61 Notable alumni of
St. John's College
Updated:
St. John's College is 1144th in the world, 411th in North America, and 384th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 61 notable alumni from St. John's 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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Ben Sasse
- Enrolled in St. John's College
- In 1998 graduated with Master of Arts
- Occupations
- politicianmanagement consultantuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Benjamin Eric Sasse is an American politician and former academic administrator who represented Nebraska in the United States Senate from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the president of the University of Florida from 2023 to 2024.
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Francis Scott Key
- Occupations
- poetpoet lawyerlawyerwriterlyricist
- Biography
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Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and poet from Frederick, Maryland, best known as the author of the text of the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner". Key observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 during the War of 1812. He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry"; it was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven". The song with Key's lyrics became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner" and slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status as the national anthem more than a century later under President Herbert Hoover.
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Ahmet Ertegün
- Occupations
- record producercomposersongwriterentrepreneur
- Biography
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Ahmet Ertegun was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter, record executive and philanthropist.
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Lhasa de Sela
- Occupations
- singer-songwritersinger
- Biography
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Lhasa de Sela, also known by the mononym Lhasa, was an American-Canadian singer-songwriter who was raised in Mexico and the United States and divided her adult life between Canada and France. Her first album, La Llorona, went Platinum in Canada and brought Lhasa a Félix Award and a Juno Award.
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Charles Van Doren
- Occupations
- non-fiction writeruniversity teacherbiographer
- Biography
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Charles Lincoln Van Doren was an American writer and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he testified before the United States Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One. Terminated by NBC, he joined Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. in 1959, becoming a vice-president and writing and editing many books before retiring in 1982.
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George Washington Parke Custis
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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George Washington Parke Custis was an American antiquarian, author, playwright, and plantation owner. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. His father John Parke Custis served in the American Revolution with then-General George Washington, and died after the Battle of Yorktown that ended the revolution.
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Krišjānis Kariņš
- Enrolled in St. John's College
- In 1986 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- businesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš is a Latvian American politician who served as the prime minister of Latvia from 2019 until 2023. A linguist and businessman by profession, he previously served as Latvia's minister of Economics and a Member of the European Parliament. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, to parents who had left Latvia during the Soviet occupation, he was active in the American Latvian community throughout his youth.
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Glenn Yarbrough
- Occupations
- singermusician
- Biography
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Glenn Robertson Yarbrough was an American folk singer and guitarist. He was the lead singer (tenor) with the Limeliters from 1959 to 1963 and also had a prolific solo career. Yarbrough had a restlessness and dissatisfaction with the music industry which led him to question his priorities, later focusing on sailing and the setting up of a school for orphans.
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Michael Anton
- Years
- 1969-.. (age 56)
- Occupations
- speechwriterpolitical scientist
- Biography
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Michael Anton is an American conservative essayist, speechwriter and former private-equity executive who is currently the director of policy planning in the second Trump administration since January 2025. Previously, he was a senior national security official in the first Trump administration. Under a pseudonym he wrote "The Flight 93 Election," an influential essay in support of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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Graham Harman
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Graham Harman is an American philosopher. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. His work on the metaphysics of objects led to the development of object-oriented ontology. He is a central figure in the speculative realism trend in contemporary philosophy.
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Lewis Hyde Brereton
- Occupations
- aircraft pilot
- Biography
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Lewis Hyde Brereton was a military aviation pioneer and lieutenant general in the United States Air Force. A 1911 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he began his military career as a United States Army officer in the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps prior to World War I, then spent the remainder of his service as a career aviator.
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Eilen Jewell
- Occupations
- composersingersongwritersinger-songwriterstreet artist
- Biography
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Eilen Jewell is an American singer-songwriter from Boise, Idaho. She has released 13 albums.
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Jac Holzman
- Occupations
- record producermusic executivecomposerentrepreneur
- Biography
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Jac Holzman is an American record executive. He is the founder of the record labels Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records. Holzman helped commercially launch the CD and home video formats, as well as the pilot program which became MTV. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
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Lydia Polgreen
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Lydia Frances Polgreen is an American journalist. She was editorial director of NYT Global at The New York Times, and the West Africa bureau chief for the same publication, based in Dakar, Senegal, from 2005 to 2009. She also reported from India. She spent much of her early career in Johannesburg, South Africa where she was The New York Times South African Bureau Chief as well. She was editor-in-chief of HuffPost from 2016 to 2020, after which she spent about one year between 2021 and 2022 as the head of content for Gimlet Media. In 2022, after leaving Gimlet, she returned to The New York Times as an opinion columnist.
