This list of alumni of Ethical Culture Fieldston School includes graduates and non-graduate former students.
- Jill Abramson â former executive editor of The New York Times
- Carolyn Adams â dancer, choreographer, teacher
- Debo Adegbile â civil rights attorney
- Clifford Alexander Jr. â former secretary of the Army
- George J. Ames â former Lazard executive
- Joseph Amiel â author
- Diane Arbus â photographer
- Mary T. Bassett â physician and public health researcher and public advocate
- Melinda Beck â artist
- Richard D. Brown â historian of colonial and revolutionary-era America; professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut
- Nancy Cantor â chancellor, Syracuse University
- Peter H. Christensen â academic
- Ernest Courant â physicist, known as the "father of modern particle accelerators"
- Jerry Craft â children's book author, cartoonist
- Ralph de Toledano â author
- Glen de Vries â entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology
- Andrew Delbanco â critic and author; director of American studies, Columbia University
- Nicholas Delbanco â novelist
- David Denby â film critic, The New Yorker
- Joseph Leo Doob â mathematician
- Douglas Durst â real estate magnate
- Francis Fergusson â literary critic and writer
- David Frankel â film maker
- Rita Gam â film actress
- Jim Gardner â longtime WPVI-TV news anchor
- Alan Gilbert â music director of the New York Philharmonic
- Ailes Gilmour â dancer
- Leonie Gilmour â educator and writer
- Rob Glaser â internet pioneer
- Matt Goldman â performance artist
- Maggie Haberman â The New York Times political reporter
- Patricia Harris â former deputy mayor of NYC, president of Bloomberg Philanthropies
- Judith Lewis Herman â psychiatrist
- Charles Herman-Wurmfeld â film director
- Robert Jervis â political scientist, Adlai E. Stevenson Professor, Columbia University
- Elizabeth Jonas â physician, neuroscientist, and professor, Yale School of Medicine
- Rodney Jones â jazz guitarist
- Bess Kalb â comedic writer, author and writer
- Jeffrey Katzenberg â film producer, media mogul
- Yosuke Kawasaki â violinist
- Sinah Estelle Kelley â chemist
- William Melvin Kelley â author (A Different Drummer, Dunfords Travels Everywhere)
- Charlie King â New York civic leader and politician
- Arthur Kinoy â civil rights lawyer
- Ernest Kinoy â screenwriter
- Walter Koenig â actor
- Joseph Kraft â public affairs columnist
- Jake Lamar â author, writer and playwright
- Louise Lasser â actress
- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt â author, The New York Times book reviewer
- Sean Ono Lennon â musician (did not graduate from Fieldston)
- Eda LeShan â child psychologist and author
- Carl P. Leubsdorf â Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
- Doug Liman â film director (Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
- Susie Linfield â author, critic, editor and NYU professor
- Andrew Litton â conductor, New York City Ballet
- Beulah Livingstone â motion picture publicist
- Douglas Lowenstein â president and CEO of Private Equity Council, founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
- Nicholas Lowry â auctioneer, poster expert and media personality
- Douglas Lowy â cancer biologist; director of U.S. National Cancer Institute
- Staughton Lynd â peace activist and civil rights activist
- Jeffrey Lyons â film critic, WNBC-TV, New York City
- Bob Marshall â conservationist, writer, and the founder of the Wilderness Society
- Andy Marvel â award-winning musician
- Grace M. Mayer â curator at the Museum of the City of New York and the Museum of Modern Art
- Jane Mayer â best selling author, investigative journalist, The New Yorker
- Zach McGowan â actor
- Marguerita Mergentime â industrial designer
- Nicholas Meyer â film director
- Mark A. Michaels â author and sexuality educator
- Jo Mielziner â stage designer
- Olivette Miller â jazz harpist
- Marvin Minsky â pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
- Tim Minton â television journalist and media executive
- Alfred Mirsky â cell biologist
- Jeannette Mirsky â writer
- Frederic S. Mishkin â governor of the Federal Reserve Board
- Joan Morgan â Jamaican-American writer and author
- Howard Nemerov â former United States Poet Laureate
- J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904âÂÂ1967) â physicist, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "father of the atomic bomb"
- Jeremiah Ostriker â astrophysicist, Columbia University, Princeton University (provost 1995âÂÂ2001)
- Eleanor Pepper (1904âÂÂ1997) â architect, interior designer
- Marjorie Perloff (1931âÂÂ2024) â poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry
- Emanuel R. Piore (1908âÂÂ2000, class of 1926) â chief scientist of IBM, and electrical engineering pioneer
- Belva Plain (1915âÂÂ2010) â author
- Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born 1939) â author
- Susan Poser (born 1963) â president of Hofstra University
- Eve M. Troutt Powell â historian of Middle East Studies
- Edward R. Pressman (1943âÂÂ2023) â film producer
- Richard Ravitch â business and civic leader
- Nancy Reiner â graduating as Nancy Russek, cover artist of Jimi Hendrix album The Cry of Love (1971), among others
- Jonathan Rosand â neurologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Menachem Z. Rosensaft â attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
- Dan Rottenberg â journalist and author
- Muriel Rukeyser â poet and playwright
- David Sarasohn â associate editor and syndicated columnist for The Oregonian newspaper
- James H. Scheuer â US congressman (NY)
- Steven H. Scheuer â film and television historian and critic
- Daniel P. Schrag â climate scientist, geologist Harvard University
- Deborah Schrag â oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Gil Scott-Heron â musician
- Nicole Seligman â lawyer, Sony executive
- Alex Shapiro â composer and creator advocate
- Cynthia Propper Seton â novelist
- Laura Silber â author, former journalist and vice president for Advocacy and Communications at the Open Society Foundations
- Mariko Silver â former president of Bennington College, president of Luce Foundation
- Lucy Simon â composer, singer
- Stephen Slesinger â creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
- Tess Slesinger â author/screenwriter
- Alan B. Slifka â investor and philanthropist; founder of Big Apple Circus
- Jay Smooth â radio host and cultural commentator
- Donald J. Sobol â author of juvenile short stories; creator of Encyclopedia Brown
- Stephen Sondheim â composer; attended the Fieldston Lower School
- Dan Squadron â New York state senator
- Andy Stein â musician
- Stewart Stern â screenwriter
- Paul Strand â photographer and filmmaker
- A. G. Sulzberger â chairman of The New York Times Company; publisher of The New York Times
- James Toback â filmmaker
- Richard Tofel â journalist, attorney, administrator, nonfiction writer
- Doris Ulmann â photographer of Appalachia
- Laurence Urdang â lexicographer, dictionary editor
- Helen Valentine â founder of Seventeen magazine
- Elliot Villar â actor
- Andrew Weisblum â Oscar-nominated film editor
- Andrew Weissmann â attorney and professor
- Michael Wertheimer â psychologist and professor
- Chris Wink â performance artist; co-founder, Blue Man Group
- Howard Wolfson â deputy mayor of New York City
- Jane C. Wright â oncologist
- Keith L. T. Wright â New York State Assemblyman
- Sheryl WuDunn â investment banker, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
- Adam Yarmolinsky â academic and author who served in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations
- Eli Zabar â New York City restaurateur
- Lynn Zelevansky â museum curator
References