The following is a list of notable Middlebury College alumni, including both graduates and attendees. For a list of Middlebury faculty, refer to the list of Middlebury College faculty.
Notable alumni
Academia
College and university presidents
Professors
- Mary Annette Anderson 1899 â first black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa; later a professor at Howard University
- John Barlow 1895 â entomologist and college administrator, served 35 years as chairman of the Zoology Department of University of Rhode Island
- Ana Cara 1972 â creolist, translator, and Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College
- Paul O. Carrese 1989 â director of the School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University; author of The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism
- Pamela Chasek 1983 â writer and professor in the Department of Political Science at Manhattan University
- Thomas Jefferson Conant 1823 â Biblical scholar
- Christopher D'Elia 1968 â dean of the College of the Coast & Environment at Louisiana State University
- Edward Diller 1961 (MA) â Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature, University of Oregon
- Timothy M. Frye 1986 â chair of the Department of Political Science at Columbia University
- Peter Gries â Harold J. & Ruth Newman Chair in US-China Issues and Director of the Institute for U.S.-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma
- Cynthia Huntington 1983 (MA) â poet, professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College
- Sheila Miyoshi Jager 1985 (MA) â professor of East Asian Studies at Oberlin College
- Edward A. Jones â linguist, scholar and diplomat
- Dan M. Kahan 1986 â Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law at Yale Law School
- Lawrence Kritzman (MA) â scholar, Willard Professor of French, Comparative Literature and Oratory at Dartmouth College
- Jeffrey W. Legro 1982 â political scientist; executive vice president, provost, and professor at the University of Richmond; professor and vice provost for global affairs at the University of Virginia
- Ben Mathes 1981 â Professor of Mathematics at Colby College
- Christopher Merrill â poet, essayist, director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa
- Martha Merrow 1979 â chronobiologist, director of the Institute of Medical Psychology at LMU Munich
- James Morone 1975 â John Hazen White Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Brown University
- Joseph Nevins 1987 â Associate Professor of Geography at Vassar College
- Avital Ronell 1974 â Professor of German, Comparative Literature, and English at New York University
- Stuart B. Schwartz 1962 â George Burton Adams Professor of History at Yale University; chair of the Council of Latin American and Iberian Studies; former Master of Ezra Stiles College
- Suzanna Sherry 1976 â Herman O. Loewenstein Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School
- James Reist Stoner, Jr. 1977 â chair of the Department of Government; professor of political science at Louisiana State University
- Hollis Summers 1943 â poet, novelist, short story writer and editor, Professor of English at the University of Kentucky
- Anthony Julian Tamburri â dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College, CUNY; Professor of Italian & Italian/American Studies
- Enoch Cobb Wines 1827 â minister, prison reformer and Professor of Languages at Washington College
Activism
Arts
Fashion
- Tiziana DomÃÂnguez â Spanish fashion designer and artist; daughter of designer Adolfo DomÃÂnguez
- Alexandra Kotur â fashion journalist, Style Director and contributing editor for Vogue; author of Carolina Herrera: Portrait of a Fashion Icon; co-author of The World in Vogue: People, Parties, Places
Fine arts
- Peter Gallo 1981 â reclusive artist and writer known for his mixed media works which often combine a variety of unconventional materials
- Robert Gober 1976 â sculptor whose works are exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Menil Collection, the Tate Modern and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Alan Gussow 1952 â artist, teacher, author and conservationist inspired by the natural environment
- Woody Jackson 1970 â artist best known for his "Holy Cow" brand and advertising work for Ben & Jerry's ice cream
- Alison Knowles (attended) â visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and publications; was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience
- Charles Simonton Moffett 1967 â art curator and author
- James Rondeau â president and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Nancy Rosen â founded Nancy Rosen Incorporated, an organization which plans and implements public art programs and collections, including the Art-for-Public-Spaces program for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
