100 Notable alumni of
Oberlin College
Updated:
Oberlin College is 169th in the world, 76th in North America, and 73rd in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Oberlin 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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Lena Dunham
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- In 2008 studied creative writing
- Occupations
- film directorwriterfilm produceractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Lena Dunham is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series Girls (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations and two Golden Globe Awards. Dunham also directed several episodes of Girls and became the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series. She started her career writing, directing, and starring in her semi-autobiographical independent film Tiny Furniture (2010), for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She has since written and directed the 2022 films Sharp Stick and Catherine Called Birdy. In 2025, she created the Netflix series Too Much starring Megan Stalter.
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Ed Helms
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- Studied in 1996
- Occupations
- television directorfilm actorbanjoisttelevision producervoice actor
- Biography
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Edward Parker Helms is an American actor and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom The Office (2006–2013), and starred as Stuart "Stu" Price in The Hangover trilogy. He later starred in the comedy series Rutherford Falls (2021–2022), which he co-wrote.
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Corey Stoll
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Corey Daniel Stoll is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo in the first season of the Netflix political thriller series House of Cards (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 2013, and Dr. Ephraim Goodweather on the FX horror drama series The Strain (2014–2017). From 2020 to 2023, he portrayed Michael Prince, a business rival to protagonist Bobby Axelrod, in the Showtime series Billions. He was also a regular cast member on the NBC drama series Law & Order: LA (2010–2011).
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Bobby McFerrin
- Occupations
- beatboxeranimatoruniversity teacherrecording artistconductor
- Biography
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Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor. His vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing, polyphonic overtone singing, and improvisational vocal percussion. McFerrin performs and records regularly as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist and has frequently collaborated with other artists from both the jazz and classical scenes.
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Bill Irwin
- Occupations
- television actormime artisttheatrical directorclownplaywright
- Biography
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William Mills Irwin is an American actor, choreographer, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a number of appearances on film and television, and he won a Tony Award for his role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He also worked as a choreographer on Broadway and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography in 1989 for Largely New York. He is also known as Mr. Noodle on the Sesame Street segment Elmo's World, and he appeared in the Sesame Street film short Does Air Move Things? He has regularly appeared as Dr. Peter Lindstrom on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had a recurring role as "The Dick & Jane Killer" on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. From 2017 to 2019, he appeared as Cary Loudermilk on the FX television series Legion.
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Eric Bogosian
- Occupations
- stage actoractorwriternovelistfilm actor
- Biography
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Eric Michael Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Chicago and Oberlin College. His play Talk Radio was a finalist for the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Bogosian also wrote and starred in the 1988 film adaptation, winning the Silver Bear.
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Hsiao Bi-khim
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- 1989-1993 graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Hsiao Bi-khim is a Taiwanese politician and diplomat who has served as Vice President of the Republic of China since 2024, serving under President Lai Ching-te. She was the Taiwanese representative to the United States from 2020 to 2023, and formerly served as a legislator of the Legislative Yuan from 2002 to 2008 and again between 2012 and 2020.
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Jerry Rubin
- Occupations
- entrepreneurbusinessperson
- Biography
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Jerry Clyde Rubin was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and early 1970s. Despite being known for holding radical views when he was a political activist, he ceased holding his more extreme views at some point in the 1970s and instead opted for a successful career as a businessman. In the 1960s, during his political activism heyday, he was known for being one of the co-founders of the Youth International Party (YIP) whose members were referred to as Yippies, and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case.
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Avery Brooks
- Occupations
- film directorpedagoguetelevision actorvoice actortheatrical director
- Biography
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Avery Franklin Brooks is an American actor, director, singer, narrator and educator. He is best known for his television roles as Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spinoff A Man Called Hawk, and as Dr. Bob Sweeney in the Academy Award–nominated film American History X. Brooks has delivered a variety of other performances to a great deal of acclaim. He has been nominated for a Saturn Award and three NAACP Image Awards. Brooks has also been inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre and bestowed with the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre by the Shakespeare Theatre Company.
