List of Washington and Lee University people

Below is a list of notable associated people of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, United States. The year after each name designates the graduation year, if the person is an alumnus.

Law and politics

• Robert H. Adams, 1806 - United States senator from Mississippi
• Samuel B. Avis, Law - United States congressman from West Virginia, 1913–1915
• Ronald J. Bacigal, Law 1967 - professor of law, University of Richmond School of Law
• Robert D. Bailey Jr., Law - West Virginia secretary of state, 1965–1969
• Meredith Attwell Baker, 1990 - former Federal Communications Commission commissioner; president of CTIA
• Newton D. Baker, Law 1894 - secretary of war under President Woodrow Wilson, mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, and named partner at BakerHostetler
• Matt Bevin, 1989 - 62nd governor of Kentucky
• Bill Brock, 1953 - former U.S. senator from Tennessee (1971–77), chairman of the National Republican Party (1977–81); U.S. trade representative (1981–85); secretary of labor (1985–87)
• Franklin Brockson, Law - United States congressman from Delaware, 1913–1915
• William T. Brotherton Jr., Law - chief justice of the Supreme Court of West Virginia, 1989–1994
• Clarence J. Brown, Law 1915 - president of Brown Publishing Company and U.S. congressman from Ohio, 1939–1965
• Nathan P. Bryan, Law 1895 - U.S. senator from the State of Florida, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• William James Bryan, Law 1899 - U.S. senator from Florida
• Archibald C. Buchanan, Law 1914 - justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
• Bruce L. Castor Jr., Law 1986 - district attorney, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (2000–2008); commissioner, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (2008–2016); attorney general (interim) and first solicitor general of Pennsylvania 2016; president, Pennsylvania District Attorneys' Association, presidential impeachment lead defense counsel 2021
• Lewis Preston Collins II, Law - lieutenant governor of Virginia
• Christian Compton, 1950, Law 1953 - justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, 1974–2006
• Edward Cooper, Law 1892 - U.S. congressman from West Virginia, 1915–1919
• Spencer Cox, W&L law, 2001 - inaugurated as governor of Utah in 2021; chairman of the Republican Governors Conference
• William Fadjo Cravens, Law - U.S. congressman from Arkansas
• T. Kenneth Cribb Jr., 1970 - former Reagan aide and former president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
• John J. Crittenden, 1805 - speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives; U.S. senator, governor of Kentucky, U.S. attorney general under presidents William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore; proposed the Crittenden Compromise to keep the Union intact
• George William Crump, 1804 - member of the United States House of Representatives; first recorded streaker in American history
• John J. Davis, Law 1856 - United States representative from West Virginia
• John W. Davis, 1895, Law 1892 - 1924 Democratic nominee for United States president; Ambassador to Britain; solicitor general; argued more cases before the Supreme Court than anyone else in the twentieth century; American Bar Association president; first president of the Council on Foreign Relations; named partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell
• Mark Steven Davis, Law 1988 - United States district court judge for the Eastern District of Virginia
• John W. Eggleston, Law 1910 - chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, 1958–1969
• Gay Elmore, Law - two-time Southern Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year
• Sarah Feinberg, 1999 - interim president of the New York City Transit Authority, and former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration
• John P. Fishwick Jr., Law - United States attorney for the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
• Henry S. Foote, 1919 - 19th governor of Mississippi
• Vance A. Funk, III, Law 1968 - mayor of Newark, Delaware
• Maciej Golubiewski (born 1976) - Polish political scientist and consul general of the Republic of Poland in New York City
• John Goode, Law - 3rd solicitor general of the United States; United States Congressman from Virginia
• John W. Goode - attended undergraduate school 1939–1942 but transferred to the University of Texas at Austin; attorney and Republican political figure in his native San Antonio, Texas
• Bob Goodlatte, Law 1977 - U.S. congressman from Virginia
• R. Booth Goodwin, Law 1996 - United States attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia
• Herbert B. Gregory, Law 1911 - justice on the Virginia Supreme Court, 1930–1951
• Robert J. Grey Jr., Law 1976 - American Bar Association president 2004–2005
• Morgan Griffith, Law 1983 - congressman from Virginia
• Duncan Lawrence Groner, Law 1894 - U.S. attorney; federal district judge for United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia; chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Pike Hall Jr., attended 1940s - judge in Shreveport, Louisiana
• Alexander Harman, Law - justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia, 1969–1979
• James Hay, Law 1877 - United States representative from Virginia; federal judge on the United States Court of Claims
• George Washington Hays, Law - governor of Arkansas, 1913–1917
• Homer A. Holt, 1918, Law 1923 - governor of West Virginia, 1937–1941
• Linwood Holton, 1944 - governor of Virginia, 1970–1974
• James Murray Hooker, Law 1896 - U.S. congressman from Virginia
• J. Bennett Johnston Jr., 1953 - U.S. senator from Louisiana, 1972–1997; Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist
• Jerrauld Jones, Law 1980 - judge on the Norfolk Circuit Court
• Walter Kelley, 1977, Law 1981 - former federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia and current partner at Hausfeld
