46 Notable alumni of
Whitman College
Updated:
Whitman College is 1213th in the world, 434th in North America, and 406th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 46 notable alumni from Whitman 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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Adam West
- Occupations
- television actorvoice actorpresentercomedian
- Biography
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William West Anderson, professionally known as Adam West, was an American actor. He portrayed Batman in the 1960s ABC series of the same name and its 1966 theatrical feature film, reprising the role in various media until 2017. West began acting in films in the 1950s. He played opposite Chuck Connors in Geronimo (1962) and The Three Stooges in The Outlaws Is Coming (1965). He also appeared in the science fiction film Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) and performed voice work on The Fairly OddParents (2003–2008), The Simpsons (1992, 2002), and Family Guy (2000–2019), playing fictionalized versions of himself in all three.
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Dirk Benedict
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actortheatrical directorscreenwriteractor
- Biography
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Dirk Benedict is an American film, television and stage actor, and author. He is best known for playing the characters Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica film and television series and Templeton "Faceman" Peck in The A-Team television series. He is the author of Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy and And Then We Went Fishing.
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William O. Douglas
- Occupations
- lawyertrade unionistuniversity teacherjudge
- Biography
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William Orville Douglas Sr. was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 to 1975. Douglas was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views and is often cited as the U.S. Supreme Court's most liberal justice ever. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, becoming one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. In 1975, Time called Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court." He is the longest-serving justice in history, having served for 36 years and 211 days.
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Patrick Page
- Occupations
- television actorstage actorsingeractorplaywright
- Biography
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John Patrick Page is an American actor, low bass singer, and playwright. He originated the roles of the Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (2006), Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (2011), and Hades in Hadestown (2019–2022), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
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Walter Houser Brattain
- Occupations
- inventorphysicist
- Biography
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Walter Houser Brattain was an American physicist at Bell Labs who, along with fellow scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley, invented the point-contact transistor in December 1947. They shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention. Brattain devoted much of his life to research on surface states.
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Morten Lauridsen
- Occupations
- conductorcomposeruniversity teachermusic teacher
- Biography
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Morten Johannes Lauridsen is an American composer and academic teacher. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and is the distinguished professor emeritus of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he taught for fifty-two years until his retirement in 2019.
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Tommy Lloyd
- Occupations
- basketball coach
- Biography
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Tommy Lloyd is an American college basketball coach who is the current head coach at the University of Arizona of the Pac-12 Conference. His 61 wins in the first two seasons are the most for any head coach in NCAA Division I history.
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Derrike Cope
- Occupations
- racing automobile driverracing driverNASCAR team owner
- Biography
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Derrike Wayne Cope is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He is best known for his surprise win in the 1990 Daytona 500. He last competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Rick Ware Racing in an alliance with his own StarCom Racing. Cope also served as team manager of StarCom. As of 2022, he is the last driver to compete in at least one NASCAR Cup Series race in five consecutive decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s).
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Ryan Crocker
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomat
- Biography
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Ryan Clark Crocker is a retired American diplomat who served as a career ambassador within the United States Foreign Service. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he served as United States ambassador to Afghanistan (2011–2012), Iraq (2007–2009), Pakistan (2004–2007), Syria (1998–2001), Kuwait (1994–1997), and Lebanon (1990–1993). In January 2010, he became dean of Texas A&M University's George Bush School of Government and Public Service.
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James Robart
- Occupations
- judgelawyer
- Biography
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James Louis Robart is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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Jena Griswold
- Years
- 1984-.. (age 40)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jena Marie Griswold is an American attorney and politician from the state of Colorado. A Democrat, she is the 39th Colorado Secretary of State, serving since January 8, 2019.
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John Markoff
- Occupations
- writerjournalist
- Biography
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John Gregory Markoff is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at The New York Times for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture of hacker Kevin Mitnick.
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Mara Abbott
- Occupations
- sport cyclist
- Biography
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Mara Katherine Abbott is a US former professional women's bicycle racer. In 2010, Abbott became the first US cyclist ever to win the Giro d'Italia Femminile, one of the Grand Tours of women's bicycle racing. Abbott retired after the 2016 Olympic Games road race.
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Cullen Hoback
- Years
- 1981-.. (age 43)
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directorcolumnist
- Biography
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Cullen James Hoback is an American film producer and director. He is also an occasional columnist and speaker. His documentary films include Monster Camp (2007), Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013), and What Lies Upstream (2018), as well as the HBO mini-series Q: Into the Storm (2021). His documentary style has been described as non-fiction horror with a comedic tone. He appears on-camera as a central character in Terms and Conditions May Apply and What Lies Upstream.