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Karen O
- Occupations
- recording artistsinger
- Biography
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Karen Lee Orzolek is an American musician who is the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She was a key artist of the 2000s garage rock and post-punk revivals, noted for her energetic performances and eccentric fashion. In her solo career, Karen O has released two albums, collaborated with numerous artists and composed for several film and television soundtracks.
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Sinclair Lewis
- Occupations
- writerplaywrightnovelistjournalist
- Biography
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Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." Lewis wrote six popular novels: Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929), and It Can't Happen Here (1935).
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Michelle Malkin
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- In 1992 graduated with bachelor's degree in English studies
- Occupations
- columnistpunditwriterjournalistblogger
- Biography
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Michelle Malkin is an American conservative political commentator. She was a Fox News contributor and in May 2020 joined Newsmax TV. Malkin has written seven books and founded the conservative commentary website Twitchy and the conservative blog Hot Air.
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Will Chase
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Frank William Chase is an American actor, director, and singer, best known for his work on Broadway and for his role as country superstar Luke Wheeler on ABC's Nashville.
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William Goldman
- Occupations
- screenwriternovelistwriterplaywrightfilm screenwriter
- Biography
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William Goldman was an American novelist, screenwriter and playwright who wrote 16 novels and numerous screenplays in a career spanning seven decades. He received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Screenplay from the BAFTAs and Golden Globes for his first original screenplay, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and he received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men (1976). Both of these films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, along with The Princess Bride (1987) which he adapted from his 1973 novel, and all three were included on the 2006 list by the Writers Guild of America of the 101 Greatest Screenplays. Among his other accolades were three Writers Guild of America Awards, including the 1985 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, two Edgar Awards for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
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Lynn Shelton
- Occupations
- television actorfilm directoractorfilm screenwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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Lynn Shelton was an American filmmaker, known for writing, directing, and producing such films as Humpday and Your Sister's Sister. She was associated with the mumblecore genre.
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Liz Phair
- Occupations
- singerguitaristcomposersinger-songwriterrecording artist
- Biography
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Elizabeth Clark Phair is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Phair was raised primarily in the Chicago area. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1990, she attempted to start a musical career in San Francisco; however, she returned to her home in Chicago, where she began self-releasing audio cassettes under the name Girly-Sound. The tapes led to a recording contract with the independent record label Matador Records.
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George Herbert Mead
- Occupations
- philosophersociologistpsychologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago. He was one of the key figures in the development of pragmatism. He is regarded as one of the founders of symbolic interactionism, and was an important influence on what has come to be referred to as the Chicago School of Sociology.
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Marc Cohn
- Occupations
- composersinger-songwritersingermusician
- Biography
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Marc Craig Cohn is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known for the song "Walking in Memphis", which was a Top 40 hit from his 1991 album Marc Cohn and was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards. Cohn won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992. His other charting singles include "Silver Thunderbird" (1991), "True Companion" (1991), and "Walk Through the World" (1993).
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Willard Van Orman Quine
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- Studied in 1926-1930
- Occupations
- philosopher of scienceanalytic philosopheruniversity teachermathematicianepistemologist
- Biography
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Willard Van Orman Quine was an American logician and philosopher in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century". He was the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard University from 1956 to 1978.
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Alison Bechdel
- Occupations
- novelistcomics artistcartoonist
- Biography
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Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist. Originally known for the long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir Fun Home. Fun Home was subsequently adapted as a musical, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015. In 2012, she released her second graphic memoir Are You My Mother? She was a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award. She is also known for originating what would later be called the Bechdel test.
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Edmonia Lewis
- Occupations
- artistsculptor
- Biography
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Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire", was an American sculptor.
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Thornton Wilder
- Occupations
- writerplaywrightnovelistscreenwriter
- Biography
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Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day.
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Jason Molina
- Occupations
- singerguitaristsinger-songwriter
- Biography
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Jason Andrew Molina was an American musician, singer and songwriter. Raised in northern Ohio, he came to prominence performing and recording as Songs: Ohia, both in solo projects and with a rotating cast of musicians in the late 1990s. Beginning in 2003, he garnered a further indie following for his releases with the band Magnolia Electric Co.