- Timothy Rub 1974 â director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Literature
- John W. Aldridge (summer session 1942) â writer and literary critic, professor of English at the University of Michigan, director of the Hopwood Program, and USIA Special Ambassador to Germany
- Julia Alvarez 1971 â author, poet, and writer-in-residence at Middlebury
- Katherine Arden 2011 â novelist known for Winternight trilogy
- Jane F. Barry 1988 â international women's rights author and principal
- Deni Ellis Béchard (MA) â Canadian-American novelist
- Stacie Cassarino 1997 â poet and author of the collection Zero at the Bone
- Emma Cline â writer and novelist known for The Girls; recipient of the Plimpton Prize
- T Cooper â writer and two-time fellow of the MacDowell Colony
- Marvin Dana (1867âÂÂ1926) â poet, novelist, and magazine editor
- Frances Frost â poet; novelist; mother of poet Paul Blackburn
- Dwight Garner 1988 â literary critic for The New York Times, former senior editor at the New York Times Book Review
- David Gilbert 1967 â novelist
- Patricia Goedicke 1953 â poet
- Andrew Gross 1974 â author of thriller novels
- Hall J. Kelley 1814 â explorer, settler, and writer; strong advocate for U.S. settlement of the Oregon Country in the 1830s
- Richard E. Kim 1959 â Korean-American writer and professor of literature; author of The Martyred (1964), The Innocent (1968), and Lost Names (1970); Guggenheim Fellow (1966) and was recipient of a Fulbright grant
- Peter Knobler 1968 â author, former editor-in-chief of Crawdaddy magazine
- Jeff Lindsay 1975 â playwright and crime novelist, best known for his novels about sociopathic vigilante Dexter Morgan
- Rebecca Makkai (MA) 2004 â novelist and short-story writer
- Judy Malloy 1964 â poet whose works inhabit the intersection of hypernarrative, magic realism, and information art
- Wesley McNair (MA and M.Litt) â poet, writer, editor, and professor
- Louise McNeill â poet, essayist, and historian of Appalachia
- Emily Mitchell (1997) â Anglo-American novelist
- Wendy Mogel 1973 â speaker and author who looks at parenting problems through the lens of the Torah, the Talmud, and important Jewish teachings
- Jacqueline S. Moore â poet and author of Moments of My Life
- Dan O'Brien â playwright whose plays include The Cherry Sisters Revisited, The Voyage of the Carcass, The Dear Boy, The House in Hydesville, and The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
- Joel Peckham 1992 â poet; scholar of American literature; creative writer
- John Perkins (attended) â activist and author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
- Rory Power, American author
- Lawrence Raab 1968 â poet
- Lewis Robinson 1993 â writer, author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories
- John Godfrey Saxe 1839 â poet perhaps best known for his retelling of the Indian parable ""
- Johan Theorin (foreign guest student 1985âÂÂ86) â Swedish journalist and novelist
- Michael Tolkin 1974 â filmmaker and novelist whose screenplays include The Player (1992), which he adapted from his 1988 novel by the same name
- Vendela Vida 1993 â novelist, editor of The Believer magazine
- Anne Walker 1995 â architectural historian and author
- Carol Weston 1979 (MA) â author of fiction and nonfiction books; the "Dear Carol" advice columnist at Girls' Life since the magazine's first issue in 1994
Music
Television and film
- Anna Belknap 1994 â actress, known for her role as Lindsay Monroe on '
- Vanessa Branch 1994 â British actress, model, former Miss Vermont, noted for her role in Orbit Gum commercials
- Roscoe Lee Brown (MA) â actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing
- Jeffrey Bushell 1994 â writer, has written for The Bernie Mac Show, Drawn Together, MADtv, What I Like About You, and Zoey 101
- Kristen Connolly 2002 â actress known for her roles in The Cabin in the Woods and House of Cards
- James Cromwell (attended) â actor noted for his roles in Babe, L.A. Confidential, The Queen, and 24
- Sam Daly 2006 â actor, U.S. production of The Office
- Michaela Dietz 2003 â Korean-American voice actress
- Malaya Drew 1998 â actress known for her roles on The L Word (2008), ER (2006âÂÂ2007), Las Vegas (2006âÂÂ2007) and Entourage (2005)
- Lucy Faust â actress and playwright, The Revival, Mudbound and '
- Cassidy Freeman 2005 â actress and singer, known for her role as Tess Mercer in Smallville
- Warren Frost â actor, Twin Peaks, Matlock, The Larry Sanders Show, and Seinfeld
- Justin Haythe 1996 â novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter, screenwriter for The Clearing and the film adaptation of Revolutionary Road
- William Blake Herron 1985 â screenwriter, director, TV creator and show runner, writer-director of A Texas Funeral and co-writer of The Bourne Identity
- Antonio Macia 2000 â screenwriter, writer of Holy Rollers
