List of Radcliffe College people

The following is a list of individuals associated with Radcliffe College through attending as a student, or serving as college president or dean.

List of presidents

• Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, 1894–1900 (honorary president 1900–1903)
• LeBaron Russell Briggs, 1903–1923
• Ada Louise Comstock, 1923–1943
• Wilbur Kitchener Jordan, 1943–1960
• Mary Bunting, 1960–1972
• Matina Horner, 1972–1989
• Linda Wilson, 1989–1999

Deans

• Frances R. Brown
• Agnes Irwin, 1894–1909

Notable alumnae

Architects and landscape architects

• Lois Wilson Langhorst, class of 1966, architect and educator; pioneer of modernist architecture
• Judith Ledeboer, architect
• Ellen Biddle Shipman, landscape architect (left after one year)
• Anne Whiston Spirn, landscape architect

Art and architecture historians

• Leila Cook Barber, MA degree 1928, art historian and professor emeritus at Vassar College, specializing in Renaissance art and medieval studies
• Mary Berenson (1864–1945), Harvard Annex student 1884–1885, art historian
• Katharine Seymour Day, historical preservationist
• Florence M. Montgomery (1914–1998), art historian and curator at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
• Eva Moseley, curator and archivist
• Phoebe Stanton (1914–2003), MA 1939, architectural historian, professor at Johns Hopkins University, and urban planner for Baltimore

Lawyers and judges

• Deborah Batts, judge
• Cora Agnes Benneson, attorney, lecturer, and writer
• Marsha Berzon, judge
• Elaine Denniston, lawyer, supported the Apollo program
• Jennifer Gordon, workers rights activist, lawyer
• Dayna Bowen Matthew, law school dean
• Karen Nelson Moore, judge

Physicians

• Sara Murray Jordan, gastroenterologist
• Judith Palfrey, pediatrician and author
• Carla J. Shatz, neuroscientist
• Nancy Wexler, geneticist

Writers, poets, journalists, and editor

• Virginia Hamilton Adair, poet
• Alice Adams, writer
• Fannie Fern Andrews, writer
• Margaret Atwood, 1961, author
• Marita Bonner, writer, playwright
• Elizabeth Brewster, poet
• Barbara Epstein, literary editor
• Anne Fadiman, essayist and reporter
• Norma Farber, children's book writer and poet
• Anne Garrels, journalist
• Katharine Fullerton Gerould, novelist
• Amy Goodman, journalist and political activist
• Ellen Goodman, journalist and writer
• Joyce Ballou Gregorian, 1968, science fiction author
• Rachel Hadas, poet, teacher, essayist, and translator
• Rona Jaffe, author
• Helen Keller, deaf blind writer, activist
• Maxine Kumin, poet and author
• Jean Kwok, author
• Ursula K. Le Guin, writer, poet
• Alison Lurie, writer
• Michel McQueen Martin, 1980, journalist
• Anne McCaffrey, 1947, science fiction author
• Priscilla Johnson McMillan, MA 1953, journalist, translator, author, historian
• Daisy Newman, writer
• Andrea Nye, feminist philosopher and writer
• Clara Claiborne Park (1923–2010), author who raised awareness of autism
• Linda Pastan, poet
• Josephine Preston Peabody, poet
• Katha Pollitt, poet, essayist and critic
• Francine Prose, writer
• Julia Quinn, New York Times best selling author
• Helen Leah Reed, writer
• Adrienne Rich, poet
• Margot Roosevelt, journalist
• Elsie Singmaster, author
• Gertrude Stein, writer, poet, playwright and feminist
• Lily Tuck, novelist and short story writer
• Jean Valentine, poet
• Hannah Weiner, poet
• Natalie Wexler, novelist
• Lally Weymouth, journalist
• Ruth Whitman, poet
• Charlotte Wilder, MA, poet; eldest sister of Thornton Wilder