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H. H. Kung
- Occupations
- bankerbusinesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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Kung Hsiang-hsi, also known as Dr. Chauncey Kung, was a Chinese banker and government official influential in China's politics and economy of the 1920s through the 1940s. His wife was Soong Ai-ling, the eldest of the three Soong sisters; the other two married President Sun Yat-sen and President Chiang Kai-shek. Together with his brother-in-law, T. V. Soong, he was highly influential in determining the economic policies of the Nationalist Party-led Republic of China (1912–1949) in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Jerry Greenfield
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Jerry Greenfield is an American businessman, philanthropist, and activist. He is a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc.
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Rennie Davis
- Occupations
- peace activistbusinessperson
- Biography
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Rennard Cordon Davis was an American anti-war activist who gained prominence in the 1960s. He was one of the Chicago Seven defendants charged for anti-war demonstrations and large-scale protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He had a prominent organizational role in the American anti–Vietnam War protest movement of the 1960s.
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Diona Reasonover
- Occupations
- screenwritertelevision actorfilm directoractor
- Biography
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Diona Reasonover is an American actress. She starred as Charmaine Eskowitz in the television show Clipped, and since 2018 has portrayed Kasie Hines in the crime drama series NCIS.
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David Miller
- Occupations
- actormusicianopera singer
- Biography
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David Miller is an American tenor. Since 2004, he has been a member of the successful classical crossover group Il Divo, who have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. As well, Miller shared a Tony Award with the other members of the ensemble cast of Baz Luhrmann's 2002 revival of La bohème in 2003.
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Julie Taymor
- Occupations
- film directordirectorcostume designerscenographerfilm producer
- Biography
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Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her 2002 film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.
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Henrietta Swan Leavitt
- Occupations
- astronomer
- Biography
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Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an American astronomer. Her discovery of how to effectively measure vast astronomical distances led to a shift in the understanding of the scale and nature of the universe.
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Rollo May
- Occupations
- psychologistpsychotherapistwriter
- Biography
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Rollo Reece May was an American existential psychologist and author of the influential book Love and Will (1969). He is often associated with humanistic psychology and existentialist philosophy, and alongside Viktor Frankl, was a major proponent of existential psychotherapy. The philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich was a close friend who had a significant influence on his work.
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Robert A. Millikan
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Robert Andrews Millikan was an American experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect."
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Edward Everett Horton
- Occupations
- singertelevision actorfilm actorvoice actorstage actor
- Biography
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Edward Everett Horton, Jr. was an American character actor and comedian. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons.
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Judy Kuhn
- Occupations
- actortelevision actoractivistvoice actorstage actor
- Biography
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Judy Kuhn is an American actress, singer and activist, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film Pocahontas, including her rendition of the song "Colors of the Wind", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
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Josh Ritter
- Occupations
- singersongwritersinger-songwriterrecording artistmusician
- Biography
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Joshua B. Ritter is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author who performs and records with the Royal City Band. Ritter is known for his distinctive Americana style and narrative lyrics. In 2006, he was named one of the "100 Greatest Living Songwriters" by Paste magazine.
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Kenneth Waltz
- Occupations
- philosopherpolitical scientistuniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Kenneth Neal Waltz was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field of international relations. He was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War.
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Jon Theodore
- Occupations
- drummer
- Biography
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Jon Philip Theodore is an American drummer. He has been the current drummer for Queens of the Stone Age since 2013, and is also known for being the drummer for the Mars Volta from 2001 to 2006.
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Rex Lee
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Rex Lee is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Lloyd Lee in the HBO series Entourage (2005–2011), as Mr. Wolfe in ABC's sitcom Suburgatory (2011–2013) and as Elliot Park in the sitcom Young & Hungry (2014–2018).
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Richard N. Haass
- Occupations
- diplomatuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Richard Nathan Haass is an American diplomat. He was president of the Council on Foreign Relations from July 2003 to June 2023, prior to which he was director of policy planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. In October 2022, Haass announced he would be departing from his position at CFR in June 2023. He was succeeded by former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman.