- Jason Mantzoukas 1995 â comedian, writer, and actor, known for The League and The Dictator
- Emily McLaughlin â soap opera actress
- Amanda Peterson â actress, star of Can't Buy Me Love
- Rodney Rothman 1995 â writer; screenwriter; author of Early Bird; film writer, producer (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Year One); television writer (Late Show with David Letterman and Undeclared)
- Shawn Ryan 1988 â creator of the FX television series The Shield and CBS series The Unit
- Jessica St. Clair 1997 â actress and comedian
- Angus Sutherland 2005 â actor, '
- Jake Weber 1986 â English actor, known for his role as Michael in Dawn of the Dead, Joe Dubois in Medium, and starring opposite Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black
- Julia Whelan 2008 â actress, Once and Again
- Jimmy Wong 2009 â actor and musician
- Becky Worley 1992 â journalist; broadcaster; tech contributor for Good Morning America; host and blogger for a web show on Yahoo! Tech
Theater
Athletics
- Nikhil Alleyne â Olympic alpine skier
- Koby Altman 2004 â current general manager of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers
- Bob Beattie 1955 â head coach of the U.S. Ski Team from 1961 to 1969 and co-founded the Alpine Skiing World Cup
- Hedda Berntsen 1999 â Norwegian world champion skier and 2010 Olympic silver medalist
- John Bower â nordic combined skier who competed in the 1960s and later went on to become a coach of the American nordic skiing team for the 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympic team
- H. Adams Carter 1947 (MA) â mountaineer and language teacher
- Chris Cheng (MIIS) 2006 â sport shooter
- Lea Davison 2005 â cross-country mountain biker, member of the U.S. Olympic Team at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics
- Dorcas Denhartog 1987 â nordic skier competing at the 1988, 1992, and 1994 Winter Olympic Games
- Ray Fisher 1910 â Major League baseball player who pitched for the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds
- Sarah Groff 2004 â triathlete, 2007 ITU Aquathlon World Champion and member of the U.S. 2012 Summer Olympic Team
- Megan Guarnier 2007 â cyclist, winner of 2016 UCI Women's World Tour and 2016 Giro d'Italia Femminile, and member of the U.S. 2016 Summer Olympic Team
- Stone Hallquist â football running back, played for Milwaukee Badgers in National Football League
- Simi Hamilton 2009 â cross-country skier who has competed since 2000, member of the U.S. 2010 Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team
- Steve Hauschka 2007 â NFL placekicker for eight teams
- John W. Hollister (attended) â football player and coach, football coach at Beloit College
- Peter Holmes àCourt 1990 â Australian businessman, joint owner of the National Rugby League team South Sydney Rabbitohs together with Russell Crowe; son of the late billionaire businessman Robert Holmes àCourt
- Thomas M. Jacobs â Olympic nordic skier who competed in the 1950s
- Andrew Johnson â member of the U.S. 2006 Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team
- Ted King 2005 â cyclist
- Bill Kuharich 1976 â vice president of player personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs
- Garrott Kuzzy 2006 â cross-country skier who has competed since 2001, member of the U.S. 2010 Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team
- Kevin Mahaney 1984 â competitive and Olympic sailor who won a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992
- John Morton 1968 â Olympic biathlon skier, member of seven olympic teams
- Mike Noonan 1982 â head soccer coach at Clemson University, two-time NCAA National champion (2021, 2023)
- Ali Nullmeyer 2024 â Canadian World Cup alpine ski racer
- Jacquie Phelan 1981âÂÂ1994 â national mountain bicycle champion (1983, 84, 85); sustainable transit advocate and writer; feminist; founder of Women's Mountain Bike & Tea Society; opened cycling to non-athletic women of all ages; co-founded NORBA and IMBA; Alumni Achievement award winner
- Penny Pitou 1960 â first American skier to win a medal in the Olympic downhill event
- Hig Roberts 2014 â US Ski Team member and two-time national champion in giant slalom and slalom; first openly gay male alpine skier
- Donald Rowe â former coach of the University of Connecticut men's basketball team
- Chad Salmela â current NBC commentator and coach; former member of the US skiing team from 1990 to 1998
- Alex Sobel â basketball player for Hapoel Haifa of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
- Lia Smith â diver
- Chris Waddell 1991 â Paralympic sit-skier and wheelchair track athlete
Business
- George Arison â founder and CEO of Shift
- Louis Bacon 1979 â hedge fund manager, one of Forbes magazine's 400 wealthiest Americans
- Brendan Bechtel 2003 â CEO of the Bechtel Group, Inc.
