22 Notable alumni of
Southwestern University
Updated:
Southwestern University is 1934th in the world, 670th in North America, and 630th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 22 notable alumni from Southwestern University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Bill Engvall
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorsingersongwritertelevision actor
- Biography
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William Ray Engvall Jr. is an American retired stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Engvall has released a number of stand-up comedy albums through Warner Records and the defunct BNA Records. His commercially successful album is the 1996 debut Here's Your Sign, certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album derives its name from Engvall's signature routine "here's your sign", wherein he offers "signs" to people whom he deems lacking in intellect. He has toured as a comedian both by himself and as a member of Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which included Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, and Ron White. Engvall's television roles include Delta, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, The Bill Engvall Show, and Lingo.
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Pete Sessions
- Enrolled in Southwestern University
- In 1978 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- politicianadvocatebusiness executivebusinessperson
- Biography
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Peter Anderson Sessions is an American politician who serves in the United States House of Representatives for Texas's 17th congressional district as a member of the Republican Party. He chaired the House Rules Committee from 2013 to 2019 and is a former chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. He was defeated for reelection by Democrat Colin Allred in 2018. On October 3, 2019, Sessions announced that he was running for Congress again in 2020. He was elected to the Texas's 17th congressional district seat on November 3, 2020.
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Ana Alicia
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Ana Alicia Ortiz Torres is a Mexican-American retired actress who performed in theatre and on television. After getting her television start by spending a year on the daytime soap-opera Ryan's Hope, she gained international recognition for her role as scheming vineyard heiress Melissa Agretti on the long-running primetime soap opera Falcon Crest which she portrayed for seven seasons from 1982 until 1988. She has also performed in few single episode guest-starring roles on various televisions shows or in television movies most years from the late-1970s to the mid-1990s.
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John Tower
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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John Goodwin Tower was an American politician and military veteran who represented Texas in the United States Senate from 1961 to 1985. He was the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since Reconstruction. Tower is known for leading the Tower Commission, which investigated the Iran-Contra Affair in the Reagan administration.
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Stanley Hauerwas
- Enrolled in Southwestern University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- philosophertheologianpeace activistethicist
- Biography
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Stanley Martin Hauerwas is an American Protestant theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas originally taught at the University of Notre Dame before moving to Duke University. Hauerwas was a longtime professor at Duke, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School with a joint appointment at the Duke University School of Law. In the fall of 2014, he also assumed a chair in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen. Hauerwas is considered by many to be one of the world's most influential living theologians and was named "America's Best Theologian" by Time magazine in 2001. He was also the first American theologian to deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in over forty years. His work is frequently read and debated by scholars in fields outside of religion or ethics, such as political philosophy, sociology, history, and literary theory. Hauerwas has achieved notability outside of academia as a public intellectual, even appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
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Mike Timlin
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Michael August Timlin is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. Timlin played on four World Series championship teams in an 18-year career; the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays, 1993 Toronto Blue Jays, 2004 Boston Red Sox, and 2007 Boston Red Sox.
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Phillip Wellman
- Occupations
- baseball managerbaseball coachbaseball player
- Biography
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Phillip Lane Wellman, is an American professional baseball coach and manager. He is the current bench coach for the Arizona Complex League Padres, Rookie-level affiliate of the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball. Wellman entered minor league baseball as a player in 1984 and began coaching in 1988. Wellman attended Sam Houston State University and Southwestern University.
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J. Frank Dobie
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
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James Frank Dobie was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for his many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range. He was known in his lifetime for his outspoken liberal views against Texas state politics, and he carried out a long, personal war against what he saw as braggart Texans, religious prejudice, restraints on individual liberty, and the mechanized world's assault on the human spirit. He was instrumental in saving the Texas Longhorn breed of cattle from extinction.
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Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker was an American journalist and author; winner of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence for his series of articles on the practical operation of the Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union. He was nicknamed "Red" from the color of his hair.