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James McBride
- Occupations
- jazz musicianscreenwriternovelistsaxophonistjournalist
- Biography
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James McBride is an American writer and musician. He is the recipient of the 2013 National Book Award for fiction for his novel The Good Lord Bird.
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Tony Musante
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Anthony Peter Musante Jr. was an American actor, best known for the TV series Toma as Detective David Toma, Nino Schibetta in Oz (1997), and Joe D'Angelo in As the World Turns (2000–2003). In movies, he achieved fame relatively early in his career, starring or having significant roles in such films as Once a Thief (1965), The Incident (1967), The Detective (1968) and The Last Run (1971), and also in a number of Italian productions, including The Mercenary (1968), Metti, una sera a cena (1969) and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970).
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Elisha Gray
- Occupations
- inventorengineer
- Biography
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Elisha Gray was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. Some recent authors have argued that Gray should be considered the true inventor of the telephone because Alexander Graham Bell allegedly stole the idea of the liquid transmitter from him. Gray had been using liquid transmitters in his telephone experiments for more than two years previously; however, Bell's patent was upheld in court.
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John Kander
- Occupations
- composerscreenwriterfilm score composermotorcyclist
- Biography
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John Harold Kander is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York" (officially known as "Theme from New York, New York"). The team received numerous nominations, including eleven for Tony Awards (won four, followed by a Lifetime Achievement Award for Kander), two nominations for Academy Awards, and five for Golden Globe Awards.
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Adrian Fenty
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Adrian Malik Fenty is an American politician who served as the mayor of the District of Columbia from 2007 to 2011.
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Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake is an American politician and attorney who served as the 50th Mayor of Baltimore from 2010 to 2016, the second woman to hold that office. She has also served as secretary of the Democratic National Committee and as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.
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Kelly AuCoin
- Occupations
- actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Kelly AuCoin is an American actor who has appeared in film, television, and theater. He is best known as "Dollar" Bill Stearn on Billions (Showtime) and Pastor Tim on The Americans (FX). He has had recurring roles on several other American television series, including The Girl from Plainville (Hulu), WeCrashed (Apple TV+), The Endgame (NBC), House of Cards (Netflix), and as Hercules Mulligan on the final season of Turn: Washington's Spies (AMC). He frequently appears on stage in New York and venues around the country, such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and La Jolla Playhouse. He has had supporting roles in many films, including Steven Spielberg's The Post, The Good House, False Positive, The Kingdom, Julie & Julia, and All That I Am, which won the SXSW Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting.
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Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- Studied in 1951
- Occupations
- exploreranthropologistpolitician
- Biography
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Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane was a Mozambican revolutionary and anthropologist who was the founder of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO). He served as the FRELIMO's first leader until his assassination in 1969 in Tanzania. An anthropologist by profession, Mondlane also worked as a history and sociology professor at Syracuse University before returning to Mozambique in 1963.
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Moses Fleetwood Walker
- Occupations
- inventorbaseball player
- Biography
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Moses Fleetwood Walker, sometimes nicknamed Fleet Walker, was an American professional baseball catcher credited with being the first black man to play major league baseball. A native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and a star athlete at Oberlin College as well as the University of Michigan, Walker played for semi-professional and minor league baseball clubs before joining the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association (AA) for the 1884 season.
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John Wesley Powell
- Occupations
- writergeographergeologistbotanical collectorbotanist
- Biography
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John Wesley Powell was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He is famous for his 1869 geographic expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, including the first official U.S. government-sponsored passage through the Grand Canyon.
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Mark Boal
- Occupations
- film producertelevision actorfilm screenwriterscreenwritertelevision director
- Biography
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Mark Boal is an American journalist, screenwriter, and film producer. Boal initially worked as a journalist, writing for outlets like Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Salon, and Playboy. Boal's 2004 article "Death and Dishonor" was adapted for the film In the Valley of Elah, which Boal also co-wrote.
