The following is a list of notable faculty, trustees, and alumni of Phillips Exeter Academy, a preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire, founded in 1781.
Founder John Phillips – founder of Phillips Exeter; president of board of trustees 1781–1795
Principals Benjamin Abbot – principal 1788–1838 Gideon Lane Soule – principal 1838–1873 Albert C. Perkins – principal 1873–1883 Walter Quincy Scott – president of Ohio State University; principal 1884–1889 Charles Everett Fish – principal 1890–1895 Harlan P. Amen – principal 1895–1913 Lewis Perry – principal 1914–1946 William Saltonstall – principal 1946–1963 William Ernest Gillespie – Latin instructor 1939–1967, vice principal, dean of faculty, interim principal 1963–1964 Richard W. Day – principal 1964–1973 Stephen G. Kurtz – historian; principal 1974–1987 Kendra Stearns O'Donnell – painter; principal 1987–1997 Tyler Tingley – principal 1997–2009 Thomas Hassan – faculty 1989–present; principal 2009–2015 Lisa MacFarlane – principal 2015–2018 William Knox Rawson – interim principal 2018, principal 2019–2026 Jennifer Karlen Elliott - principal 2026 - present
Notable faculty members and trustees
John Pickering – federal judge, impeached for drunkenness; trustee 1781–1782 Paine Wingate – New Hampshire delegate to the Continental Congress; U.S. representative from New Hampshire; U.S. senator from New Hampshire; trustee 1787–1809 Nicholas Emery – judge on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court; assistant teacher 1797 Daniel Dana – president of Dartmouth College; instructor 1789–91; board of trustees 1809–1843 John Taylor Gilman – delegate to the Continental Congress; governor of New Hampshire; president of board of trustees 1795–1827 Ashur Ware – federal judge; instructor 1804–1805 Nathan Hale – editor and publisher; introduced regular editorial commentary; instructor 1805–1807 Alexander Hill Everett – diplomat and politician; assistant teacher 1807 Nathan Lord – president of Dartmouth College; faculty 1809–1812 Henry Ware Jr. – mentor to Ralph Waldo Emerson; instructor, 1812–1814 James Walker – president of Harvard University; faculty 1814–1815 William Bourne Oliver Peabody – minister and author; assistant instructor 1817 Ebenezer Adams – first professor of mathematics and natural philosophy Nathaniel Appleton Haven – U.S. representative from New Hampshire; president of board of trustees 1828–1830 Jeremiah Smith – U.S. representative from New Hampshire; judge; governor of New Hampshire; president of board of trustees 1830–1842 Francis Bowen – philosopher, writer, and educationalist; faculty 1833–1835 Joseph Gibson Hoyt – chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis; faculty 1840–1858 Andrew Preston Peabody – Unitarian clergyman and author; board of trustees, 1843–1885 Amos Tuck – U.S. representative from New Hampshire; founder of the Republican Party; board of trustees 1853–1879 George A. Wentworth – author of textbooks on mathematics; faculty 1857–1892; board of trustees 1899–1906 Robert Franklin Pennell – scholar and classicist; faculty 1871–1882 Charles H. Bell – governor of New Hampshire; trustee 1879–1883 George Lyman Kittredge – faculty 1883–1887 T.A. Dwight Jones – faculty H. Hamilton "Hammy" Bissell – director of scholarships Robert H. Bates – mountaineer; faculty Henry Bragdon – historian; faculty member in history department 1945-1974 Donald B. Cole – historian; faculty 1947–1988 Dandridge MacFarlan Cole – aerospace engineer, futurist, lecturer, and author; faculty 1949–1953, physics and astronomy Winthrop Jordan – historian; faculty member in history department 1955–1960 Frederick Buechner – writer; theologian; Religion and English faculty and school minister 1958–1967 Cabot Lyford – sculptor; faculty 1963–1986 Michael S. Greco – president of American Bar Association; faculty 1965–1968 George Crowe – ice hockey coach; faculty 1969–1975 David P. Robbins – mathematician; faculty 1972–1977 Dolores Kendrick – Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia; faculty 1972–1993 Dan Brown – New York Times bestselling author; faculty 1993 Michael Golay – historian; faculty 1999–2021? Gwynneth Coogan – U.S. Olympian; faculty 2002–present Todd Hearon – faculty 2003–present Olutoyin Augustus – Nigerian hurdler; instructor in physical education 2011–2021 Thomas W. Simpson – faculty 2008–present Willie Perdomo – poet laurete of New York State; current faculty
