65 Notable alumni of
Wabash College
Updated:
Wabash College is 1335th in the world, 474th in North America, and 444th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 65 notable alumni from Wabash 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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Max Wright
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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George Edward "Max" Wright was an American actor, known for his role as Willie Tanner on the sitcom ALF (1986–1990).
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Dean Jagger
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actoractor
- Biography
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Dean Jagger was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King's Twelve O'Clock High (1949).
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Thomas R. Marshall
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Thomas Riley Marshall was an American politician who served as the 28th vice president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. A prominent lawyer in Indiana, he became an active and well known member of the Democratic Party by stumping across the state for other candidates and organizing party rallies that later helped him win election as the 27th governor of Indiana. In office, he attempted to implement changes from his progressive agenda to the Constitution of Indiana, but his efforts proved controversial and were blocked by the Indiana Supreme Court.
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Mike Braun
- Enrolled in Wabash College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- businesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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Michael Kent Braun is an American businessman and politician serving as the 52nd governor of Indiana since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he served from 2019 to 2025 as a United States senator from Indiana and from 2014 to 2017 as the representative for the 63rd district in the Indiana House of Representatives. Braun was elected to the United States Senate in 2018, defeating Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly. He was elected governor in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian nominee Donald Rainwater by a margin of 13.3%, the highest margin in an open seat election for governor since 1980.
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Joseph Stephen Crane
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Joseph Stephenson "Steve" Crane was an American actor and restaurateur. A Columbia Pictures actor in the early 1940s, Crane opened the Luau, a popular celebrity restaurant, in 1953 and established a successful 25-year career in the restaurant industry. In addition to his own accomplishments, Crane is often remembered as Lana Turner's twice ex-husband.
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Silky Nutmeg Ganache
- Occupations
- drag queen
- Biography
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Silky Nutmeg Ganache is an American drag performer most known for competing on the eleventh season (2019) of RuPaul's Drag Race and on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2021. She has also been involved in numerous Drag Race spin-offs, including RuPaul's Drag Race: Vegas Revue (2020) and RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race (2022). She also competed in the first Canadian-based international All Stars spin-off series, Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World in 2022, finishing as a runner-up.
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Todd Rokita
- Enrolled in Wabash College
- In 1992 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Theodore Edward Rokita is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 44th and current Attorney General of Indiana. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served two terms as Secretary of State of Indiana from 2002 to 2010. When Rokita was elected to office in 2002 at age 32, he became the youngest secretary of state in the United States at the time.
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William Harrison Hays
- Occupations
- politicianwriterpublic figurelawyer
- Biography
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William Harrison Hays Sr. was an American politician, and member of the Republican Party. As chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1918 to 1921, Hays managed the successful 1920 presidential campaign of Warren G. Harding. Harding then appointed Hays to his cabinet as his first Postmaster General. He resigned from the cabinet in 1922 to become the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. As chairman, Hays oversaw the promulgation of the Motion Picture Production Code (informally known as the Hays Code), which spelled out a set of moral guidelines for the self-censorship of content in American cinema.
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Jim Edgar
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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James Robert Edgar is an American politician who served as the 38th governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999. A moderate Republican, he previously served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1977 to 1979 and as the 35th Secretary of State of Illinois from 1981 to 1991.
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Andrea James
- Enrolled in Wabash College
- 1985-1989 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm produceropinion journalistfilm directorfilm editor
- Biography
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Andrea Jean James is an American transgender rights activist, film producer, and blogger.
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Luke Messer
- Enrolled in Wabash College
- In 1991 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- employeecongressional staffpoliticianchief executive officerlawyer
- Biography
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Allen Lucas Messer is an American politician and lobbyist who represented Indiana's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party.
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Henry Lane Wilson
- Occupations
- writerdiplomatlawyer
- Biography
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Henry Lane Wilson was an American attorney, journalist, and diplomat who served successively as United States Minister to Chile (1897–1904), Minister to Belgium (1905–09), and Ambassador to Mexico (1909–13). He is best known to history for his involvement in the February 1913 coup d'etat which deposed and assassinated President of Mexico Francisco I. Madero, for which he remains controversial and "perhaps the most vilified United States official of [the 20th] century" in Mexico.
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Edward Canby
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Edward Richard Sprigg Canby was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. He served as a military governor after the war.