- Joseph Beninati 1987 â real estate developer and private equity investor
- Randy Brock 1965 â executive VP, Fidelity Investments; former Vermont Auditor of Accounts (2005âÂÂ2007); Vietnam War veteran, recipient of the Bronze Star
- Willard C. Butcher (attended) â chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, 1980âÂÂ1991
- Carlos Calleja 1999 â Salvadoran businessman and politician
- Maciej CegÃ
Âowski â businessman; founder of Pinboard
- Roger Chapin â businessman-turned-fundraiser, self-described "nonprofit entrepreneur," founder of numerous charities variously under scrutiny for questionable ethics
- Jim Davis 1966 â chairman of New Balance; co-founder of Major League Lacrosse; one of Forbes magazine's 400 wealthiest Americans
- John Deere (did not graduate) â blacksmith, inventor of the steel plow and founder of John Deere & Company
- Patrick Durkin 1979 â managing director at Barclays
- Jack Fitzpatrick â founder of Country Curtains; Republican member of the Massachusetts State Senate
- Bryan Goldberg â founder of Bleacher Report; founder and CEO of Bustle magazine
- Nelson Z. Graves - founder of N. Z. Graves, Inc. paint and varnish company, real estate developer of Cape May, New Jersey
- A. Barton Hepburn 1871 â United States Comptroller of the Currency and president of Chase National Bank
- Peter Holmes àCourt 1990 â Australian businessman; joint owner of the National Rugby League team South Sydney Rabbitohs with Russell Crowe; son of the late billionaire businessman Robert Holmes àCourt
- Bill Maris 1997 â CEO of Google Ventures
- Terry McGuirk 1973 â chairman of Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves and vice chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, where he served as CEO from 1996 to 2001
- Ted Pick â chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley
- William H. Porter â prominent New York City banker
- Carolyn Reidy 1971 â CEO of Simon & Schuster (2008âÂÂ2020)
- Felix Rohatyn 1949 â president of Rohatyn Associates LLC; former partner and managing director of Lazard; commander in the Légion d'honneur; member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Vivian Schiller 1984 (MA) â former president and CEO of National Public Radio; New York Times senior vice president and general manager for NYTimes.com
- Dan Schulman 1980 â president and CEO of PayPal; former CEO of Virgin Mobile USA
- Ron Somers â founder and CEO of India First Group; played a lead role in coordinating the passage of the IndiaâÂÂUnited States Civil Nuclear Agreement
- Christopher Tsai â founder of Tsai Capital; major collector of works by Ai Weiwei; son of financier Gerald Tsai
Journalism
- Peter Theo Curtis 1991 â journalist who was held hostage and released by the al-Nusra Front
- Elizabeth Farnsworth 1965 â journalist and co-anchor of PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
- Trip Gabriel â New York Times style editor
- Dwight Garner 1988 â New York Times book critic
- Mel Gussow 1955 â theater critic who wrote for The New York Times for 35 years
- W. C. Heinz 1937 â sportswriter and winner of the Red Smith Award for sports journalism
- Andrea Koppel 1985 â journalist, former U.S. State Department correspondent and Beijing Bureau Chief for CNN, Time4Coffee podcast host, entrepreneur
- Alexandra Kotur â fashion journalist, Style Director and contributing editor for Vogue; author of Carolina Herrera: Portrait of a Fashion Icon; co-author of The World in Vogue: People, Parties, Places
- Bob Lefsetz â music industry journalist
- Dori J. Maynard â president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, California
- Andrew Meldrum â journalist and former correspondent of The Economist and The Guardian in Zimbabwe, 1980âÂÂ2003
- Nina Munk 1989 (MA) â journalist and non-fiction author; contributing editor at Vanity Fair; author of Fools Rush In: Jerry Levin, Steve Case, and the Unmaking of Time Warner
- Mark Patinkin 1974 â columnist at the Providence Journal
- Alex Prud'homme 1984 â journalist and author of nonfiction books, including My Life in France, written in collaboration with his great-aunt Julia Child
- Andrew Purvis â journalist, John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University; former bureau chief for Time magazine's Berlin bureau
- Jane Bryant Quinn 1960 â contributing editor for Newsweek; former author of the twice-weekly column "Staying Ahead," syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group