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Sandy Stone
- Occupations
- writertheoristperforming artist
- Biography
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Allucquére Rosanne "Sandy" Stone is an American academic theorist, media theorist, author, and performance artist. She is an Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin where she was the Founding Director of the Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory (ACTLab) and the New Media Initiative in the department of Radio-TV-Film. Stone has worked in and written about film, music, experimental neurology, writing, engineering, and computer programming. Stone is transgender and is considered a founder of the academic discipline of transgender studies.
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John C. Wright
- Occupations
- writerscience fiction writernovelistlawyer
- Biography
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John C. Wright is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels. He was a Nebula Award finalist for his fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos. Publishers Weekly said he "may be this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" when reviewing his debut novel, The Golden Age.
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Terry Teachout
- Occupations
- biographerbloggertheatre criticplaywrightlibrettist
- Biography
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Terrance Alan Teachout was an American author, critic, biographer, playwright, stage director, and librettist.
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Reverdy Johnson
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomatlawyer
- Biography
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Reverdy Johnson was an American politician, statesman, and jurist from Annapolis, Maryland. He gained fame as a defense attorney, defending notables such as Sandford of the Dred Scott case, Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter at his courts-martial, and Mary Surratt, alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A former Whig, he was a strong supporter of the Union war effort. At first he opposed wartime efforts to abolish slavery until 1864, and in 1865 supported the 13th Amendment banning slavery.
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Timberlake Wertenbaker
- Occupations
- writertranslatorplaywrightjournalist
- Biography
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Timberlake Wertenbaker is a British-based playwright, screenplay writer, and translator who has written plays for the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and others. She has been described in The Washington Post as "the doyenne of political theatre of the 1980s and 1990s".
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Tom G. Palmer
- Occupations
- opinion journalistpolitical theoristuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Thomas Gordon Palmer is an American libertarian author and theorist, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and Vice President for International Programs at the Atlas Network.
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Miyoko Schinner
- Occupations
- businesspersoncook
- Biography
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Miyoko Schinner is an American-Japanese vegan chef, cookbook author, activist, cooking show host and social entrepreneur. Since 2024, she has been a Faculty Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
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Warren Winiarski
- Occupations
- winegrower
- Biography
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Warren Winiarski was an American Napa Valley winemaker and the founder and proprietor of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars.
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Roger D. Carstens
- Enrolled in St. John's College
- Graduated with Master of Arts in liberal arts
- Occupations
- diplomatmilitary officer
- Biography
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Roger Dean Carstens is an American diplomat and retired United States Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel. Carstens served as the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs from 2020 to 2025.
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Lucy Tamlyn
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 70)
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Lucy Tamlyn is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo since February 2023. She previously served as chargé d'affaires to Sudan (from February to August 2022); as United States ambassador to the Central African Republic (from 2019 to 2022); and as United States ambassador to Benin (from 2015 to 2018).
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John Mullan
- Occupations
- soldiermaster builderexplorer
- Biography
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John Mullan Jr. was an American soldier, explorer, civil servant, and road builder. After graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1852, he joined the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey, led by Isaac Stevens. He extensively explored western Montana and portions of southeastern Idaho, discovered Mullan Pass, participated in the Coeur d'Alene War, and led the construction crew which built the Mullan Road in Montana, Idaho, and Washington state between the spring of 1859 and summer of 1860.
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Oden Bowie
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Oden Bowie, a member of the United States Democratic Party, was the 34th governor of the State of Maryland in the United States from 1869 to 1872.
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Seth Cropsey
- Years
- 1948-.. (age 77)
- Biography
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Seth Cropsey is an American political figure and former United States Department of Defense official. He is the author of several books and studies on maritime strategy and the president of the Yorktown Institute, which describes itself as focused on "great power competition and the U.S. naval and military supremacy that must undergird American grand strategy." He is a former Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy, where he served from 1985-2004.
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Allenna Leonard
- Occupations
- cyberneticist
- Biography
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Allenna Leonard is an American cybernetician, consultant and director of Team Syntegrity International, specializing in the application of Stafford Beer's Viable System Model and Syntegration. She was president of the American Society for Cybernetics from 2002 to 2004 and president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 2009–2010, and led the organization of its 54th annual meeting in Waterloo, Canada. Leonard is president of Metaphorum since 2022.
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Charles Sidney Winder
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Charles Sidney Winder, was a career United States Army officer and a Confederate general officer in the American Civil War. He was killed in action during the Battle of Cedar Mountain.