Others

• Elizabeth Bailey, economist
• Amelia Muir Baldwin, interior designer and women's suffrage activist
• Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller, singer
• Gail Lee Bernstein, Japanese historian
• Susan Berresford, 1965, president of the Ford Foundation 1996–2007
• Benazir Bhutto, first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, prime minister of Pakistan (1988–1990; 1993–1996)
• Melissa Block, radio journalist, co-host, All Things Considered
• Thérèse Bonney, photographer and publicist
• Jane Britton, 1967, murdered while a graduate student at Harvard University
• Stockard Channing, actress, famous for her roles in Grease and The West Wing
• Nancy Chodorow, sociologist
• Judy Clapp, 1952, computer scientist
• Zoe Cruz, business, co-president of Morgan Stanley (most powerful woman on Wall Street)
• Frances Gardiner Davenport (1870–1927), historian of the later Middle Ages and the European colonization
• Natalie Zemon Davis, historian of the early modern period
• Elisabeth Deichmann (1896–1975), Danish-born American marine biologist
• Jane Dempsey Douglass, feminist theologian, ecclesiastical historian, and president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
• Peggy Dulany, heiress and philanthropist
• Eva Beatrice Dykes, academic
• Debbie Ellison, model
• Rebecca Elson, writer and astronomer
• Abigail Folger, 1964, coffee heiress, debutante, socialite, volunteer social worker, civil rights devotee
• Mary Parker Follett, social worker, management consultant, and philosopher
• Carol Gilligan, feminist, ethicist, and psychologist
• Susanna Grannis, academic and nonprofit organizer
• Phyllis Granoff, academic of Indic religions
• Linda Greenhouse, legal journalist
• Marjorie Grene, philosopher
• Gisela Kahn Gresser, chess player
• Lani Guinier, legal scholar and civil rights theorist
• Amy Gutmann, current president of the University of Pennsylvania
• Virginia Hall, SOE spy
• Olive Hazlett, mathematician
• Diana Mara Henry, photographer
• Helen Sawyer Hogg, astronomer
• Elizabeth Holtzman, politician
• Elizabeth Ellis Hoyt, economist
• Elizabeth Hubbard, actress
• Ruth Hubbard, professor, biologist, feminist
• Josephine Hull, stage and film actress
• Leslie P. Hume, historian and philanthropist
• Catharine Sargent Huntington, actress, producer, director, founder of multiple theater companies, activist
• Lydia P. Jackson, former Louisiana state legislator
• Nancy Johnson, politician
• Roberta Karmel (born 1937), Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, and first female commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Sinah Estelle Kelley, chemist
• Caroline Kennedy, author and diplomat
• Susanne Langer, philosopher
• Mary Lasker, health activist and philanthropist
• Henrietta Swan Leavitt, astronomer
• Mary Lefkowitz, scholar of Classics
• Edith Lesley, academic and founder of Lesley University
• Ann Lewis, political advisor
• Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson, Swedish princess
• Pauline Maier, historian
• Emily Mann (BA English literature 1974), director
• Elizabeth Holloway Marston, MA 1921, involved in the creation of the comic book character Wonder Woman
• Helen Reimensnyder Martin, novelist
• Jessica Mathews
• Jean Trepp McKelvey (1908–1998), economist
• Laura Meneses, political activist
• Alice Vanderbilt Morris
• Chris Mulford, AB 1963, breastfeeding advocate
• Laura Nader, professor in controlling processes
• Gertrude Neumark, physicist
• Ursula Oppens, classical pianist
• Deborah Orin, journalist
• Mary White Ovington, activist, NAACP founder
• Masako Owada, 1985, empress of Japan
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer
• Ann Hunter Popkin, women's rights activist
• Carol Potter, actress
• Sue Pritzker, socialite, philanthropist, and activist, member of the Pritzker family
• Bonnie Raitt (attended one year), Grammy Award-winning singer and musician
• Philinda Rand, English-language teacher in the Philippines
• Lois Rice, 1954, vice president of the College Board and architect of the Pell Grant
• Emeline Hill Richardson, archeologist
• Alice Rivlin, economist
• Helen Jean Rogers, television producer
• Judith Ann Wilson Rogers
• Michelle Rosaldo, anthropologist
• Phyllis Schlafly, political activist, coined term "A choice not an echo"
• Ellen Schrecker, historian
• Mary Sears, oceanographer
• Edie Sedgwick (attended), iconic American socialite and Warhol superstar
• Judith Shuval, sociologist
• H. Catherine W. Skinner, geologist and mineralogist
• Diane B. Snelling, politician
• Cynthia Solomon, computer scientist, co-designer of Logo (programming language), and co-developer of LCSI Logo
• Diane Souvaine, computer scientist
• Edith G. Stedman, 1910, head of the Appointment Bureau 1930–1954
• Doris Zemurray Stone, 1930 (1909–1994), archaeologist and ethnographer of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures
• Mary E. Switzer, public administrator and social reformer
• Martha J. B. Thomas, (1926–2006), PhD MBA, chemical engineer
• Caroline Thompson, screenwriter-director
• Barbara W. Tuchman, historian and author
• Abby Howe Turner, zoologist
• Ruth Turner, marine biologist
• Julie Vargas, educator
• Emily Vermeule, archeologist
• Maribel Vinson, figure skater
• Caroline F. Ware, historian
• Ruth Wendell Washburn, educational psychologist
• Marina von Neumann Whitman, economist
• Olive Winchester, professor at the Point Loma, Northwest, and Eastern Nazarene colleges
• Marie Winn, ornithologist

References