# Who is/was the Most Famous Person to graduate from your Alma Mater? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962 "2011-06-18T19:34:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/61 "2011-06-19T05:28:56Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Wikipedia claims the most famous person to graduate from our school was [D. J. Flick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._J._Flick). You know, the guy from the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He caught a touchdown pass in the Grey Cup once. Surely you remember him. Surely you jest - Flick was one of the most exciting receivers to watch when in his prime - of course he’s remembered. Not many receivers have three 1000+ seasons, out of seven seasons total. Sadly, his career ended with an injury while with the Riders - the infamous 2008 campaign where at one point the Riders had about 20 players on the injury list, several of them with broken legs, including Flick. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/62 "2011-06-19T05:40:42Z")
Adam Carolla went to my high school, in fact he was either in the same class as me or the one right after. I forget which. But his picture as a teenager is in my yearbook. As for college, there have been many famous people who went to Caltech. Perhaps the most famous alum is William Shockley. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/63 "2011-06-19T07:07:22Z")
College (TESC): **Matt Groening** (Michael Richards attended, but I don’t know if he graduated.) ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/64 "2011-06-19T10:11:10Z")
George Mason University (undergrad) probably Alec Baldwin University of Virginia (grad): Tina Fey (weird 30 Rock connection in my schools); Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Katie Couric; Walter Reed; Samuel Goldman; Woodrow Wilson and Janet Napolitano. ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/65 "2011-06-19T10:38:16Z")
Trinity College Dublin : - Samuel Beckett, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, the list is pretty much endless. And I was in secondary (I think high to Americans ? ) school with Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, the golfers. ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/66 "2011-06-19T10:55:02Z")
Keira Knightley went to my sixth form college. A bunch of people who graduated from the University of Manchester are well known. Wittgenstein and Alan Turing are maybe the most famous. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/67 "2011-06-19T12:59:37Z")
Both HS (Central HS of Philadelphia) and college (University of Pennsylvania): Noam Chomsky. The most famous person in my HS class (202nd) is the Oregon Symphony conductor James Anderson DePriest (nephew of Marion Anderson). ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/68 "2011-06-19T13:23:40Z")
Binghamton Central High School Rod Serling ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/69 "2011-06-19T15:11:34Z")
It’s only fair, I suppose, to mention that as far as I can determine online, and with no better memory to assist, the only “famous” people from my high school have been football players! I can only hope that _somebody_ accomplished something more than that. As for college, I’m going to defer to your judgment as to who is the “most famous” of this crowd: [Notable faculty and alumni](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_University#Notable_faculty_and_alumni) or [List of Vanderbilt University people](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vanderbilt_University_people) but I’m having a hard time choosing between Al Gore, Willie Geist, and Dinah Shore. (If I haven’t said so before, I never did graduate from Vandy, so I couldn’t even make my own list, even if I did become famous for something. ☹ ) ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/70 "2011-06-19T16:55:25Z")
High school is probably [Ernie Eves](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Eves), former Premier of Ontario. Nobody really stands out in the Notable Alumni section of [my college’s wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_College). Patricia O’Connor is a recipient of the Order of Canada and a founding member of the Canadian Association of Aero-Medical Transport. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/71 "2011-06-19T17:16:48Z")
There’s never been anyone close to famous who came from my hometown in Eastern Washington, so High School is “none”. College–probably John Stockton, the basketball great who played with the Utah Jazz. Bing Crosby was undoubtedly our most famous alumni, but he quit before his senior year to start his music career. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/72 "2011-06-19T17:27:17Z")
I went to Hollywood High school in Los Angeles. Famous graduates include, but are not limited to: Meredith Baxter Carol Burnett Keith Carradine Lon Chaney, Jr. Cher Warren Christopher Laurence Fishburne Judy Garland James Garner Barbara Hershey John Huston Chuck Jones Sarah Jessica Parker John Ritter Mickey Rooney Lana Turner and Fay Wray They sort of pounded how awesome our alumni were into us while we were there. Telling us stories about how the famous story about how Lana Turner was discovered happened while she was cutting class etc. I think it was supposed to be inspiring. Didn’t quite work that way though. I went to UCLA for undergrad and there are a lot of famous names that came out of that school so I won’t list them. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/73 "2011-06-19T17:28:01Z")
Oops, forgot to mention my college was Gonzaga University. > [@](#): > > College (undergrad): Penn State. You can pick your favorites from here. Personally I’d pick Fred Waring as our most famous alum; it’s not everybody who both led the most noted big band of his era and invented the electric blender. He might be the most famous, but having the [guy who invented the Slinky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_T._James) is way cooler. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/74 "2011-06-19T17:42:29Z")
The most famous person I actually had a class with was Ann Coulter. Creative Writing class. She was heavy and had bad skin. Very conservative, even then. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/75 "2011-06-19T17:45:46Z")
Western Michigan University: John Saunders (ESPN/ABC Sports) Greg Jennings (Super Bowl hero for the Green Bay Packers) Dennis Archer (Former mayor of Detroit/former president of the ABA) ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/76 "2011-06-19T18:58:55Z")
I’d say most famous would be James Gandolfini, and there’s also Milton Friedman and Janet Evanovich. Rutgers University ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/77 "2011-06-19T21:16:44Z")
Bolles (high) School: Chipper Jones. About 9 years my junior. University of Florida: must be tons, had to Google up some lists to choose-as “finalists” of sorts I’d have Buddy Ebsen, Steve Spurrier, and Bob Graham. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/78 "2011-06-19T22:13:40Z")
High School (Derryfield School, Manchester NH): Sarah Silverman University (Washington University): A whole bunch. Peter Sarsgaard, Harold Ramis, Steve Fossett, Phyllis Schlafly, among others. Tennessee Williams attended, but quit when he didn’t win some poetry prize or something. Robert Guillaume left to study opera (which I find amusing because I studied opera there). Marilyn Vos Savant allegedly dropped out because she was bored. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/79 "2011-06-19T23:09:12Z")
High School (around the time my parents were there), Gil Santos, sports broadcaster for WBZ and the “Voice of the New England Patriots.” ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962/80 "2011-06-20T10:12:01Z")
High school: the actor who played Mr. Belding on Saved by the Bell. College (Colby College) - I supposed the “most famous” would depend upon what you’re interested in, but IMO, from [this list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Colby_College_people), I’d go with: Elijah Lovejoy Doris Kearns Goodwin Margaret Chase Smith Robert Parker [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-the-most-famous-person-to-graduate-from-your-alma-mater/585962.md?page=5)