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Edwin O. Reischauer
- Occupations
- linguisthistorianuniversity teacherjapanologistdiplomat
- Biography
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Edwin Oldfather Reischauer was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University. Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and culture of Japan and East Asia. Together with George M. McCune, a scholar of Korea and several Korean linguists, in 1939 he developed the McCune–Reischauer romanization of the Korean language.
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Tracy Chevalier
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- 1980-1984 graduated with licentiate
- Occupations
- novelistscreenwriterwriter
- Biography
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Tracy Rose Chevalier is an American-British novelist. She is best known for her second novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, which was adapted as a 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.
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William Grant Still
- Occupations
- composeroboistconductorfilm score composer
- Biography
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William Grant Still Jr. was an American composer of nearly two hundred works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, and more than thirty choral works, art songs, chamber music, and solo works. Born in Mississippi and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Still attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music as a student of George Whitefield Chadwick and then as a student of Edgard Varèse. Because of his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, Still is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Kathleen Neal Cleaver
- Occupations
- activistlawyerjournalistprofessor
- Biography
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Kathleen Neal Cleaver is an American law professor and activist known for her involvement with the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party.
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Lucy Stone
- Occupations
- abolitionistwriterwomen's rights activistsuffragisteditor
- Biography
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Lucy Stone was an American orator, abolitionist and suffragist who was a vocal advocate for and organizer of promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery. Stone was known for using her birth name, after marriage, contrary to the custom of women taking their husband's surname.
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François Clemmons
- Occupations
- singertelevision actor
- Biography
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François Scarborough Clemmons is an American singer, actor, writer and teacher. He is known for his appearances as "Officer Clemmons" on the PBS television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from 1968 to 1993.
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Peter Baker
- Occupations
- journalistpolitical analyst
- Biography
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Peter Eleftherios Baker is an American journalist and author. He is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for MS NOW. He was a reporter for The Washington Post for 20 years. He has covered six presidencies, from Bill Clinton through Donald Trump.
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Roger Sperry
- Occupations
- university teacherneurologistpsychologistphysiologistphysician
- Biography
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Roger Wolcott Sperry was an American neuropsychologist, neurobiologist, cognitive neuroscientist, and Nobel laureate who, together with David H. Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel, won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work with split-brain research. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Sperry as the 44th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
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Paolo Bacigalupi
- Occupations
- science fiction writerfantasy authorwriterchildren's writernovelist
- Biography
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Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell Memorial, Compton Crook, Theodore Sturgeon, and Michael L. Printz awards, and has been nominated for the National Book Award. His fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, and the environmental journal High Country News. Nonfiction essays of his have appeared in Salon.com and High Country News, and have been syndicated in newspapers, including the Idaho Statesman, the Albuquerque Journal, and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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Yvette Clarke
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- Studied in 1982-1986
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Yvette Diane Clarke is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she first entered Congress in 2007, representing New York's 11th congressional district until redistricting. Clarke represented the 40th district in Brooklyn on the New York City Council from 2002 to 2006.
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Ishmael Beah
- Occupations
- writersoldier
- Biography
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Ishmael Beah is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone. His novel Radiance of Tomorrow was published in January 2014. His most recent novel Little Family was published in April 2020.
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Julie Atlas Muz
- Occupations
- choreographerbeauty pageant contestantdanceractor
- Biography
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Julie Atlas Muz is a New York City-based performance artist, dancer, burlesque artist, stage director, and actress. In 2012, she married English actor Mat Fraser.
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Anna J. Cooper
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- In 1884 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- writersociologistsuffragisteducatorpolitical theorist
- Biography
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Anna Julia Cooper was an African American author, educator, and activist. Although born enslaved, Cooper pursued higher education at Oberlin College in Ohio, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1884 and a master's degree in mathematics in 1887. At the age of sixty-six, she completed her doctoral studies at the University of Paris, making her the fourth African American woman to earn a PhD. She was a well-known member of Washington, D.C.'s African-American community, and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
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Gary Shteyngart
- Occupations
- novelistwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Gary Shteyngart is a Soviet-born American writer. He is the author of six novels (including The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, Super Sad True Love Story, Vera, or Faith), and a memoir. Much of his work is satirical.