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Robert Homer Simpson
- Occupations
- meteorologist
- Biography
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Robert H. Simpson was an American meteorologist, hurricane specialist, first director of the National Hurricane Research Project (NHRP) from 1955 to 1959, and a former director (1967–1974) of the National Hurricane Center (NHC). He was the co-developer of the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale with Herbert Saffir. His wife was Joanne Simpson.
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Jessie Daniel Ames (1883-1972)
- Occupations
- civil rights advocate
- Biography
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Jessie Daniel Ames was a suffragist and civil rights leader from Texas who helped create the anti-lynching movement in the American South. She was one of the first Southern white women to speak out and work publicly against lynching of African Americans, murders which white men claimed to commit in an effort to protect women's "virtue." Despite risks to her personal safety, Ames stood up to these men and led organized efforts by white women to protest lynchings. She gained 40,000 signatures of Southern white women to oppose lynching, helping change attitudes and bring about a decline in these murders in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Akshay Nanavati
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Akshay Nanavati is a United States Marine veteran, speaker, entrepreneur, ultra runner and author. He served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and was later diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. His book Fearvana was endorsed by the Dalai Lama and Jack Canfield. His latest adventure is a plan to cross Antarctica solo over the 2024/2025 season.
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James Marion West Jr
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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James Marion West Jr. was a Texas oilman. He was the son of James Marion West Sr., the businessman who created the West family fortune, and brother of Wesley West. He was nicknamed "Silver Dollar Jim", because of his habit of throwing silver dollar coins toward passersby on the street. He was also called "Diamond Jim" because of the diamond-studded Texas Ranger badge he wore. He was known to chase criminals right behind the police. West kept a fleet of thirty cars, mostly Cadillacs, in or around downtown Houston, which were equipped with an arsenal of 30–35 guns. He became an iconic fixture at Galveston casinos such as the Balinese Room. He is considered to be an archetype for the eccentric Texas oilman.
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John Marvin Jones
- Occupations
- judgepoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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John Marvin Jones was a United States representative from Texas and a Judge of the United States Court of Claims.
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Scott Terry
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Scott Ray Terry is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played during six seasons at the major league level for the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.
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Carl Reynolds
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Carl Nettles Reynolds was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago White Sox (1927–1931), Washington Senators (1932, 1936), St. Louis Browns (1933), Boston Red Sox (1934–1935) and Chicago Cubs (1937–1939). He was born in LaRue, Texas, and attended Southwestern University. Reynolds betted and threw right-handed.
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Robert Ewing Thomason
- Occupations
- judgepoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Robert Ewing Thomason known as R. Ewing Thomason was a Texas politician, a member and Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, the mayor of El Paso, a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
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Carlton Massey
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Carlton Massey was an American professional football player who was a defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns (1954–1956) and Green Bay Packers (1957–1958). He attended Southwestern University and the University of Texas.
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Joan Bray
- Occupations
- politiciantrade unionistjournalistteacher
- Biography
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Joan Bray is a former teacher, journalist, and union leader. She was a Democratic member of both the Missouri House of Representatives (1993–2002) and Missouri State Senate (2003–2010). She resides with her husband, Carl Hoagland, in St. Louis, Missouri. She has two children, Noel and Kolby.
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Ernest H. Hereford
- Biography
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Ernest 'H' Hereford was Dean of North Texas Agricultural College from 1946–49, when the school was renamed Arlington State College he served as President from 1949 until his death in 1958. The college would later become the University of Texas at Arlington in 1965. His tenure included the expansion of the school system, the changing nature of the school away from primarily-agricultural studies, Cold War-era "Citizenship classes" being promoted via the state government, as well as the spearheading the change of the school theme from 'Blue Riders' to the 'Rebels' in 1951.
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William Hawley Atwell
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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William Hawley Atwell, frequently known as W. H. Atwell, was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
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Robert Lee Henry
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Robert Lee Henry was an American lawyer and politician who served ten terms as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas from 1897 to 1917.