Notable alumni 1780s
Benjamin Ives Gilman (c. 1783) – Ohio pioneer George Sullivan (c. 1783) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Nathaniel Thayer (c. 1783) – Unitarian minister Daniel Tilton (c. 1783) – one of the first three judges in Mississippi Territory, Supreme Court of Mississippi Territory Josiah Bartlett Jr. (c. 1784) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Samuel Smith (c. 1784) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire George B. Upham (c. 1785) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Daniel Meserve Durell (c. 1789) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire; member of Democratic-Republican Party
1790s
Dudley Leavitt (1790) – publisher, writer, teacher David L. Morril (1790) – U.S. senator from New Hampshire, governor of New Hampshire Nicholas Emery (c. 1791) – judge on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court John Noyes (1791) – U.S. representative from Vermont Lewis Cass (1792) – brigadier general; governor of Michigan Territory, U.S. secretary of War; U.S. senator from Michigan; U.S. secretary of state; Democratic candidate for president William Ladd (1793) – pacifist, founder and first president of American Peace Society Nathaniel Upham (1793) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Samuel Conner (1794) – U.S. representative from Massachusetts John Adams Harper (c. 1794) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Edward Little (1794) – attorney, entrepreneur, philanthropistRalph B. Skinner et al, Auburn: 100 Years a City, 1869–1969. Joseph Stevens Buckminster (1795) – Unitarian minister and promulgator of Higher Criticism Daniel Webster (1796) – U.S. representative who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts; U.S. senator from Massachusetts; U.S. secretary of state; diplomat Leverett Saltonstall I (1798) – U.S. representative from Massachusetts
1800s
Samuel Livermore (1800) – legal scholar Richard Saltonstall Rogers (1800) – East Indies merchant, N. L. Rogers & Bros., Salem, MassachusettsRichard Saltonstall Rogers, Eighth Generation, Phillips, Howard, Fay Genealogy Abiel Chandler (1802) – merchant, philanthropist Joseph Cogswell (1802) – educator, editor, library administrator William Plumer Jr. (1802) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire James Carr (1803) – U.S. representative from Massachusetts John Perkins Cushing (1803) – China merchant, opium smuggler, philanthropist Augustine Heard (c. 1803) – entrepreneur and businessman Nicholas B. Doe (1804) – U.S. representative from New York State Theodore Lyman (1804) – mayor of Boston, Massachusetts Lucius Manlius Sargent (1804) – author, antiquarian, and temperance advocate John Lauris Blake (1806) – minister and prolific author Benjamin T. Pickman (1806) – president of the Massachusetts State Senate Zachariah Allen (1807) – manufacturer and inventorThe Biographical Cyclopedia of Rhode Island, p. 260 Joseph Blunt (1807) – author; editor; politician; New York County district attorney Edward Everett (1807) – U.S. representative from Massachusetts; U.S. senator from Massachusetts; governor of Massachusetts, ambassador to Great Britain; U.S. secretary of state; president of Harvard University Nathaniel Appleton Haven (1807) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Benjamin Kendrick Pierce (1807) – U.S. Army officer; brother of Franklin Pierce; son of Benjamin Pierce James H. Duncan (1808) – U.S. representative from Massachusetts James Freeman Dana (1809) – chemist; science author Samuel Luther Dana (1809) – chemist; agricultural science specialist; science author William Thorndike (1809) – president of the Massachusetts State Senate