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Wayne Wheeler
- Occupations
- lawyerjurist
- Biography
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Wayne Bidwell Wheeler was an American attorney and longtime leader of the Anti-Saloon League. The leading advocate of the prohibitionist movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s, he played a major role in the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages.
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Lorenzo Snow
- Occupations
- politicianwriterpresbyter
- Biography
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Lorenzo Snow was an American religious leader who served as the fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1898 until his death. Snow was the last president of the LDS Church in the 19th century and the first in the 20th.
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Mary Church Terrell
- Occupations
- lecturerwritersuffragistwomen's rights activistcivil rights advocate
- Biography
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Mary "Mollie" Eliza Church Terrell was an American civil rights activist, journalist, teacher and one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. She taught in the Latin Department at the M Street School (now known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School)—the first African American public high school in the nation—in Washington, DC. In 1895, she was the first African-American woman in the United States to be appointed to the school board of a major city, serving in the District of Columbia until 1906. Terrell was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) and the Colored Women's League of Washington (1892). She helped found the National Association of Colored Women (1896) and served as its first national president, and she was a founding member of the National Association of College Women (1923). She was a pioneering African American civil rights activist, educator, and suffragist who championed racial and gender equality throughout her life.
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James Lawson
- Occupations
- pastorhuman rights defendermissionaryuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
James Morris Lawson Jr. was an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was expelled from Vanderbilt University for his civil rights activism in 1960, and later served as a pastor in Los Angeles for 25 years.
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Joan Feynman
- Occupations
- astrophysicistastronomerphysicist
- Biography
-
Joan Feynman was an American astrophysicist and space physicist. She made contributions to the study of solar wind particles and fields, sun-Earth relations, and magnetospheric physics. She was known for creating a model that predicts the number of high-energy particles likely to hit a spacecraft over its lifetime, and for uncovering a method for predicting sunspot cycles. She was particularly known for illuminating the origin of auroras.
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Tom Frieden
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
-
Thomas R. Frieden is an American infectious disease and public health physician. He serves as president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global initiative working to prevent epidemics and cardiovascular disease. Launched in 2017 as a five-year initiative, it became an independent non-profit organization in 2022.
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Alex Blumberg
- Occupations
- podcasterscreenwriterjournalist
- Biography
-
Alex Blumberg is an American entrepreneur, radio journalist, former producer for public radio and television, best known for his work with This American Life, Planet Money, and How to Save a Planet. He was the co-founder and CEO of the podcast network Gimlet Media.
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Blanche Bruce
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- Studied in 1866-1869
- Occupations
- land ownerschool superintendentpoliticianfarmerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Blanche Kelso Bruce was an American politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia, he went on to become the first elected African American senator to serve a full term (Hiram R. Revels, also of Mississippi, was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate but did not complete a full term).
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Jad Abumrad
- Occupations
- radio personalityuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jad Nicholas Abumrad is an American radio host, composer, and producer.
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Joshua Angrist
- Occupations
- university teachereconomisteconometrician
- Biography
-
Joshua David Angrist is an Israeli American economist and Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Angrist, together with Guido Imbens, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2021 "for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships".
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Audrey Gelman
- Years
- 1987-.. (age 39)
- Occupations
- entrepreneurpolitical adviser
- Biography
-
Audrey Gelman is an American businessperson and political staffer. She is the founder of The Wing, a women's co-working space and social club founded in New York City in 2016. She founded The Six Bells Inn in 2025. She was the inspiration for Allison Williams's character Marnie on Girls.
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Alex Scally
- Occupations
- musicianguitarist
- Biography
-
Alex Kristian Scally is an American multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He is known as the co-writer, guitarist and backing vocalist of the dream pop band Beach House, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums.
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Donald Henderson
- Occupations
- epidemiologist
- Biography
-
Donald Ainslie Henderson was an American physician, educator, and epidemiologist who directed a 10-year international effort (1967–1977) that eradicated smallpox throughout the world and launched international childhood vaccination programs. From 1977 to 1990, he was Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Later, he played a leading role in instigating national programs for public health preparedness and response following biological attacks and national disasters via establishing the Center for Health Security. At the time of his death, he was Professor and Dean Emeritus of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as Distinguished Scholar and former Founder of the Center for Health Security.