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David E. Kendall
- Occupations
- lawyerwriter
- Biography
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David Evan Kendall is an American attorney, a graduate of Wabash College, Yale Law School, and Worcester College, Oxford, who clerked with Supreme Court Justice Byron White, worked as associate counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and has been a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP of Washington, DC since 1981, where he has provided legal counsel to individuals and corporations on high-profile business and political matters.
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Stephen Goldsmith
- Occupations
- juristpolitician
- Biography
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Stephen "Steve" Goldsmith is an American politician and writer who was the 46th mayor of Indianapolis. He also served as the deputy mayor of New York City for operations from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Indiana in 1988 and governor of Indiana in 1996. He is currently the Derek Bok Professor of the Practice of Urban Policy and Director of Data-Smart City Solutions at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 2006, Goldsmith was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
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Joseph E. McDonald
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Joseph Ewing McDonald was an American politician who served as a United States representative and Senator from Indiana. He also served as Indiana's 2nd Attorney General and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for President in 1884.
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Robert G. Roeder
- Occupations
- biologistuniversity teacherbiochemist
- Biography
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Robert G. Roeder is an American biochemist. He is known as a pioneer scientist in eukaryotic transcription. He discovered three distinct nuclear RNA polymerases in 1969 and characterized many proteins involved in the regulation of transcription, including basic transcription factors and the first mammalian gene-specific activator over five decades of research. He is the recipient of the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 2000, the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2003, and the Kyoto Prize in 2021. He currently serves as Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Biochemical and Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University.
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Joseph Nelson Rose
- Occupations
- botanistcuratorwriterbotanical collector
- Biography
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Joseph Nelson Rose was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, Indiana.
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Dwight H. Green
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Dwight Herbert Green was an American politician who served as the 30th Governor of the US state of Illinois, serving from 1941 to 1949.
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John C. Black
- Occupations
- politicianmilitary officerlawyer
- Biography
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John Charles Black was a Democratic U.S. Congressman from Illinois. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions as a Union Army lieutenant colonel and regimental commander at the Battle of Prairie Grove during the American Civil War.
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Ward Lambert
- Occupations
- baseball playerbasketball coachbasketball playerAmerican football player
- Biography
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Ward Louis "Piggy" Lambert was an American basketball and baseball coach. He served as the head basketball coach at Purdue University during the 1916–17 season and from 1918 to 1946. Lambert was also the head baseball coach at Purdue in 1917, from 1919 to 1935, and from 1945 to 1946. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960.
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Byron Price
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Byron Price was director of the U.S. Office of Censorship during World War II.
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Garland Buckeye
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Garland Maiers "Gob" Buckeye was a professional football and baseball player. He debuted as a pitcher in the major leagues in 1918, was a professional football offensive lineman for several years in the early 1920s, and returned to professional baseball between 1925 and 1928.
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William H. Spaulding
- Occupations
- basketball coach
- Biography
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William H. Spaulding was an American football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. Spaulding coached at UCLA from 1925 to 1938. He had a successful tenure, compiling a 72–51–8 (.580) record. He also served as the head football coach at the University of Minnesota from 1922 to 1924. His record there was 11–7–4 (.591). He succeeded the legendary football coach Henry L. Williams. Prior to coaching at Minnesota he coached Western State Normal School (now known as Western Michigan University) from 1907 to 1921. Spaulding was the head football, basketball and baseball at Western State Normal. Spaulding attended Wabash College, where he played college football. In 1984, he was inducted into the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame.
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Damon R. Leichty
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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Damon Ray Leichty is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.
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Pierre F. Goodrich
- Years
- 1894-1973 (aged 79)
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Pierre Frist Goodrich was an American businessman and conservative philanthropist.
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Richard J Stephenson
- Occupations
- investment banker
- Biography
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Richard J. Stephenson is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and the founder and chair of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). He is active in conservative politics.
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Raymond E. Willis
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Raymond Eugene Willis was a United States senator from Indiana. Born in Waterloo, Indiana, he attended the public schools and graduated from Wabash College in 1896. He learned the printer's trade in Waterloo and moved to Angola, Indiana, and engaged in the newspaper publishing business in 1898. He was postmaster of Angola from 1910 to 1914 and during the First World War he served as chairman of Steuben County Council of Defense, 1917-1918.