1810s
John Sherburne Sleeper (1807) – sailor, ship master, novelist, journalist, politician William Willis (1808) – mayor of Portland, Maine; railroad president Thomas Bulfinch (1810) – author of Bulfinch's Mythology John Adams Dix (1810) – U.S. secretary of the Treasury; U.S. senator from New York; governor of New York; U.S. minister to France; railroad president Horace Hooker (1810) – Congregationalist minister; author William Robinson (ca. 1810) – school founder Jonathan P. Cushing (1811) – president of Hampden-Sydney College George Bancroft (1811) – historian, secretary of the Navy; founder of the United States Naval Academy; ambassador to the United Kingdom John G. Palfrey (1811) – clergyman, U.S. representative from Massachusetts Jared Sparks (1811) – president of Harvard University Benjamin Ogle Tayloe – businessman David Barker Jr. (1812) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Alpheus Spring Packard Sr. (1812) – professor; acting president of Bowdoin CollegeCleaveland, N. and A. S. Packard. History of Bowdoin College: with biographical sketches of its graduates from 1806 to 1879, inclusive. J.R. Osgood & Co., Boston (1882) William Bourne Oliver Peabody (1812) – Unitarian minister, author Charles Paine (1813) – governor of Vermont Samuel Edmund Sewall (1813) – lawyer; politician; abolitionist; suffragist James Wilson II (1813) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire Andrew Leonard Emerson (1814) – first mayor of Portland, Maine Gideon Lane Soule (1816) – principal of Phillips Exeter, 1838–1873 Nathaniel Gookin Upham (1816) – associate justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court; railroad president; diplomatNoyes, Daniel J. (1871). Memoir of Nathaniel Gookin Upham. George Lunt (1818) – politician, author, editor, poet John Dennison Russ (1818) – physician; innovator in the education of the blind Jonathan Chapman (1819) – mayor of Boston, Massachusetts Thomas Wilson Dorr (1819) – governor of Rhode Island; leader of the eponymous Dorr Rebellion Alfred L. Elwyn (1819) – humanitarian, author Russell Sturgis (1819) – merchant, banker
1820s
John P. Hale (1820) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire; U.S. senator from New Hampshire; abolitionist; Free Soil candidate for U.S. president; ambassador to Spain Franklin Pierce (1820) – U.S. representative from New Hampshire; U.S. senator from New Hampshire; 14th president of the United States Alpheus Felch (1821) – U.S. senator from Michigan; governor of Michigan Josiah S. Little (1821) – speaker of the Maine House of Representatives Ephraim Peabody (1821) – Unitarian minister; abolitionist John Langdon Sibley (1821) – librarian of Harvard University Alfred W. Craven (1822) – civil engineer; founding member and president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Thomas Tingey Craven (1822) – rear admiral, United States Navy George Yeaton Sawyer (1822) – lawyer and politician, justice of the New Hampshire Supreme CourtEdward Everett Parker, History of Nashua, N. H. (1895), p. 399. Samuel Foster Haven (1823) – archeologist, anthropologist Richard Hildreth (1823) – historian, political theorist John Hodgdon (1823) – president of the Maine State Senate; mayor of Dubuque, Iowa Forrest Shepherd (1823) – geologist George Bradburn (1824) – politician and Unitarian minister in Massachusetts Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith (c. 1824) – U.S. representative from Maine Edward Henry Durell (1826) – mayor of New Orleans, federal judgeMetcalf, Henry H. "Hon. Edward Henry Durell." The Granite Monthly New Hampshire Magazine: Devoted to Literature, History, and State Progress. 1888: 117–129. Print. Henry Francis Harrington (1828) – editor of the Boston Herald Theodore Howard McCaleb (1828) – federal judge; president of the University of Louisiana Francis Bowen (1829) – philosopher, writer, educationalist