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Stanley Cohen
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- Graduated with Master of Arts in zoology
- Occupations
- endocrinologistphysiologistbiochemistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Stanley Cohen was an American biochemist who, along with Rita Levi-Montalcini, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for the isolation of nerve growth factor and the discovery of epidermal growth factor.
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Lucy Wainwright Roche
- Occupations
- singersongwriter
- Biography
-
Lucy Wainwright Roche is an American singer-songwriter. Preceded by two EPs, 8 Songs and 8 More, Roche released her debut album, Lucy in October 2010. In 2013, she starred as Jeri in the Stuff You Should Know television show.
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Anna Louise Strong
- Occupations
- poetwriterpeace activistactivisttrade unionist
- Biography
-
Anna Louise Strong was an American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. She wrote over 30 books and varied articles.
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Alexander Perls
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- Studied in 1994-1998
- Occupations
- record producer
- Biography
-
Alexander Perls Rousmaniere is an American former musician, DJ, entrepreneur, and record producer. His songs are known for their mix of electronic, trance, and religiously themed lyrics and are entirely written, performed, and produced by Perls; notable projects include 009 Sound System and Aalborg Soundtracks.
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Shirley Graham Du Bois
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- In 1934 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- In 1935 graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- biographerwriterplaywrightoratorcomposer
- Biography
-
Shirley Graham Du Bois was an American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes, among others. She won the Messner and the Anisfield-Wolf prizes for her works. She was also the wife of activist W. E. B. Du Bois.
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Charles Martin Hall
- Occupations
- inventorchemist
- Biography
-
Charles Martin Hall was an American inventor, businessman, and chemist. He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminium, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron. He was one of the founders of Alcoa, along with Alfred E. Hunt; Hunt's partner at the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, George Hubbard Clapp; Hunt's chief chemist, W. S. Sample; Howard Lash, head of the Carbon Steel Company; Millard Hunsiker, sales manager for the Carbon Steel Company; and Robert Scott, a mill superintendent for the Carnegie Steel Company. Together they raised $20,000 to launch the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which was later renamed Aluminum Company of America and then shortened to Alcoa.
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Benjamin Wittes
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
-
Benjamin Wittes is an American legal journalist. He is editor in chief of Lawfare and senior fellow in governance studies at The Brookings Institution, where he is the research director in public law, and co-director of the Harvard Law School–Brookings Project on Law and Security. He works principally on issues related to American law and national security. Wittes was number 15 on the Politico 50 of 2017, described as "Bard of the Deep State". He also reports for Lawfare's newsletter.
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Lloyd Morrisett
- Occupations
- philanthropistpsychologist
- Biography
-
Lloyd Newton Morrisett Jr. was an American experimental psychologist with a career in education, communications, and philanthropy. He was one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop), the organization that created the children's television show Sesame Street, which Morrisett created with Joan Ganz Cooney from its debut from 1969 until his death in 2023. Lloyd Morrisett died on January 15th, 2023 of natural causes. Lloyd Morrisett was 93 years old.
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Brian Chase
- Occupations
- drummerrecord producer
- Biography
-
Brian William Chase is an American drummer and drone musician who plays in the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He was ranked at No. 50 in Gigwise's list of The Greatest Drummers of All Time.
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Steven Isserlis
- Occupations
- children's writercellist
- Biography
-
Steven John Isserlis CBE is a British cellist. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He is also noted for his diverse repertoire and distinctive sound which is partly from his use of gut strings.
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Luther Halsey Gulick
- Occupations
- political scientist
- Biography
-
Luther Halsey Gulick was an American political scientist, Eaton Professor of Municipal Science and Administration at Columbia University, and Director of its Institute of Public Administration, known as an expert on public administration.