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Francis Thomas
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomatlawyer
- Biography
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Francis Thomas was an American politician who served as the 26th Governor of Maryland from 1842 to 1845. He also served as a United States Representative from Maryland, representing at separate times the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh districts. He also served as United States minister to Peru from 1872 to 1875, and speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1829.
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Emerson Harrington
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Emerson Columbus Harrington was an American politician who served as the 48th Governor of Maryland from 1916 to 1920. He also served as Comptroller of the Maryland Treasury from 1912 to 1916.
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William Bowie
- Occupations
- engineersurveyor
- Biography
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William Bowie was an American geodetic engineer.
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Allan C. McBride
- Enrolled in St. John's College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Allan Clay McBride was an American brigadier general and chief of staff in the Philippines at the time of the Japanese invasion. He died of starvation in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on Formosa.
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Pamela Sklar
- Occupations
- researcherneuroscientistpsychiatrist
- Biography
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Pamela Sklar was an American psychiatrist and neuroscientist. She was Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, and genetic and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She was also chief of the Division of Psychiatric Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Sklar is known for her large-scale gene discovery studies in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and for making some of the first statistically meaningful gene identifications in both mental illnesses.
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Joseph J. Himmel
- Enrolled in St. John's College
- Studied in 1869-1870
- Occupations
- Catholic priestmissionaryacademic administrator
- Biography
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Joseph J. Himmel SJ was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit. For much of his early life, he was a missionary throughout the northeast United States and retreat master. Later in life, he was president of Gonzaga College and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
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Kenneth Kronberg
- Years
- 1948-2007 (aged 59)
- Biography
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Kenneth Lewis Kronberg was an American businessman and long-time member of the LaRouche movement, an organization founded by American political activist Lyndon LaRouche.
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James Thomas
- Occupations
- judgepoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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James Thomas served as the 23rd Governor of the state of Maryland in the United States from 1833 to 1836. He practiced medicine and served as judge in several courts throughout Maryland, and served in the Maryland State Senate from 1824 to 1830.
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Addison Wiggin
- Years
- 1968-.. (age 57)
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Addison Wiggin is an American writer, publisher, and filmmaker. He is the host of the YouTube show The Wiggin Sessions, covering financial markets, the economy and politics. He writes the financial daily The Daily Missive. Addison is also the host and editor of The Essential Investor, a resource for individuals who manage their own money.
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James H. Preston
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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James Harry Preston was the Mayor of Baltimore from 1911 to 1919. He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates. From 1920 to 1921, he served as president general of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
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Frederick Stone
- Occupations
- judgepoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Frederick Stone was a lawyer who served two terms as a U.S. Congressman from the fifth district of Maryland from 1867 to 1871.
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Lewis J. Fields
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Lewis Jefferson Fields was a highly decorated officer of the United States Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant general. He served with 1st Marine Division during Vietnam War and later as commanding general of United States Marine Corps Development and Education Command.
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Thomas E. Bourke
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Thomas Eugene Bourke was a United States Marine Corps general who, during World War II, commanded Marine artillery units at the Battle of Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Leyte. At the end of World War II, he commanded the 5th Marine Division in the occupation of Japan, and the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific.
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Robert A. George
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Robert A. George is a former editorial writer for Bloomberg Opinion, the New York Daily News and the New York Post and a conservative/libertarian blogger and pundit. He was born in Trinidad and lived in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. A 1985 graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, George worked for the Republican National Committee and, following the 1994 midterm elections, Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.
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John Leeds Kerr
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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John Leeds Kerr was an American politician.
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Christopher Harrison
- Occupations
- politicianjudge
- Biography
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Christopher Harrison was the first Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, serving with Governor Jonathan Jennings. Harrison was briefly acting governor while Jennings' was conducting negotiation with the native tribes in northern Indiana, and later resigned from office over a dispute with Jennings. Harrison became a Quaker in his later life and freed all the slaves he inherited from his family. He lived a long life for his era, and died at age 88. There is no known relationship between Harrison and an early territorial governor of Indiana, William Henry Harrison.
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Jan Lisa Huttner
- Years
- 1951-.. (age 74)
- Occupations
- journalistfilm critic
- Biography
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Jan Lisa Huttner is an American film critic, journalist, activist, and independent scholar. Huttner has authored columns for prominent publications, including Women's eNews, the Huffington Post, and The Forward, and is the author of a blog, "The Hot Pink Pen," which is devoted to reviewing films by women filmmakers. She is also known for her work as a proponent of Jane Addams Day, which was officially adopted by the State of Illinois on December 10, 2007. She is one of the founders of International Swan Day.