• James L. Kemper, Law 1842 - governor of Virginia; Confederate General wounded during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg
• Jackson L. Kiser, Law 1952 - judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
• Ruby Laffoon, Law 1890 - governor of Kentucky
• Joseph Rucker Lamar, Law 1878 - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of the United States Supreme Court (1911–1916), justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia (1903–1905)
• Edwin Gray Lee, Law 1859 - brigadier general in the Confederate States of America
• Harry Jacob Lemley, Law 1910 - federal judge on both the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
• Scott Marion Loftin, Law 1899 - U.S. senator from Florida; president of the American Bar Association
• Mary Beth Long, Law 1998 - former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs at the United States Department of Defense and former attorney with Williams & Connolly LLP
• Daniel B. Lucas, Law - poet; justice on the Supreme Court of West Virginia, 1889–1892
• J. Michael Luttig, 1976 - assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Council and counselor to the attorney general; former United States Circuit Court of Appeals judge; twice considered by President George W. Bush for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court; current executive vice president and general counsel, The Boeing Company
• John Ashton MacKenzie, Law 1939 - federal judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• John Otho Marsh Jr., Law 1951 - Secretary of the Army, 1981–1989, United States congressman
• Robert Murphy Mayo, Law 1859 - United States representative from Virginia
• Hayes McClerkin, 1953 - former speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives; Texarkana, Arkansas attorney
• Alexander McNutt - 12th governor of Mississippi
• Thomas Chipman McRae, Law - governor of Arkansas, United States representative
• John Marks Moore - secretary of state of Texas, 1887–1891
• Jackson Morton, 1814 - U.S. senator from Florida
• Robert Mosbacher, 1947 - Secretary of Commerce, 1989–1992
• Mark Obenshain, Law 1987 - member of the Senate of Virginia; Republican nominee for attorney general of Virginia in the 2013 Virginia election
• Robert E. Payne, Law 1967 - judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• Mosby Perrow Jr. - Virginia senator (1943–1964); key figure in Virginia's abandonment of "Massive Resistance" to desegregation
• Archer Allen Phlegar - Virginia Supreme Court justice, Virginia state senator
• Miles Poindexter, Law 1891 - senator from the State of Washington
• Lewis Franklin Powell Jr., 1929, Law 1931 - associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1972–1987); president of the American Bar Association; named partner at Hunton Williams Gay Powell & Gibson
• William Ray Price Jr., Law 1978 - longest-serving judge and former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri
• Prescott Prince, Law 1983 - attorney defending Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
• Lacey E. Putney, Law - longest-serving member of the Virginia House of Delegates in the history of the Virginia General Assembly
• Heartsill Ragon, Law - U.S. congressman from Arkansas; federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
• Robert W. Ray, Law 1985 - partner at Pryor Cashman LLP in New York City and former head of the U.S. Office of the Independent Counsel (succeeded Kenneth Starr)
• Alfred E. Reames, Law 1893 - U.S. senator from Oregon
• Pat Robertson, 1950 - Christian televangelist; founder of several organizations, including Christian Broadcasting Network, the Christian Coalition, the American Center for Law and Justice, and Regent University; host of The 700 Club; candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1988
• Daniel K. Sadler, Law - justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court
• Jared Y. Sanders Jr., attended 1912–1913 - member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 6th congressional district
• Tom Sansonetti, Law 1976 - United States assistant attorney general for the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division
• William H. Smathers - senator from the State of New Jersey
• Abram Penn Staples, Law 1908 - attorney general of Virginia; justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
• Lawrence Vess Stephens, Law 1877 – governor of Missouri
• Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr., 1943, Law 1947 - justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
• Charles L. Terry Jr. - governor of Delaware 1961–1965
• Thomas Todd, 1783 - United States Supreme Court justice nominated by Thomas Jefferson
• Paul S. Trible Jr. Law 1971 - former U.S. senator from Virginia, president of Christopher Newport University
• William M. Tuck, Law 1921 - governor of Virginia
• Henry St. George Tucker III, Law 1876 - U.S. congressman from Virginia; president of the American Bar Association
• James Clinton Turk, Law 1952 - federal judge and chief judge (1973–1993) on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
• David Gardiner Tyler, Law 1869 - U.S. representative, son of President John Tyler, present at Lee's surrender at Appomattox
• Sol Wachtler, Law - former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1985–1993)
• John W. Warner Jr., 1949 - former secretary of the Navy and retired U.S. senator from Virginia; for a time, a husband of Elizabeth Taylor
• Junius Edgar West, Law - 22nd lieutenant governor of Virginia
• Kennon C. Whittle, Law 1914 - justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia and president of the Virginia Bar Association
• H. Emory Widener Jr., Law 1953 - judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Seward H. Williams, Law 1895 - U.S. congressman from Ohio
• Joe Wilson, 1969 - congressman from South Carolina who shouted "You lie!" at President Obama during the 2010 State of the Union address
• John Minor Wisdom, 1925 - judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Harry M. Wurzbach, Law 1896 - U.S congressman from Texas