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Dorothy M. Metcalf-Lindenburger
- Occupations
- geologistastronautteacher
- Biography
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Dorothy Marie "Dottie" Metcalf-Lindenburger is a retired American astronaut. In 2000, she married Jason Metcalf-Lindenburger, a fellow Whitman College graduate and educator, from Pendleton, Oregon, and they now have one daughter together. She was a science teacher at Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver, Washington when she was selected in 2004 as an educator mission specialist. Her parents are Joyce and Keith Metcalf, who reside in Fort Collins, Colorado. She was the first Space Camp alumna to become an astronaut.
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Walt Minnick
- Enrolled in Whitman College
- In 1964 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- politicianbusinesspersonlawyer
- Biography
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Walter Clifford Minnick is an American businessman, politician, and lobbyist who served as a U.S. Representative for Idaho's 1st congressional district, serving from 2009 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party, the last to represent Idaho in the US Congress.
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Otto Harbach
- Occupations
- songwriterscreenwriterlibrettistlyricistjournalist
- Biography
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Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading Broadway composers of the early 20th century, including Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg. Harbach believed that music, lyrics, and story should be closely connected, and, as Oscar Hammerstein II's mentor, he encouraged Hammerstein to write musicals in this manner. Harbach is considered one of the first great Broadway lyricists, and he helped raise the status of the lyricist in an age more concerned with music, spectacle, and stars. Some of his more famous lyrics are "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine".
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Anomie Belle
- Years
- 1980-.. (age 44)
- Occupations
- singer-songwriterartivistcomposer
- Biography
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Anomie Belle is an American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, and artivist from Seattle. Originally a classically-trained violinist and songwriter, Belle began writing and recording music as a child. Belle has since developed an eclectic and avant-garde musical style that incorporates aspects of electronic, classical, art pop, experimental, trip hop, glitch, and soul.
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Debra Dean
- Years
- 1957-.. (age 67)
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Debra Lynn Dean is an American writer, best known for her 2006 novel, The Madonnas of Leningrad.
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Neil Kornze
- Born in
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United States - Biography
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Neil Kornze is an American government official who served as director of the Bureau of Land Management from March 2013 to January 2017 under President Barack Obama.
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Deborah Kafoury
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Deborah Kafoury is a politician in the U.S. state of Oregon.
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Ben Westlund
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Bernard John "Ben" Westlund II was an American politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. A Democrat, he was elected State Treasurer in 2008. Previously, Westlund served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, as a Republican from 1996 to 2006, as an independent from 2006 to 2007, and then as a Democrat. Westlund dropped his Republican party affiliation to run for Governor of Oregon in the 2006 election, but dropped out of the race in August. In December 2006 he became a Democrat. Westlund worked as a business analyst, and ran businesses in mining, ranching, and agriculture.
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Holly Brooks
- Occupations
- cross-country skier
- Biography
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Holly Brooks is an American cross-country skier from Seattle, Washington who competed for Whitman College in 2001–04 and has competed recreationally since 2009. She has four victories in lesser events up to 10 km, all earned in 2009. She was a late qualifier to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, her second ever international skiing competition following the 2010 World Cup in Canmore.
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David Crockett Graham
- Occupations
- curatoranthropologist
- Biography
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David Crockett Graham was a polymath American Baptist minister and missionary, educator, author, archaeologist, anthropologist, naturalist and field collector in the Province of Sichuan (formerly spelled Szechwan) during the Chinese Republican Era, from 1911 to 1948. He was a 32nd degree Mason, and a past master of the Szechwan Lodge No. 112. From 1921 to 1942, Graham collected and sent to the Smithsonian Institution nearly 400,000 zoological specimens, including more than 230 new species and 9 new genera, of which 29 were named after him (see below). From 1932 to 1942 he was curator of the Museum of Art, Archaeology and Ethnology at the West China Union University, which still stands as part of Sichuan University, in Chengdu. There, he taught comparative religions at the Theological College, and archaeology and anthropology at the University. He wrote extensively and spent his retirement years, from 1950 to 1961, in Englewood, Colorado compiling his writings and research into three books that were published by the Smithsonian Institution. A fourth manuscript lay in the Whitman College and Northwest Archives until it was discovered by Hartmut Walravens, who edited it and published it in 2018. McKhann refers to Graham as "One of a handful of Western missionaries whose scientific work was respected by other scientists—and of even fewer scientists whose religious work was respected by other missionaries."
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Marcus Amerman
- Enrolled in Whitman College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- beadworkerpainter
- Biography
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Marcus Amerman is a Choctaw bead artist, glass artist, painter, fashion designer, and performance artist, living in Idaho. He is known for his highly realistic beadwork portraits.
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Dennis Eichhorn
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Dennis P. Eichhorn was an American writer, best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series Real Stuff. His stories, often involving, sex, drugs, and alcohol, have been compared to those of Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and Charles Bukowski.
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Sharon Nelson
- Born in
- United States
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Sharon Kay Nelson is an American politician from the state of Washington.
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David R. Nygren
- Years
- 1938-.. (age 86)
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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David Robert Nygren is a particle physicist known for his invention of the time projection chamber. He is a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington now. He has worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1973. He has been called "the most distinguished developer of particle detection instruments in the country".
