List of Amherst College people

This is a list of some notable people affiliated with Amherst College.

Notable alumni

College founders and presidents

Edward Jones 1826, principal of forerunner of Fourah Bay College, Africa (the predecessor of the University of Sierra Leone) Patrick Hues Mell 1833, chancellor of the University of Georgia Edward Duffield Neill 1842, first chancellor, University of Minnesota, 1858–1861; founder, first president, and professor, Macalester College William S. Clark 1848, second president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst), co-founder of Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University) in Japan Julius Hawley Seelye 1849, fifth president of Amherst College (implemented the Latin honors system) Daniel Bliss 1852, reverend, founder and president of American University of Beirut (1866–1902) James Griswold Merrill, president of Fisk University (1901–1908) Francis Amasa Walker 1860, third president of MIT (1881–1897) George Harris 1866, seventh president of Amherst College William Jacob Holland 1869, fifth chancellor, University of Pittsburgh Joseph Hardy Neesima 1870, founder of Doshisha University in Japan Frank Johnson Goodnow 1879, third president of Johns Hopkins University Benjamin Rush Rhees 1883, third president of the University of Rochester (1900–1935) James Hayden Tufts 1884, acting president, vice president, dean, and professor, University of Chicago Frederic B. Pratt 1887, president of Pratt Institute (1893–1937) Bertrand Snell 1894, president of Clarkson University (1920–1945) Stanley King 1903, eleventh president of Amherst College J. Seelye Bixler 1916, 16th president of Colby College Lewis Williams Douglas 1916, ninth principal of McGill University Dexter Keezer 1918, president of Reed College Charles W. Cole 1927, twelfth president of Amherst College Richard Glenn Gettell 1933, thirteenth president of Mount Holyoke College David Truman 1935, fifteenth president of Mount Holyoke College John W. Atherton 1939, founding president of Pitzer College Calvin Plimpton 1939, thirteenth president of Amherst College; president of Downstate Medical Center and American University of Beirut Julian Gibbs 1947, fifteenth president of Amherst College Charles R. Longsworth 1951, president of Hampshire College, founding vice president Howard J. Burnett 1952, former president of Washington & Jefferson College, 1970–1998 Richard M. Freeland 1963, president of Northeastern University (1996–2006) David K. Lewis 1964, interim president, provost and dean of faculty, professor, Connecticut College Colin Diver 1965, former president of Reed College Richard L. McCormick 1969, former president of Rutgers University; former president of the University of Washington, 1995–2002; vice chancellor and provost of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Peter Dorman 1970, 15th president of American University of Beirut Alan Townsend 1988, current interim president of Colorado College