Business

• Drew Baur, 1966 - businessman and owner of St. Louis Cardinals
• Berry Boswell Brooks - cotton broker and big-game hunter
• Christopher Chenery, 1909 - industrialist and horse breeder of Secretariat
• Richard L. Duchossois - industrialist, investor, and director of Churchill Downs
• Kenn George, 1970 - businessman/investor and former member of the Texas House of Representatives
• Rupert H. Johnson, 1962 - vice chairman of Franklin Resources; donor of $100 million, the second largest gift in Washington and Lee's history, mostly directed to honors scholarships, but also to other programs including continuing grants
• Julius Kruttschnitt, 1873 - Southern Pacific Railroad executive
• H. F. Lenfest, 1953 - philanthropist and CEO of Lenfest Group; gave the second largest donation in W&L's history, a $33 million challenge gift requiring a 1:1 match, on March 21, 2007 (as of December 31, 2009, over $20 million of the $33 million goal had been met)
• Sydney Lewis, 1940, Law 1943 - Virginia businessman; art collector; founder of Best Products; recipient with his wife, Frances, of 1987 National Medal of the Arts
• Bill Miller, 1972 - chairman and former chief investment officer of Legg Mason Capital Management; donor of $132 million, the largest gift in Washington and Lee's history, allowing the school to make its applications need-blind
• Warren Stephens, 1979 - businessman; chairman, president, and CEO of Stephens Inc.

Academia

• David Lawrence Anderson - founder and first president of Soochow University, China
• George A. Baxter - president of W&L and Hampden-Sydney College
• J. Bowyer Bell, 1953 - historian, artist and art critic
• John Chavis, 1799 - educator and Presbyterian minister, among the first U.S. college graduates of color
• George H. Denny - professor of Latin and president at Washington and Lee University; president of the University of Alabama
• Charles A. Graves, Law 1872 - professor at W&L Law and at the University of Virginia School of Law
• James N. Hardin Jr. - distinguished professor at the University of South Carolina
• William B. Hesseltine, 1922 - history professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Milton W. Humphreys - alumnus; introduced the Roman pronunciation of Latin at Washington and Lee as a professor; first Professor of Latin and Greek at Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin; taught at the University of Virginia; president of the American Philological Association, 1882–1883
• Robert Huntley, 1950, Law 1957 - former dean of W&L Law, former president of Washington and Lee University, former president, chairman, and CEO of Best Products
• William Swan Plumer, 1825 - professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (1854–1862); professor of didactic and polemic theology at Columbia Theological Seminary (1867–1875); professor of pastoral, casuistic, and historical theology at Columbia (1875–1880)
• John Thomas Lewis Preston, 1828 - founder of Virginia Military Institute
• Henry L. Roediger III, 1969 - cognitive psychologist and researcher at Washington University in St. Louis
• Kenneth P. Ruscio, 1976 - professor of public policy, president of Washington and Lee University
• Jeffrey L. Seglin, 1978 - writer of weekly column "The Right Thing," faculty member, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
• Robert Shepherd, 1959, Law 1961 - professor emeritus of law at the University of Richmond School of Law
• Robert Waymouth, 1982 - professor of chemistry at Stanford University
• Charles M. Williams, 1937 - Harvard Business School professor

