List of Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni

This list of alumni of Ethical Culture Fieldston School includes graduates and non-graduate former students.

• Jill Abramson – former executive editor of The New York Times
• Carolyn Adams – dancer, choreographer, teacher
• Debo Adegbile – civil rights attorney
• Clifford Alexander Jr. – former secretary of the Army
• George J. Ames – former Lazard executive
• Joseph Amiel – author
• Diane Arbus – photographer
• Mary T. Bassett – physician and public health researcher and public advocate
• Melinda Beck – artist
• Richard D. Brown – historian of colonial and revolutionary-era America; professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut
• Nancy Cantor – chancellor, Syracuse University
• Peter H. Christensen – academic
• Ernest Courant – physicist, known as the "father of modern particle accelerators"
• Jerry Craft – children's book author, cartoonist
• Ralph de Toledano – author
• Glen de Vries – entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology
• Andrew Delbanco – critic and author; director of American studies, Columbia University
• Nicholas Delbanco – novelist
• David Denby – film critic, The New Yorker
• Joseph Leo Doob – mathematician
• Douglas Durst – real estate magnate
• Francis Fergusson – literary critic and writer
• David Frankel – film maker
• Rita Gam – film actress
• Jim Gardner – longtime WPVI-TV news anchor
• Alan Gilbert – music director of the New York Philharmonic
• Ailes Gilmour – dancer
• Leonie Gilmour – educator and writer
• Rob Glaser – internet pioneer
• Matt Goldman – performance artist
• Maggie Haberman – The New York Times political reporter
• Patricia Harris – former deputy mayor of NYC, president of Bloomberg Philanthropies
• Judith Lewis Herman – psychiatrist
• Charles Herman-Wurmfeld – film director
• Robert Jervis – political scientist, Adlai E. Stevenson Professor, Columbia University
• Elizabeth Jonas – physician, neuroscientist, and professor, Yale School of Medicine
• Rodney Jones – jazz guitarist
• Bess Kalb – comedic writer, author and writer
• Jeffrey Katzenberg – film producer, media mogul
• Yosuke Kawasaki – violinist
• Sinah Estelle Kelley – chemist
• William Melvin Kelley – author (A Different Drummer, Dunfords Travels Everywhere)
• Charlie King – New York civic leader and politician
• Arthur Kinoy – civil rights lawyer
• Ernest Kinoy – screenwriter
• Walter Koenig – actor
• Joseph Kraft – public affairs columnist
• Jake Lamar – author, writer and playwright
• Louise Lasser – actress
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt – author, The New York Times book reviewer
• Sean Ono Lennon – musician (did not graduate from Fieldston)
• Eda LeShan – child psychologist and author
• Carl P. Leubsdorf – Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
• Doug Liman – film director (Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
• Susie Linfield – author, critic, editor and NYU professor
• Andrew Litton – conductor, New York City Ballet
• Beulah Livingstone – motion picture publicist
• Douglas Lowenstein – president and CEO of Private Equity Council, founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
• Nicholas Lowry – auctioneer, poster expert and media personality
• Douglas Lowy – cancer biologist; director of U.S. National Cancer Institute
• Staughton Lynd – peace activist and civil rights activist
• Jeffrey Lyons – film critic, WNBC-TV, New York City
• Bob Marshall – conservationist, writer, and the founder of the Wilderness Society
• Andy Marvel – award-winning musician
• Grace M. Mayer – curator at the Museum of the City of New York and the Museum of Modern Art
• Jane Mayer – best selling author, investigative journalist, The New Yorker
• Zach McGowan – actor
• Marguerita Mergentime – industrial designer
• Nicholas Meyer – film director
• Mark A. Michaels – author and sexuality educator
• Jo Mielziner – stage designer
• Olivette Miller – jazz harpist
• Marvin Minsky – pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
• Tim Minton – television journalist and media executive
• Alfred Mirsky – cell biologist
• Jeannette Mirsky – writer
• Frederic S. Mishkin – governor of the Federal Reserve Board
• Joan Morgan – Jamaican-American writer and author
• Howard Nemerov – former United States Poet Laureate
• J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) – physicist, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "father of the atomic bomb"
• Jeremiah Ostriker – astrophysicist, Columbia University, Princeton University (provost 1995–2001)
• Eleanor Pepper (1904–1997) – architect, interior designer
• Marjorie Perloff (1931–2024) – poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry
• Emanuel R. Piore (1908–2000, class of 1926) – chief scientist of IBM, and electrical engineering pioneer
• Belva Plain (1915–2010) – author
• Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born 1939) – author
• Susan Poser (born 1963) – president of Hofstra University
• Eve M. Troutt Powell – historian of Middle East Studies
• Edward R. Pressman (1943–2023) – film producer
• Richard Ravitch – business and civic leader
• Nancy Reiner – graduating as Nancy Russek, cover artist of Jimi Hendrix album The Cry of Love (1971), among others
• Jonathan Rosand – neurologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Menachem Z. Rosensaft – attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
• Dan Rottenberg – journalist and author
• Muriel Rukeyser – poet and playwright
• David Sarasohn – associate editor and syndicated columnist for The Oregonian newspaper
• James H. Scheuer – US congressman (NY)
• Steven H. Scheuer – film and television historian and critic
• Daniel P. Schrag – climate scientist, geologist Harvard University
• Deborah Schrag – oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Gil Scott-Heron – musician
• Nicole Seligman – lawyer, Sony executive
• Alex Shapiro – composer and creator advocate
• Cynthia Propper Seton – novelist
• Laura Silber – author, former journalist and vice president for Advocacy and Communications at the Open Society Foundations
• Mariko Silver – former president of Bennington College, president of Luce Foundation
• Lucy Simon – composer, singer
• Stephen Slesinger – creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
• Tess Slesinger – author/screenwriter
• Alan B. Slifka – investor and philanthropist; founder of Big Apple Circus
• Jay Smooth – radio host and cultural commentator
• Donald J. Sobol – author of juvenile short stories; creator of Encyclopedia Brown
• Stephen Sondheim – composer; attended the Fieldston Lower School
• Dan Squadron – New York state senator
• Andy Stein – musician
• Stewart Stern – screenwriter
• Paul Strand – photographer and filmmaker
• A. G. Sulzberger – chairman of The New York Times Company; publisher of The New York Times
• James Toback – filmmaker
• Richard Tofel – journalist, attorney, administrator, nonfiction writer
• Doris Ulmann – photographer of Appalachia
• Laurence Urdang – lexicographer, dictionary editor
• Helen Valentine – founder of Seventeen magazine
• Elliot Villar – actor
• Andrew Weisblum – Oscar-nominated film editor
• Andrew Weissmann – attorney and professor
• Michael Wertheimer – psychologist and professor
• Chris Wink – performance artist; co-founder, Blue Man Group
• Howard Wolfson – deputy mayor of New York City
• Jane C. Wright – oncologist
• Keith L. T. Wright – New York State Assemblyman
• Sheryl WuDunn – investment banker, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
• Adam Yarmolinsky – academic and author who served in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations
• Eli Zabar – New York City restaurateur
• Lynn Zelevansky – museum curator

References