# What notable alumni went to your school/university? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 18, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750 "2008-12-18T15:41:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/21 "2008-12-18T16:26:34Z")
A list of [Notable Harvard Alumni](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Harvard_University_people). ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/22 "2008-12-18T16:26:52Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > A lot. Two of my favorites are Hugh Hefner and John Bardeen. Oh man, must be because of my early final today. Bardeen didn’t go to U of I, he just taught here. ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/23 "2008-12-18T16:27:26Z")
I’ll use the college I went to for three years rather than the one I went to for one year. Kate Capshaw Brad Pitt Sheryl Crow Mort Walker - did Beetle Bailey. have a BB statue on campus Edward D. Jones Richard Kinder Kenneth Lay Sam Walton Jim Lehrer Elizabeth Vargas Tim Kaine Claire McCaskill and a lot lot more ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/24 "2008-12-18T16:27:41Z")
SUNY at Buffalo: TV journalist Wolf Blitzer Ira Flatow from NPR Terry Gross, another radio personality Editorial cartoonist Tom Toles Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein Oh, and me. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/25 "2008-12-18T16:27:53Z")
From my college–Jesus College, Oxford–there were [ul][li]Harold Wilson, former PM[/li][li]T.E. Lawrence (“of Arabia”)[/li][li]Pixley ka Isaka Seme, founder of the African National Congress[/li][li]J.R. Green, the “father of modern history”[/li][li]Magnus Magnusson, of _Mastermind_[/li]Beau Nash, the Oscar Wilde of the 18th century[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/26 "2008-12-18T16:33:46Z")
**Kolga**. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/27 "2008-12-18T16:38:08Z")
We graduated this little skinny mixed-race dude wth big ears, forget his name just now, who ran for President this year…have to follow up and find out what happened with him… ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/28 "2008-12-18T16:40:30Z")
**Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute** : I guess the most famous would be one of the Farrelly brothers (Bobby, I think)…but we don’t mention that. 😛 We’ve also got: Marshall Brain (the howstuffworks guy…who was also in my fraternity!) George Ferris (inventor of the Ferris wheel) George Low (director of Apollo 11) John Oliver (a MA representative) We also have a handful of NHL players. And apparently a female NASCAR driver (though not a very good one…) who graduated a year ahead of me…I never met her, though. So no one super-famous, really. But we’re a technical school, so obviously we aren’t going to attract people who are more likely to become actors, writers, etc… Edit: Oh, I guess I’ll include **University of Vermont** , though I only attended for one year of grad school: Ben Affleck (he didn’t graduate) John LeClair (a former NHL player who won the Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1993) Kerr Smith, an actor who was on_Dawson’s Creek_ and now on _CSI:NY_ Trey Anastasio (guitarist for Phish, also didn’t graduate.) There’s also a small handful of other NHL players, and a few Nobel and Academy award winners, but not any names the average person would recognize. ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/29 "2008-12-18T16:48:56Z")
Seattle Pacific University: [ul] [li]Eugene H. Peterson '54, author of The Message[/li][li]Marilyn Meberg ‘61, co-founder of Women of Faith[/li][li]Denny Rydberg ‘67, president of Young Life[/li][li]Larry Wall '76, programmer, linguist, author, most widely known for his creation of the Perl programming language in 1987[/li][li]Dirk Been '98, Survivor contestant, season one[/li][li]Alex Thomason '00, The Apprentice (TV series) contestant, final four[/li][li]Jeff Probst, attended Autumn Quarter 1987, host of Survivor[/li][li]Jen Montzingo '05, The Littlest Groom (TV series) contestant; appears regularly on Little People Big World (TV series) as a family friend[/li][li]Kristen Eddings ’06, 2006 Miss Washington (top 10 in Miss America)[/li][/ul] Yeah, the reality TV boom has been good for alums of my school. Which is really, really weird, I think. In other news, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak went to my High School, and Teri Hatcher went to my Jr. High. ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/30 "2008-12-18T16:48:57Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Off the top of my head, we had Charlton Heston, David Duchovny, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (although I don’t think she completed her degree), and the chick who played Seven of Nine on Deep Space Nine. Um, hello? **Ed Zotti**!! For that alone, we win. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/31 "2008-12-18T16:53:51Z")
I went to Brandon University - [Notable Alumni](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_University#Notable_alumni) include Tommy Douglas and Stanley Knowles. (I didn’t realize that James Ennes’ degree was only honourary.) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/32 "2008-12-18T17:02:25Z")
[Gérard de Nerval](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9rard_de_Nerval) and [Honoré de Balzac](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balzac) would probably be the most famous alumni of my high school. [Gustave Doré](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dore), though probably much less known outside France, doesn’t deserve to be forgotten, either. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/33 "2008-12-18T17:02:38Z")
The only two really interesting ones are Francis Scott Key (though the school then bore just about no resemblance to what it is today) and Lee David Zlotoff. Who’s Lee David Zlotoff? He’s the creator of MacGyver, so I’d like to think that what we lack in notoriety of grads we make up for in pure awesomeness. (In our defense it’s one of the smallest schools in the country, so we don’t have many people to go off and get famous) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/34 "2008-12-18T17:05:16Z")
Unfortunately, Katherine Harris went to my alma mater. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/35 "2008-12-18T17:06:52Z")
I went to Kent State University and I don’t think any of our most famous alumni actually graduated: - Drew Carey - Joe Walsh - Chrissy Hynde - The guys from DEVO (they probably did) - Josh Cribbs (football player, he probably did) - Those poor kids who got shot on May 4, 1970 ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Neighbor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hi_neighbor/32/494_2.png) [@Hi\_Neighbor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Neighbor)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/36 "2008-12-18T17:13:56Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > Who’s Lee David Zlotoff? He’s the creator of MacGyver, so I’d like to think that what we lack in notoriety of grads we make up for in pure awesomeness. God bless Lee David Zlotoff and God bless MacGyver! ---
**Author:** ![I\_Am\_The\_Lorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19adc/32.png) [@I\_Am\_The\_Lorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Am_The_Lorax)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/37 "2008-12-18T17:14:55Z")
I didn’t look anything up, but I was friends with Ronnie Brown of the Miami Dolphins in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/38 "2008-12-18T17:18:23Z")
Robert Gates, Sec. of Defense. James Watson, discoverer of DNA ( I noticed Wallenstein claims him too) Lots of musicians and basketball players (what IU is known for) Indiana University. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/39 "2008-12-18T17:19:12Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > University of Michigan, the biggest notables are. > > Gerald Ford. > Darth Vadar(James Earl Jones) > 8 or so Astronauts. > Arthur Miller > Tom Brady. Don’t forget Madonna and the Unabomber. ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Neighbor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hi_neighbor/32/494_2.png) [@Hi\_Neighbor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Neighbor)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750/40 "2008-12-18T17:20:39Z")
> [@I\_Am\_The\_Lorax](#): > > I didn’t look anything up, but I was friends with Ronnie Brown of the Miami Dolphins in high school. He killed my fantasy team last year when he went out with an injury after week 7! Chad Henne, who played for Michigan and is now a backup QB for the Dolphins, went to high school five minutes from my house. Titans QB Kerry Collins also went there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-notable-alumni-went-to-your-school-university/477750.md?page=3)