List of Occidental College people

Notable graduates and attendees

Business and industry

• John Branca (entertainment industry lawyer)
• Norton Clapp (an original owner of Space Needle)
• Stephen Cooper (CEO of Warner Music Group)
• W. Don Cornwell (CEO of Granite Broadcasting)
• Marsha J. Evans (CEO of American Red Cross, Navy admiral)
• Frank Hershey (automotive designer)
• Arthur Peck (CEO of Gap Inc.)
• Linda Bradford Raschke (commodities and futures trader)

Entertainment and the arts

• Ben Affleck (actor, director, screenwriter)
• Stephen Beal (visual artist)
• Ashly Burch (actress)
• John Callas (writer, director, producer)
• Sadie Calvano (actress)^[1]
• August Coppola (academic, author, film executive and advocate for the arts)
• Glenn Corbett (television actor)
• Gabriela Cowperthwaite (documentary filmmaker, Blackfish)
• Will Friedle (actor)
• 12 Monkeys
  , others)
• Joanna Gleason (actor)
• Mike Hoover (cameraman, journalist, documentarian, winner of Academy and Emmy Awards)
• Terry Kitchen (musician)
• Loren Lester (actor)
• Thomas Murray (organist)
• George Nader (actor)
• Marcel Ophüls
  (filmmaker)
• Emily Osment (actress; Class of 2015)
• Cooper Raiff (actor, director)
• Joe Rohde (Imagineer)
• Peter Scolari (actor)
• Jake Shears (lead singer of Scissor Sisters)
• Anna Slotky (actress)
• Dan Slott (comic book writer)
• The Ugly Truth
  )
• Roger Guenveur Smith (actor)
• Rider Strong (actor)
• Taku Takahashi (musician)
• Maurissa Tancharoen (actress, singer, dancer, television writer and lyricist)
• Jesús Salvador Treviño (television director)
• Tui St. George Tucker (composer)
• Luke Wilson (actor)
• Michael Whaley (actor, director, writer)

Government, diplomacy, and law

• Kathy Augustine (U.S. politician from Nevada)
• Alphonzo E. Bell, Jr.
  (U.S. Congressman)
• David S. Cunningham, Jr.
  (Los Angeles City Council member, 1973–87)
• Gloria Duffy (President and CEO of The Commonwealth Club, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Special Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction)
• Richard Falkenrath
  (former deputy homeland security advisor)
• Robert Finch
  (Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare 1969–1970, Lieutenant Governor of California 1967–1969)
• U. Alexis Johnson (U.S. diplomat)

• Department of Housing and Urban Development 1989–1993, Republican vice presidential
  nominee in 1996) Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2009.
• David M. Louie (Attorney General of Hawaii)
• Pete McCloskey (U.S. Representative 1967–83)
• Jacqueline Nguyen (federal judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit)
• Chris Norby (California State Assemblyman)

• 44th President of the United States
  )
• Dennis R. Patrick (Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, 1987 - 1989)
• Thomas M. Rees (U.S. Congressman)
• Janette Sadik-Khan (commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation)
• Janis Lynn Sammartino (federal judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of California)
• Mark S. Scarberry (professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law)
• Kristina A Kvien (United States Ambassador, U.S. Embassy of Armenia)
• Grant Woods (Arizona Attorney General)

Higher education and academia

• Coit D. Blacker (Political Science Professor at Stanford University)
• Glenn S. Dumke
  (history professor and chancellor of the California State University)
• Sharon Gaber (President of the University of Toledo)
• Karen L. Gould (President of Brooklyn College)
• Lewis Sargentich (legal scholar at Harvard Law School)

Journalism

• Bessie Beatty (1886-1947), reported on Russian Revolution
• Steve Coll (former Washington Post managing editor, Pulitzer Prize winner)
• Andrea Elliott (reporter for The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winner)
• Chris Gulker (photographer)
• Margot Mifflin (professor of journalism, feminist cultural critic)
• Washington Post
  , author of oral histories on ESPN, CAA
• Patt Morrison (NPR radio personality and columnist for the Los Angeles Times)
• Sam Rubin (KTLA
  entertainment anchor)

• Mark Dery (author and cultural critic)
• M. F. K. Fisher (writer)
• Robinson Jeffers (poet)
• Scott O'Dell (author, Newbery Award winner)
• Carrie Vaughn (writer)
• Gladys Waddingham (teacher and local historian)
• Rosalind Wiseman (writer)

Medicine

• David G. Armstrong (physician/medical researcher)
• Howard Judd (medical researcher)

Science

• Brent Dalrymple (geologist and National Medal of Science winner)
• William Goddard (engineer)
• Edmund C. Jaeger
  (naturalist, author, teacher)
• J. P. Mallory (archaeologist)
• John E. McCosker (ichthyologist)
• Fred Lawrence Whipple (astronomer)

Social action, philanthropy, and community service

• Howard Ahmanson, Jr
  (philanthropist, financier, and writer)
• Cameron Townsend
  (founder, Wycliffe Bible Translators and Summer Institute of Linguistics)
• Rex Weyler (author, journalist, ecologist and co-founder of Greenpeace International; did not graduate)

Sports and athletics

• Keith Beebe, football player
• Ron Botchan, five-time Super Bowl official for NFL from 1980 to 2002
• Olin Browne, PGA Tour winner
• Dean Cromwell, USC and Olympic track-and-field coach
• Luke Collis, arena football player
• Joe Faust, Olympic high jumper
• Justin Goltz, NFL/CFL quarterback
• Bob Gutowski, pole vaulter, 1956 Olympic silver medalist
• Jack Kemp, AFL and NFL star quarterback of Buffalo Bills
• Sammy Lee, two-time Olympic gold medalist in diving
• Jim Mora, Sr., coached NFL's New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts
• Vance Mueller, NFL running back
• Bill Redell, college and pro quarterback, high school coach
• Johnny Sanders, NFL general manager^[2]
• Danny Southwick, arena football player
• Jim Tunney, NFL official from 1960 to 1991; three Super Bowls

Notable faculty

• PEN American Center
  Literary Award winner in poetry.
• Boston Redevelopment Authority and senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn for nine years.^[3]

• Eric Garcetti, former assistant professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs; currently mayor of Los Angeles
• George R. Goldner, art historian, Drue Heinz Chairman of the Department of Drawings and Paints of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Julia Holter, singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist; appointed Professor of the Practice of Songwriting in 2021.^[4]
• United States Ambassador to Finland.^[5]

• Samuel H. Weller (1887–1891)
• J. Melville McPherron (1892–1894)
• Elbert Nevius Condit (1894–1896)
• James W. Parkhill (1896–1897)
• Guy W. Wadsworth (1897–1905)
• William Stewart Young (1905–1906, acting)
• John Willis Baer (1906–1916)
• Thomas Gregory Burt (1916–1917)
• Silas Evans (1917–1920)
• Thomas Gregory Burt (1920–1921, acting)
• Remsen Bird (1921–1927, 1928–1945)
• Robert G. Cleland (1927–1928, acting)
• Arthur G. Coons (1945–1965)
• Richard C. Gilman (1965–1988)
• John Brooks Slaughter (1988–1999)
• Theodore R. Mitchell (1999–2005)
• Kenyon S. Chan (2005–2006, acting)
• Susan Westerberg Prager (2006–2007)
• Robert Skotheim (2008–2009)
• Jonathan Veitch (2009–2020)
• Harry J. Elam Jr. (2020–present)

References