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Edith Quimby
- Enrolled in Whitman College
- In 1912 studied mathematics and physics
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacherscientistnuclear physicistradiologist
- Biography
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Edith Smaw Quimby was an American medical researcher and physicist, best known as one of the founders of nuclear medicine. Her work involved developing diagnostic and therapeutic applications of X-rays. One of her main concerns was protecting both those handling the radioactive material and making sure that those being treated were given the lowest dose necessary.
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Robert Brode
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Robert Bigham Brode was an American physicist, who during World War II led the group at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory that developed the fuses used in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Stephen Beus
- Years
- 1982-.. (age 42)
- Occupations
- pianist
- Biography
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Stephen Beus is an American pianist.
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Andy Josephson
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Andrew Lewis Josephson is a member of the Alaska House of Representatives. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
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Ed Nather
- Enrolled in Whitman College
- In 1947 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in English studies
- Occupations
- physicistastronomerprogrammerresearcherscience fiction writer
- Biography
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Roy Edward Nather was an American astronomer, who at the time of his death, was professor emeritus in Astronomy at University of Texas at Austin. He pioneered the fields of asteroseismology of white dwarfs, and observational studies of interacting binary collapsed stars.
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John Morrison
- Years
- 1961-.. (age 63)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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John Morrison is an American attorney and politician who served as the elected Montana State Auditor and Insurance and Securities Commissioner from 2001 to 2009. Morrison has been a leader in health insurance policy and litigation and has handled prominent legal cases. He is the senior partner at Morrison Sherwood Wilson Deola, a public interest law firm based in Helena, Montana. In 2006, he ran unsuccessfully against Jon Tester in the Montana Democratic primary for the United States Senate nomination.
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Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg
- Years
- 1978-.. (age 46)
- Occupations
- scientist
- Biography
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Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg is an Executive in Residence at Schmidt Futures. Before that she was Director of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development. Wanjiru is also the Founder and past Executive Director of Akili Dada, a leadership incubator for African girls and young women and a former Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco.
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Linnie Marsh Wolfe
- Occupations
- librarian
- Biography
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Linnie Marsh Wolfe was an American librarian. She won the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for her 1945 biography of John Muir titled Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1945).
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Otis Halbert Holmes
- Enrolled in Whitman College
- Studied in 1923
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teacherrancherteacher
- Biography
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Otis Halbert Holmes was a U.S. Representative from Washington state, serving a total of eight consecutive terms, from 1943 to 1959. He did not stand for re-election in 1958, retiring to his ranch.
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Howard Costigan
- Years
- 1904-1985 (aged 81)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Howard Gary Costigan was an American radio commentator, political functionary, and politician. Costigan is best remembered as the Executive Secretary of the Washington Commonwealth Federation during the second half of the 1930 while he was simultaneously a secret member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA); he later provided testimony in support of legislative committees investigating communist activities.
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W. Michael Gillette
- Occupations
- judgelawyer
- Biography
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W. Michael Gillette is an American attorney and retired judge in the state of Oregon. He was a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, where he served from 1986 until 2010. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he was previously a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 1977 to 1986.
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Alan K. Campbell
- Enrolled in Whitman College
- Studied in 1947
- Occupations
- public administration scholar
- Biography
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Alan Keith Campbell was the first Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management.
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Gerard van Belle
- Occupations
- astronomer
- Biography
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Gerard Theodore van Belle is an American astronomer. He is an expert in optical (visible and near-infrared) astronomical interferometry.
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Colleen Willoughby
- Enrolled in Whitman College
- In 1955 graduated with bachelor's degree in political science and speech
- Occupations
- volunteerphilanthropist
- Biography
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Colleen S. Willoughby is an American philanthropist and the founder and former president of the Washington Women's Foundation, and the director of Global Women Partners in Philanthropy.
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A. Daniel O'Neal
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Arthur Daniel O'Neal Jr. was an American businessman. He chaired both the Washington State Transportation Commission and the (U.S.) Interstate Commerce Commission. He was on the board of directors at The Greenbrier Companies (GBX) until 2016.
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Brenton Weyi
- Occupations
- essayistplaywrightpoet
- Biography
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Brenton Weyi is an American essayist, thinker, playwright, poet, and humanist. He is an inaugural Playwright Fellow at Denver Center for the Performing Arts as well as a lead organizer for TEDxBoulder—one of the largest global TEDx events. He is known for cross-disciplinary creativity as well as for his upcoming musical, My Country, My Country
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Jack Burtch
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jack Lee Burtch was an American lawyer, World War II veteran and politician, who served three terms in the Washington House of Representatives.
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Jennifer C. McIntosh
- Occupations
- scientist
- Biography
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Jennifer McIntosh is hydrogeologist and professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences, university distinguished scholar at the University of Arizona. In 2019 she was named a Geological Society of America Fellow.