- Robert Schlesinger â author; opinion editor for U.S. News & World Report; Huffington Post blogger; co-founder of the blog RobertEmmet
- Frank Sesno 1977 â Washington Bureau Chief and White House correspondent for CNN; Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and George Washington University
- Vendela Vida 1993 â novelist, journalist, and editor; co-founded and co-edits the monthly periodical The Believer
- David Wolman 1996 â author and journalist; has written for Wired, Newsweek, Discover, National Geographic Traveler, New Scientist and Outside
- Janine Zacharia 1995 â journalist, Middle East correspondent for the Washington Post; former diplomatic reporter for Bloomberg News
Law
Military
Philanthropy
Politics
Heads of government
Diplomats
U.S. senators and representatives
Governors
State senators and representatives
- Claire D. Ayer â Democratic member of the Vermont State Senate, representing the Addison senate district, majority leader of the Vermont Senate as of fall 2006
- James K. Batchelder 1864 â lawyer and five-term member of the Vermont House of Representatives, including one term as Speaker, 1884âÂÂ1886
- Michael P. Cahill 1983 â politician who represented the 6th Essex district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1993âÂÂ2003
- Merritt Clark 1823 â Democratic politician from Vermont; he was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1832âÂÂ33, 1839, and 1865âÂÂ66, and to the Vermont Senate in 1863âÂÂ64 and 1868âÂÂ69, as well as the 1870 Vermont Constitutional Convention
- George W. F. Cook 1940 â Vermont attorney and politician; president of the Vermont State Senate; United States Attorney for the District of Vermont
- Luther Day â Republican politician in Ohio; was in the Ohio Senate; judge on the Ohio Supreme Court
- Martin Chester Deming 1812 â businessman and National Republican member of the Vermont House of Representatives, 1830âÂÂ1932
- George Z. Erwin 1865 â former member of the New York State Senate
- Jack Fitzpatrick â founder of Country Curtains and Republican member of the Massachusetts State Senate
- Nicole Grohoski â Democratic member of the Maine House of Representatives
- Emory A. Hebard 1938 â member of the Vermont House of Representatives, 1961âÂÂ1977 and Vermont State Treasurer, 1977âÂÂ1989
- Lindsey Holmes 1995 â member of the Alaska House of Representatives
- Brett Hulsey 1982 â Wisconsin consultant and Democratic politician, elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly's 77th district in 2010
- Sylvester Nevins â Republican member of the Wisconsin State Senate
- Nathan B. Smith 1863 â member of the New York State Assembly
- William M. Straus 1978 â member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
- Horace Holmes Thomas â lawyer, Union Army officer, state legislator including a term as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, and federal customs appraiser
- Alexander Twilight 1823 â first African American to graduate from an American college; first African American elected to public office, serving as a representative in the Vermont House of Representatives
Other political figures
Religion
Science
- Louis Winslow Austin 1889 â physicist known for his research on long-range radio transmissions
- Myrtle Bachelder 1930 â chemist and Women's Army Corps officer, noted for her secret work on the Manhattan Project atomic bomb program, and for the development of techniques in the chemistry of metals
- Arthur H. Bulbulian â pioneer in the field of facial prosthetics
- Roger L. Easton 1943 â principal inventor and designer of GPS; recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation
- Stanley Fields 1976 â biologist and HHMI investigator known for pioneering two-hybrid screening for discovering proteinâÂÂprotein interactions
- Walter W. Granger (honorary doctorate 1932) â vertebrate paleontologist
- Edwin James 1816 â botanist, scholar of Algonquian languages, translator and nature writer on the Long Expedition, U.S. Army surgeon, and first Euro-American settler on record to summit Pikes Peak
- Walter D. Knight 1941 â physicist, known for the discovery of Knight shift
- Henry Schoolcraft â geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, and for his "discovery" in 1832 of the source of the Mississippi River
- Jill Seaman 1974 â physician specializing in infectious diseases for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and winner of a 2009 MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award"
Fictional
References
External links