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Wilbur Cortez Abbott
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacherhistorian
- Biography
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Wilbur Cortez Abbott was an American historian and educator, born at Kokomo, Indiana.
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Thomas M. Patterson
- Occupations
- publisherpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Thomas MacDonald Patterson was an American politician and newspaper publisher who served as a member of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives from Colorado.
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John L. Wilson
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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John Lockwood Wilson was an American lawyer and politician from the U.S. states of Indiana and Washington. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1889–1895) and U.S. Senate (1895–1899)
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William E. Humphrey
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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William Ewart Humphrey was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1917. He represented the state of Washington at large from 1903 to 1909 and the First Congressional District of Washington from 1909 to 1917. Humphrey also served as a member of the Federal Trade Commission from 1925 to 1933.
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Charles Cruft
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Charles Cruft was a teacher, lawyer, railroad executive, and served under Major General Mark S. Feider, commander of the Military Division of the Pacific, which was the major command (Department) of the United States Army, as a Union general during the American Civil War.
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Joshua Minkler
- Years
- 1963-.. (age 62)
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Joshua Minkler is an American attorney who is a partner at Barnes & Thornburg. He served as the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana from October 2017 through November 2020. He served as interim U.S. Attorney for the same district from June 2015 until September 2017, when he was confirmed for the position by the United States Senate. Minkler graduated from Wabash College in 1985 and Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 1988. Prior to assuming his role as a U.S. Attorney, Minkler served for 21 years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Indiana, where he held the positions of First Assistant United States Attorney and Chief of the Drug and Violent Crime Unit. Before he joined the U.S. Attorney's office, Minkler served for five years as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the office of the Kent County, Michigan, prosecuting attorney, where he prosecuted violent crimes.
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Andrew J. Moyer
- Occupations
- microbiologistmycologist
- Biography
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Andrew J. Moyer was an American microbiologist. He was a researcher at the USDA Northern Regional Research Laboratory in Peoria, Illinois. His group was responsible for the development of techniques for the mass production of penicillin. This led to the wide scale use of penicillin in World War II.
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Fredrick I. Eglin
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Frederick Irving Eglin was a career officer in the United States Army Air Service and United States Army Air Corps. He was killed in an air crash on January 1, 1937, and Eglin Field (later Eglin Air Force Base), Florida, was named in his honor on August 4, 1937.
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Charles D. Herron
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Charles Douglas Herron was a decorated Lieutenant General in the United States Army. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he participated in the Spanish–American War and both World Wars.
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William Alvin Pittenger
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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William Alvin Pittenger was a United States Representative from Minnesota's 8th congressional district. He was born on a farm near Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana and attended rural schools. Pittenger graduated from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1909, and from Harvard Law School in 1912. He was admitted to the bar in 1912 and opened a law practice in Duluth, Minnesota.
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Robert Eugene Allen
- Years
- 1935-2016 (aged 81)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Robert Eugene Allen was an American telecommunications businessman.
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Ed Summers
- Occupations
- baseball playerassociation football player
- Biography
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Oren Edgar Summers, nicknamed "Kickapoo Ed", was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played five seasons with the Detroit Tigers from 1908 to 1912.
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John Pope
- Biography
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John Pope is a former Chicago City Council alderman from the 10th ward of the City of Chicago. He was first elected in 1999 and served four terms, the last of which ended in 2015 when he lost an election to Alderman Susan Sadlowski Garza in 2015.
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Charles B. Landis
- Occupations
- politicianjournalisteditor
- Biography
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Charles Beary Landis was an American newspaperman and politician who served six terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1897 to 1909.
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John V. Beamer
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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John Valentine Beamer was an American businessman and veteran of World War I who served four terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1951 to 1959.
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Oscar R. Cauldwell
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Oscar Ray Cauldwell was an officer of the United States Marine Corps with the rank of major general, who served as assistant division commander of 3rd Marine Division and later as commanding general of the Training Command, Fleet Marine Force, San Diego, during World War II.
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Donald L. Custis
- Enrolled in Wabash College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- surgeon
- Biography
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Donald Lauren Custis was an American vice admiral in the United States Navy who served as Surgeon General of the United States Navy from 1973 to 1976. He later served as chief medical director for the Veterans Administration from 1980 to 1984.
