the home office of the McClure Newspaper Syndicate (founded in 1884).
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Ander Monson
- Occupations
- novelistpoet
- Biography
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Ander Monson is an American novelist, poet, and nonfiction writer.
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David P. Fridovich
- Born in
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United States - Occupations
- soldier
- Biography
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David P. Fridovich is a retired lieutenant general and Green Beret in the United States Army. His position at the time of retirement was deputy commander of the U.S. military's United States Special Operations Command that directs special operations campaigns.
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Alson Streeter
- Occupations
- farmerminerpolitician
- Biography
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Alson Jenness Streeter was an American farmer, miner and politician who was the Union Labor Party nominee in the United States presidential election of 1888. He was also an early member of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry following its foundation in the 1860s and supported Granger Laws while in office.
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Lorenzo D. Lewelling
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Lorenzo Dow Lewelling was the 12th Governor of Kansas.
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Shu Kitamura
- Occupations
- association football player
- Biography
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Shu Kitamura is a Japanese professional footballer who currently plays for Hong Kong Third Division club Kowloon Cricket Club.
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John L. Kennedy
- Occupations
- politicianbusinesspersonlawyer
- Biography
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John Lauderdale Kennedy was an American Republican Party politician.
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Mikaela Kumlin Granit
- Years
- 1967-.. (age 57)
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Mikaela Ruth Gunilla Kumlin Granit is a Swedish diplomat who has served as the Swedish ambassador to the United Kingdom since August 2021.
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Edgar Addison Bancroft
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Edgar Addison Bancroft was an American lawyer and diplomat. He served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 1924 to 1925.
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Albinus Nance
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Albinus Roberts Nance was an American politician. He served as a soldier during the American Civil War, and as the fourth governor of Nebraska.
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Robert Bruce Chiperfield
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Robert Bruce Chiperfield, son of United States Congressman Burnett Mitchell Chiperfield, was an Illinois lawyer and 12-term U.S. Representative from Illinois. He served as chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs during the early years of the Eisenhower administration.
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Ezekiel S. Sampson
- Occupations
- politicianjudgelawyer
- Biography
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Ezekiel Silas Sampson was a lawyer, prosecutor, Civil War officer, judge, and two-term Republican Congressman from Iowa's 6th congressional district.
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Matt Berg
- Years
- 1978-.. (age 46)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Matt Berg is the CEO of Ona, which he co-founded with Peter Lubell-Doughtie, Ukang'a Dickson and Roger Wong. Previously, he was the ICT Director for the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, the Technology Director for ChildCount+, and a member of Columbia University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering research group in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. In 2010 Berg was included in the Time 100 Most Influential People of the World.
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George Radcliffe Colton
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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George Radcliffe Colton was the governor of Puerto Rico from November 6, 1909 to November 5, 1913, a position to which he was appointed by President William Howard Taft.
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B. J. Hollars
- Occupations
- university teacherwritereditor
- Biography
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B.J. Hollars is an American author of literary essays and nonfiction novels. He is the author of several books, most recently Go West Young Man: A Father and Son Rediscover America on the Oregon Trail, Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians and the Weird in Flyover Country, The Road South: Personal Stories of the Freedom Riders, Flock Together: A Love Affair With Extinct Birds, From the Mouths of Dogs: What Our Pets Teach Us About Life, Death, and Being Human, as well as a collection of essays, This Is Only A Test. Additionally, he has also written Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence and the Last Lynching in America, Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa, Dispatches from the Drownings, and Sightings.
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Benton Jay Hall
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Benton Jay "Ben" Hall was a one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 1st congressional district in southeastern Iowa.
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Charles Wesley Leffingwell
- Years
- 1840-1928 (aged 88)
- Biography
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Charles Wesley Leffingwell was an American author, educator, and Episcopal priest.
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Harry Archer
- Occupations
- composer
- Biography
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Harry Archer was an American composer and orchestra leader. He is best remembered for six Broadway shows from the 2nd and 3rd decades of the 20th-century, but also made several popular recordings in the 1920s for Brunswick Records.
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Linda Langston
- Years
- 1953-.. (age 71)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Linda Langston is director of strategic relations for the National Association of Counties in Washington, D.C., US. Prior to that Langston was a member of the Linn County Board of Supervisors. She also serves as the co-chair of the Resilient America Roundtable for the National Academy of Sciences and is on the national advisory council for FEMA. She was elected in November 2002 and took office the following January. Prior to her public service, she was the executive director of the History Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the executive director of the Linn Mar School Foundation. While living in Chicago and Tulsa, she maintained a private practice in psychotherapy.
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George Helgesen Fitch
- Occupations
- journalistsatiristhumoristpolitician
- Biography
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George Helgesen Fitch was an American author, humorist, and journalist perhaps best known for his stories about fictional Siwash College.
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Stephen V. White
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Stephen Van Culen White was a U.S. Representative from New York.
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James E. Defebaugh
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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James E. Defebaugh was a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1971 to 1982.
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William E. Phelps
- Years
- 1835-1914 (aged 79)
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomat
- Biography
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William Edwin Phelps was an American politician from Peoria County, Illinois. During the Civil War, he served as Consulate General of Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 1868, he was elected to one term in the Illinois House of Representatives.
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Charles Edward Swanson
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Charles Edward Swanson served two terms as a Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 9th congressional district. His congressional career ended in the landslide that accompanied the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to his first term as president.
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John Poage Williamson
- Occupations
- politicianwritermissionary
- Biography
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John Poage Williamson was an American missionary, politician, and writer.