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Richard Theodore Greener
- Occupations
- librarianlawyerdiplomatclassical scholar
- Biography
-
Richard Theodore Greener was a pioneering African-American scholar, excelling in elocution, philosophy, law and classics in the Reconstruction era. In 1870, he became the first black undergraduate at Harvard University to receive a bachelor's degree. The previous year, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine awarded degrees to their first black graduates in 1869.
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Larry Sweeney
- Occupations
- manageramateur wrestlerprofessional wrestler
- Biography
-
Alexander K. Whybrow was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name Larry Sweeney. He performed primarily on the American independent circuit, but also competed in Canada, Mexico, Japan and Europe.
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Peter Staley
- Occupations
- LGBTQ rights activistHIV/AIDS activist
- Biography
-
Peter Staley is an American political activist, known primarily for his work in HIV/AIDS activism. As an early and influential member of ACT UP, New York, he founded both the Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the educational website AIDSmeds.com. Staley is a primary figure in the Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague.
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John Langalibalele Dube
- Occupations
- writerpoetjournalistpolitician
- Biography
-
John Langalibalele Dube OLG was a South African essayist, philosopher, educator, politician, publisher, editor, novelist and poet. He was the founding president of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the African National Congress in 1923. He was an uncle to Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, with whom he founded SANNC. Dube served as the president of SANNC between 1912 and 1917. He was brought to America by returning missionaries and attended Oberlin Preparatory Academy.
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Robert Krulwich
- Years
- 1947-.. (age 79)
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
-
Robert Louis Krulwich is a retired American radio and television journalist who co-hosted the radio show Radiolab and served as a science correspondent for NPR. He has reported for ABC, CBS, and Pacifica, with assignment pieces for ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight, as well as PBS's Frontline, NOVA, and NOW with Bill Moyers. TV Guide called him "the most inventive network reporter in television", and New York Magazine wrote that he's "the man who simplifies without being simple."
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Bruce Catton
- Occupations
- historianmilitary historianjournalistwriter
- Biography
-
Charles Bruce Catton was an American historian and journalist who wrote books concerning the American Civil War. As a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring interesting characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the basic facts, dates, and analyses. His books were well researched and included footnotes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1954 for his book A Stillness at Appomattox (1953), a study of the final campaign of the war in Virginia and third book in his Army of the Potomac trilogy.
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Robert Maynard Hutchins
- Occupations
- university teacherpedagogue
- Biography
-
Robert Maynard Hutchins was an American educational philosopher. He was the 5th president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago, and earlier dean of Yale Law School (1927–1929). His first wife was the novelist Maude Hutchins. Although his father and grandfather were both Presbyterian ministers, Hutchins became one of the most influential members of the school of secular perennialism.
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Ry Russo-Young
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriter
- Biography
-
Ry Russo-Young is an American filmmaker and producer, originally from New York City. Her early independent work has been associated with the mumblecore genre, though she has gone on to direct wide-release feature films Before I Fall and The Sun Is Also a Star (2019) as well as high profile documentary projects Nuclear Family (2021), Call Her Alex (2025), and episodic television (And Just Like That..., Shrinking).
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Kiese Laymon
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
-
Kiese Laymon is an American writer. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. He is the author of three full-length books: a novel, Long Division (2013), and two memoirs, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (2013) and the award-winning Heavy: An American Memoir (2018). Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.
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John Mercer Langston
- Occupations
- diplomatlawyerpolitician
- Biography
-
John Mercer Langston was an African American abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician. He was the founding dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department. He was the first president of what is now Virginia State University, a historically black college. He was elected a U.S. Representative from Virginia and wrote From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol; Or, the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress From the Old Dominion.
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Megan Marie Hart
- Enrolled in Oberlin College
- 2001-2005 graduated with Bachelor of Music
- 2005-2006 graduated with Master of Music
- Occupations
- opera singer
- Biography
-
Megan Marie Hart is an American operatic soprano from Eugene, Oregon, performing in leading operatic roles and concerts in America and Europe.
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Jane Pratt
- Occupations
- journalistfiddler
- Biography
-
Jane Pratt is the founding editor of Sassy, Jane and xoJane. She is the host of the talk show Jane Radio on Sirius XM Radio.