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Michael D. White
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Michael Doherty White was an American lawyer and politician who served one term as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1877 to 1879.
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Joseph Swain
- Occupations
- writerichthyologistacademic
- Biography
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Joseph Swain served as the ninth president of Indiana University and also as the sixth president of Swarthmore College.
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Charles S. Hartman
- Occupations
- judgepoliticianlawyerdiplomat
- Biography
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Charles Sampson Hartman was a U.S. Representative from Montana.
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Herbert Hice Whetzel
- Occupations
- mycologistphytopathologistwriter
- Biography
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Herbert Hice Whetzel was an American plant pathologist and mycologist. As a professor of plant pathology, he led the first department of plant pathology at an American university and founded the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium (CUP).
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Emery Andrew Rovenstine
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Emery Andrew Rovenstine was an American anesthesiologist best known for organizing the first academic Department of Anesthesiology at New York's Bellevue Hospital. He also helped develop the anesthetic use for the gas cyclopropane, and he was a pioneer in therapeutic nerve blocking. Upon his death in 1960, the New York Times proclaimed him "one of the world's foremost anesthesiologists."
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Andrew H. Hamilton
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Andrew Holman Hamilton was an American lawyer and politician who served two terms as a politician from Indiana who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1875 to 1879.
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Robert B. F. Peirce
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Robert Bruce Fraser Peirce was an American lawyer, Civil War veteran and politician who served one term as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1881 to 1883.
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Robert Wedgeworth
- Occupations
- academic librarian
- Biography
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Robert Wedgeworth is an American librarian who was the founding President of ProLiteracy Worldwide, an adult literacy organization. He is also a former executive director of the American Library Association, served as president of IFLA, served as Dean of the School of Library Service at Columbia University, and was university librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also authored and edited several major reference works, and has won many awards over the course of his career. In 2021 the American Library Association awarded him Honorary Membership, its highest award.
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Thomas Jefferson Hudson
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Thomas Jefferson Hudson was a U.S. Representative from Kansas.
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John C. Conner
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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John Coggswell Conner was a U.S. Representative from Texas.
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James Wilson
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomatlawyer
- Biography
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James Wilson was a United States representative from Indiana. He and his wife, Emma (Ingersoll) Wilson (daughter of Stephen Ingersoll and Hannah Elizabeth Bullard, sister to Lurton Dunham Ingersoll, were the parents of John Lockwood Wilson, Howard Wilson and Henry Lane Wilson.
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Joseph V. Graff
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Joseph Verdi Graff was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
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E. O. Brown
- Occupations
- American football coachhead coachAmerican football player
- Biography
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Edgar Osborne Brown was an American football, basketball and baseball coach and college athletics administrator. He coached at a number of colleges including Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa, Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, Central College—now known as Central Methodist University—in Fayette, Missouri and Arkansas Polytechnic College—now known as Arkansas Tech University—in Russellville, Arkansas. In the 1930s, Brown was the athletic director at the College of the Ozarks—now known as the University of the Ozarks—in Clarksville, Arkansas.
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Gary Glish
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Gary Glish is an American analytical chemist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a leading researcher in the fields of mass spectrometry, ion chemistry, and biomolecule analysis.
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Steven S. Wildman
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Steven S. Wildman is a U.S. scholar, academic and researcher who teaches and researches at the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Wildman also is co-director of the university's Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law.
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Albert Barnes Anderson
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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Albert Barnes Anderson, frequently known as A. B. Anderson, was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana.
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John Coburn
- Occupations
- military officerjudgepoliticianlawyerwriter
- Biography
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John Coburn was a United States Representative from Indiana and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
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Albert Sturges
- Occupations
- missionary
- Biography
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Albert A. Sturges was an American Protestant missionary and minister. He was among the first group of American missionaries stationed in Micronesia and helped set up the Congregational church on Pohnpei.
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Albert W. Wishard
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Albert W. Wishard was an American attorney and politician. Wishard served in the Indiana State Senate for two terms and was a United States Attorney. A Republican, Wishard was also the campaign manager for Charles W. Fairbanks two Senate campaigns.
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James Jordan
- Biography
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James Henry Jordan was a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 7, 1895, to April 5, 1912.