Literature and journalism

• Samuel Zenas Ammen - literary editor of The Baltimore Sun; founder of the Kappa Alpha Order
• Terry Brooks, Law 1969 - author of fantasy fiction, 12 million copies in print
• David Brown, Law - former host of the Marketplace radio program
• William Alexander Caruthers - author of novels, including The Kentuckian in New York (1834)
• Kelly Evans, 2007 - journalist; co-host of Worldwide Exchange and Squawk on the Street on the CNBC business news channel
• Alex S. Jones, 1968 - Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter for The New York Times; director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy
• Philippe Labro - French author, journalist and film director
• Rebecca Makkai, 1999 - author of novels, including Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers, and short stories
• Roger Mudd, 1950 - congressional correspondent for CBS and PBS; host on the History Channel; member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity
• Frederick Ramsay, 1958 - medical school academic and administrator; mystery writer
• Mark Richard, 1986 - author and winner of the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award
• Tom Robbins - author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (did not graduate; attended for two years before moving to New York to become a poet)
• Tom Wolfe, 1951 - writer (creator of New Journalism); author of The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and The Bonfire of the Vanities, with I Am Charlotte Simmons chronicling college life; former trustee; in 2005, became the only outside speaker in recent times to deliver the undergraduate commencement address

Science and technology

• Jennifer Dowd, 1996 - social scientist and public health researcher
• Joseph L. Goldstein, 1962 - won Nobel Prize for Medicine for research in cholesterol metabolism and discovery that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that extract cholesterol from the bloodstream
• William Wilson Morgan, 1924–26 undergraduate classes (graduated from University of Chicago 1927) - astronomer; co-developed the MK system for the classification of stars, and classification systems for galaxies and clusters; Director of Yerkes Observatory

Art, entertainment, and athletics

• Rob Ashford, 1982 - choreographer and director; eight-time Tony Award nominee (winning one), five-time Olivier Award nominee, Emmy Award winner, Drama Desk winner, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner
• Fielder Cook, 1946 - three-time Emmy Award-winning director and producer; director of The Homecoming (TV, 1971), which begat series The Waltons
• Kate Cordsen, 1986 - photographer and contemporary artist; first female graduate of W&L
• Dom Flora, 1958 - basketball standout
• Warren Giles - executive in Baseball Hall of Fame
• Jay Handlan, 1952 - basketball standout who once scored 66 points in a single game
• Mike Henry - writer, comedian, producer, Family Guy
• T. C. Lin - Taiwanese filmmaker, photographer, and writer
• Walt Michaels, 1951 - head coach of NFL's New York Jets, 1977–1982; fullback for Generals, led them to 1951 Gator Bowl against Wyoming
• Meagan Miller, 1996 - opera singer
• Mike Pressler, 1982 - head lacrosse coach at Bryant University; former coach at Duke University who resigned during Duke lacrosse case
• W. Stanley Proctor - sculptor
• Gordon P. Robertson, Law - CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network
• Cy Twombly, 1953 - abstract artist
• Justin Walker - actor, Christian Stovitz in the 1995 comedy film Clueless

Religion

• Steve Breedlove - Anglican cleric, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Christ Our Hope in the Anglican Church in North America

Faculty

• John White Brockenbrough - federal judge, founder, and former Dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law
• Martin P. Burks - former dean of W&L Law and justice on the Virginia Supreme Court
• Judy Clarke - criminal defense attorney for Ted Kaczynski, Zacarias Moussaoui, Eric Rudolph, Susan Smith, Jared Lee Loughner, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
• Creigh Deeds (born 1958) - Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia in 2009 and Virginia state senator
• Nora Demleitner (born 1966) - former dean of W&L Law and Hofstra University School of Law
• Edward Southey Joynes - professor of Modern Languages
• Donald W. Lemons - justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia
• James G. Leyburn (1902–1993) - sociologist, former dean
• Lee McLaughlin (1917–1968) - American football player with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) and a head football coach at Washington and Lee University
• Jeffrey P. Minear - counselor to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
• Clark R. Mollenhoff - journalism professor 1976–1991, former Washington bureau chief Des Moines Register, Pulitzer Prize winner in 1958
• Blake Morant - dean of the George Washington University School of Law
• Fred Perry (1909–1995) - tennis champion; won 8 Grand Slams and coached the W&L tennis team
• Marvin Banks Perry Jr. (1918–1994) - president of Goucher College and Agnes Scott College
• Rodney A. Smolla - dean of Widener University School of Law; former dean of W&L Law; First Amendment scholar; former president of Furman University
• Waller Redd Staples - member of the Confederate House of Representatives; justice on the Virginia Supreme Court
• Barry Sullivan - former dean of W&L Law; professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law
• John Randolph Tucker - Virginia attorney general, former dean, and former president of the American Bar Association

Trustees and benefactors

• Cyrus McCormick - inventor of the mechanical reaper; founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company
• George Washington - first president of the United States, general of the Continental Army

Presidents

See List of presidents of Washington and Lee University.

References