Academics

Francis March 1845, philologist and lexicographer, principal founder of modern comparative linguistics in Anglo-Saxon Benjamin Kendall Emerson 1865, geologist, author, and professor John Burgess 1867, one of the founders of modern political science Herbert Baxter Adams 1872, historian, writings introduced scientific methods of investigation, credited with bringing study of politics into realm of social sciences Melvil Dewey 1874, librarian, of the Dewey Decimal System, founder of American Library Association John Bates Clark 1875, economist, namesake of the John Bates Clark Medal Richmond Mayo-Smith 1875, tatistician, at the time one of the foremost authorities on the subject David Peck Todd 1875, noted astronomer, leader of significant astronomical expeditions Frank Johnson Goodnow 1879, political scientist, scholar of public administration and administrative law, advisor in drafting Chinese constitution in 1913–14 (appears above) Ernest Cushing Richardson 1880, noted librarian, theologian and scholar Frederic Bancroft 1882, historian, author, librarian, namesake of the Bancroft Prize James Hayden Tufts 1884, philosopher, co-founder of University of Chicago School of Pragmatism Edmund B. Delabarre 1886, psychologist, pioneer in shape perception, among other fields Raymond Smith Dugan 1899, astronomer, discovered 16 asteroids (including 516 Amherstia), wrote standard two volume textbook Preserved Smith 1901, historian of Protestant Reformation; professor at Amherst, Harvard John Maurice Clark 1905, economist, best known forerunner of American school of pragmatic economics Claude Fuess 1905, noted author and historian, 10th headmaster of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts Scott Buchanan 1916, educator and philosopher, founder of Great Books program at St. John's College E. Merrill Root 1917, writer, educator, and opponent of communism and liberal intrusion into the educational system Robert Percy Barnes, 1921, chemist and professor at Howard University; was the first African American faculty member at Amherst College and the first African American person to receive a PhD in chemistry from Harvard University Gerald Warner Brace 1922, writer, educator, sailor and boat builder Talcott Parsons 1924, one of the most influential sociologists during much of the 20th century; professor at Harvard 1927–1973 Paul Doughty Bartlett 1928, chemist, revolutionized the way organic chemistry is taught and practiced in the world Stephen Cole Kleene 1930, mathematician, helped lay foundations for theoretical computer science William Summer Johnson 1936, among the world's leading synthetic organic chemists H. Stuart Hughes 1937, American historian, professor, and activist John Whitney Hall 1939, historian, pioneer in field of Japanese studies, authority on pre-war Japan Richard P. Wilbur 1942, poet and professor, second U.S. Poet Laureate; Amherst College professor Robert Frost was Wilbur's teacher and mentor Eric P. Hamp 1942, LHD (hon.) '72, linguist and professor, University of Chicago, known for expertise in lesser-known Indo-European languages and dialects David Ferry 1946, poet and translator, recipient of the Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry Julian Howard Gibbs 1947, chemist, former president of Amherst College (won the High Polymer Prize of the American Physical Society, 1967) James Olds 1947, neuroscientist, one of the foremost psychologists of the twentieth century Richard Fenno 1948, political scientist, namesake of Fenno's paradox and Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize Henry Way Kendall 1950, Physicist, experimental work provided first evidence of quarks and quark model Carl R. Woese 1950, microbiologist, redrew taxonomic tree, originator of RNA world hypothesis Andrew Hacker 1951, political scientist, novel interdisciplinary work on questions of race, class, and gender Peter Toennies 1952, physical chemist, former director of the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research; recipient, inter alia, of Physics Award of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, Stern-Geriach Gold Medal (experimental physics), Kolos Medal (chemistry) (2005), and Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics (2006) Robert Fagles 1955, translator and poet, known for translations of ancient Greek classics, particularly translations of epic poems of Homer Edmund Phelps 1955, economist, seminal work, natural rate of unemployment, Golden Rule savings rate Alan Schechter 1957, political scientist David Suzuki 1958, internationally honoured Canadian environmental scientist and activist John W. Dower 1959, historian, scholar of modern Japanese history, Bancroft Prize David Bradford 1960, economist, professor at Princeton University Andrew Ingersoll 1960, planetary scientist, recipient of Kuiper Prize (2007) James Boyd White 1960, philosopher and law professor, founder of "Law and Literature" movement John M. Deutch 1961, MIT Institute Professor, chairman of Chemistry Dept., dean of Science, provost Philip Gossett 1963, musicologist and musician, one of the world's leading authorities on 19th century Italian music; prof., Univ. of Chicago and Univ. of Rome Roger Tarpy 1963, psychologist, author of numerous textbooks on learning and memory Joseph E. Stiglitz 1964, economist, John Bates Clark Medal; former professor at Oxford, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton; work in the theory of markets with asymmetric information and efficiency wages Sterling Professor of French R. Howard Bloch 1965, Bibliotheque National, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Robert W. Field 1965, physical chemist, recipient, inter alia, of the Broida Prize, Plyler Prize, Lippincott Award, and Nobel Laureate Signature Award Davison E. Soper 1965, physicist, recipient of the 2009 Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics William Lycan 1966, philosopher, contributions to philosophy of language, mind, epistemology, linguistics Theodore Rosengarten 1966, historian, scholar of U.S. Southern history David S. Johnson 1967, computer scientist, head of Algorithms and Optimization Department (research) at AT&T Labs (former Bell Labs) Daniel Goleman 1968, bestselling author Loring Danforth 1971, anthropologist, award-winning scholar; pre-eminent expert, Macedonia naming dispute Peter Vitousek 1971, ecologist, professor of biology at Stanford University; member of the National Academy of Sciences (1992) David Helfand 1973, astronomer, chair of the department of Astronomy at Columbia University, co-director of Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, professor in physics department Theodore Levin 1973, Ethnomusicologist Raymond Jeanloz 1975, geophysicist, earth and planetary scientist, and astronomer Peter Jelavich 1975, historian, professor of history, Johns Hopkins University, specializing in the cultural history of modern Germany Walter Johnson 1988, historian, Winthrop Professor of History, Harvard University Gilbert E. Metcalf 1975, economist, John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service and professor of economics, Tufts University, specializing in taxation, energy, and climate policy Joshua M. Epstein 1976, mathematician and political scientist; pioneer in agent based models; modeling of social, economic, and biological systems; groundbreaking work on epidemics and bioterrorism Historian, author of books on the Vietnam War Christian Appy 1977 Andrew R. Heinze 1977, historian Ezekiel J. Emanuel 1979, Bioethicist, leading medical ethicist Timothy Luehrman 1979, finance academic (corporate finance and real options) Rajiv Ratan 1981, scientist Andrew Kuchins 1981, political scientist and former president of American University of Central Asia Gabriel Finkelstein 1985, historian of science Amy Rosenzweig 1988, chemist, leader in advancing synchrotron-based protein crystallography Joseph M. Hall, Jr., 1991, professor of American History, Bates College Sumantra Bose 1992,pPolitical scientist, professor of Internatl. & Comp. Pol., London School of Economics Stephen Vladeck 2001, law professor and television correspondent Charles C. Eldredge, 1966, art historian, Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture Emeritus, University of Kansas Robert E. Ireland, 1951, organic chemist, professor of Chemistry at University of Michigan, California Institute of Technology and University of Virginia Kellie Jones 1981, professor of Art History and Archaeology in African-American Studies at Columbia University

Professional athletes and coaches

Steve Partenheimer 1913, third baseman, Detroit Tigers, 1913 Howard Groskloss 1930, infielder, Pittsburgh Pirates, 1930–1932 Harry Dalton 1950, general manager Baltimore Orioles 1965–1971, Los Angeles Angels 1971–1977, Milwaukee Brewers 1977–1991 Doug Swift 1970, linebacker, Miami Dolphins, 1970–1975 Jean Fugett 1972, tight end, Dallas Cowboys 1972–1975, and Washington Redskins, 1976–1979 Freddie Scott 1974, wide receiver, Baltimore Colts, 1974–77, and Detroit Lions 1978–1983