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William H. Harrison
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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William Hartwell Harrison was a decorated officer of United States Marine Corps with the rank of brigadier general. He is most noted as commanding officer of 11th Marine Regiment during Battle of Peleliu in September 1944. Harrison later commanded the Automotive Section within Service Command, Fleet Marine Force Pacific.
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John Bremer
- Years
- 1927-2015 (aged 88)
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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John Bremer was an educator and Socratic philosopher. In 2008 he retired as a senior scholar teaching at Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he was Professor of Humanities and Director of the college's Humanities and Freedom Institute. Professor Bremer founded Cambridge College in 1971 when it was then known as the "Institute of Open Education" at Newton College of the Sacred Heart. After retirement he lived full-time in Vermont, where he continued his research and writing. He died on November 30, 2015.
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Robert Goldwin
- Occupations
- political scientist
- Biography
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Robert Allen Goldwin was an American political scientist specializing in the study of the Constitution, who left academia to enter government at the invitation of his friend Donald Rumsfeld, serving as adviser and "intellectual-in-residence" for the presidential administration of Gerald Ford. He was subsequently a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
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Alexander Contee Hanson
- Occupations
- politicianjournalisteditor
- Biography
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Alexander Contee Hanson was an American lawyer, publisher, and statesman. He represented the third district of Maryland in the U.S. House, and the state of Maryland in the U.S. Senate. The town of Hanson, Massachusetts is named after him.
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Anne S. Ferro
- Years
- 1958-.. (age 67)
- Biography
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Anne S. Ferro is an American government official, currently serving as president and CEO of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a nonprofit organization creating model programs in motor vehicle administration, law enforcement, and highway safety. She previously served as president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, administrator of the United States Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and as administrator of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration of the Maryland Department of Transportation.
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Ninian Pinkney
- Enrolled in St. John's College
- In 1830 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- surgeonmilitary officer
- Biography
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Ninian Pinkney, also spelled Pinckney, was a United States Navy surgeon and medical director. He graduated from St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, in 1829, and from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1833. He spent his entire naval career helping to further develop the field of surgery and medicine. He was especially prominent—and praised—during the American Civil War.
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Cynthia Keppel
- Occupations
- nuclear physicist
- Biography
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Cynthia E. Keppel is the Hall A and C Leader at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Her research focuses on the quark-gluon structure of the nucleon, while also considering applications of nuclear physics in medicine. She was a founding member of the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute.
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Liz Waldner
- Occupations
- poetwriter
- Biography
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Liz Waldner is an American poet.
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Claudia Stack
- Years
- 1966-.. (age 59)
- Biography
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Claudia Stack was an educator, writer, and documentary filmmaker. Her film productions included “Under the Kudzu” (2012) and “Carrie Mae: An American Life” (2015), both of which focused on schools that African American families helped to build during the segregation era. African American families in the South built schools of many different kinds from Reconstruction through the 1950s. Rosenwald schools form the most recognizable part of this school-building movement. Rosenwald schools were schools that African American communities built in partnership with the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which from 1912 to 1932 helped to build almost 5,000 school buildings across the South.
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John Carlyle Herbert
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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John Carlyle Herbert was an American lawyer, planter, military officer in the War of 1812 and politician. He served as a legislator in both Virginia and Maryland, as well as a U.S. Congressman representing Maryland's 2nd congressional district (1814-1818).
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William Hersey Hopkins
- Occupations
- teacherclassical scholar
- Biography
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William Hersey Hopkins was an American academic who served as the first president of Goucher College and acting president of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.
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William Pinkney
- Enrolled in St. John's College
- Studied in 1827
- Occupations
- authorpriest
- Biography
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William Pinkney was fifth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
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Cleland Kinloch Nelson
- Years
- 1852-1917 (aged 65)
- Occupations
- priest
- Biography
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Cleland Kinloch Nelson was the Third Bishop of the U.S. state of Georgia and the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. Nelson was the 160th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).
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Isaac Nevett Steele
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Isaac Nevett Steele was an American diplomat and lawyer who was "universally recognized for years as the leader of the Maryland Bar."
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Sydney Emanuel Mudd I
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Sydney Emanuel Mudd I was a politician, elected as Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates (1896) and as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives (1890–1891; 1897–1911), at a time of dominance by Democrats in much of the state. He was first seated by Congress in 1890 after it found in his favor in relation to the contested 1888 election in Maryland's 5th congressional district, which was marked by fraud and intimidation.
