Bowdoin College

Distinguished Graduates

Arts & Letters

• Calvin Ellis Stowe 1824, professor of religion at the Andover Theological Seminary, Dartmouth College and Bowdoin; husband and literary agent of the author Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1825, world-renowned poet; professor at Bowdoin (1829-31) and Harvard University (1831-54); memorialized in the Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey; namesake, along with Hawthorne, of Bowdoin's main library
• Nathaniel Hawthorne 1825, author, most notably of The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851); namesake, along with Longfellow, of Bowdoin's main library
• John Stevens Cabot Abbott 1825, biographer, most notably of Napoleon Bonaparte (1855)
• John Brown Russwurm 1826, second black college graduate in the United States; founder of Freedom's Journal, America's first black newspaper (1827); governor of Maryland County in Liberia (1836-41)
• Henry Boynton Smith 1834, theologian and professor at Amherst College (1847-50) and the Union Theological Seminary (1850-74)
• Ezra Abbot 1840, influential biblical scholar and professor at the Harvard Divinity School (1872-1884)
• Robert P.T. Coffin 1915, Rhodes Scholar, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1936), and Bowdoin professor (1934-55)
• Hodding Carter 1927, progressive journalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1946)
• James Bassett 1934, journalist and author, most notably of the best-selling novel In Harm's Way (1962)
• H. Richard Hornberger 1945, doctor and author, most notably of M*A*S*H (1968)

Government

• George Evans 1815, congressman (1829-41) and senator (1841-47) from Maine
• James Bell 1822, senator from New Hampshire (1855-57)
• William Fessenden 1823, congressman (1841-43) and senator (1854-64, 1865-69) from New Hampshire; Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln (1864-65)
• Franklin Pierce 1824, congressman (1833-37) and senator (1837-42) from New Hampshire; 14th President of the United States (1853-57); namesake of Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire
• James Ware Bradbury 1825, senator from Maine (1847-53)
• Jonathan Cilley 1825, congressman from Maine whose death in an 1838 duel with Kentucky Congressman William Graves prompted outrage and a congressional ban on the practice *
• Horatio Bridge 1825, commodore in the US Navy; chief of the Naval Bureau of Provisions & Clothing (1854-1869)
• John Fairfield 1826, congressman (1835-38) and senator (1843-47) from Maine; governor of Maine (1839-43)
• Alpheus Felch 1827, Michigan governor (1846-47), senator from Michigan (1847-1853), professor of law at the University of Michigan, and namesake of Felch Township in Michigan
• John Hale 1827, congressman (1843-45) and senator (1847-53) from New Hampshire; ran against Franklin Pierce 1824 as the Free Soil Party candidate for President (1852)
• Hugh McCulloch 1827, Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Abraham Lincoln (1865), Andrew Johnson (1865-69) and Chester Arthur (1884-85)
• Samuel Fessenden 1834, congressman from Maine (1861-63)
• John Andrew 1837, Massachusetts governor (1861-66) responsible for the formation of the 54th Massachusetts during the Civil War
• Lorenzo De Medici Sweat 1837, congressman from Maine (1863-65)
• T.A.D. Fessenden 1845, congressman from Maine (1862-63)
• La Fayette Grover 1846, Oregon governor (1871-77); congressman (1859) and senator (1877-83) from Oregon
• William Frye 1850, congressman (1871-81) and senator (1881-1911) from Maine
• Paris Gibson 1851, senator from Montana (1901-05)
• Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain 1852, Bowdoin College professor (1855-62), Civil War hero, Medal of Honor winner, Maine governor (1867-71), and president of Bowdoin College (1871-83); a large statute of Chamberlain now stands at the entrance to the College
• William Drew Washburn 1854, congressman (1879-85) and senator (1889-95) from Minnesota
• Wilmot Brookings 1855, first provisional governor of the Dakota Territory; namesake of the city and county of Brookings, both in South Dakota
• Charles Fletcher Johnson 1859, senator from Maine (1911-1917)
• Thomas Brackett Reed 1860, congressman from Maine (1877-99); Speaker of the House (1889-91, 1895-99)
• Wallace White 1899, congressman (1916-31) and senator (1931-49) from Maine; Senate Minority Leader (1944-47); Senate Majority Leader (1947-49)
• Ralph Owen Brewster 1909, Maine governor (1925-29); congressman (1935-41) and senator (1941-53) from Maine
• Paul Douglas 1913, professor of economics at the University of Chicago (1920-42) and senator from Illinois (1949-67)
• Sumner Pike 1913, member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1940-1946) and chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (1946-1951)
• Horrace Hildreth 1925, Maine governor (1944-48), US Ambassador to Pakistan (1953-57), and president of Bucknell University (1957-67)
• Joseph Fisher 1935, congressman from Virginia (1975-81)
• George Mitchell 1954, senator from Maine (1982-95); Senate Majority Leader (1989-95); chairman of the Walt Disney Corporation (2004-present); winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1999); Chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast *
• Thomas Pickering 1953, US Ambassador to Jordan (1974-78), Nigeria (1981-83), El Salvador (1983-85), Israel (1985-88), the United Nations (1989-92), India (1992-93), and Russia (1993-96); recipient of thirteen honorary degrees
• Bill Cohen 1962, congressman (1972-78) and senator (1978-97) from Maine; Secretary of Defense under President Clinton (1997-2001)
• Tom Allen 1967, Rhodes Scholar, mayor of Portland, and congressman from Maine (1996-present) *
• Christopher Hill 1974, US Ambassador to Macedonia (1996-99), Poland (2000-2004), and South Korea (2004-present); chief US negotiator with North Korea (2005)
• Lawrence Lindsey 1976, professor of economics at Harvard, and economic adviser to President George W. Bush (2001-2002)
• Tom Andrews 1976, congressman from Maine (1991-1995)

Law

• Melville Weston Fuller 1853, 8th Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court (1888-1910)
• Harold H. Burton 1909, senator from Ohio (1941-45); Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (1945-1958)
• Dennis J. Hutchinson 1969, Rhodes Scholar, law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, professor of law at the University of Chicago, and biographer of Justice Byron White (1998)

Science & Medicine

• William Smyth 1822, professor of mathematics and philosophy at Bowdoin; author of popular textbooks on algebra, trigonometry, geometry and calculus (1833-59)
• Francis Upton, mathematician and inventor; long-time associate of Thomas Edison; first student ever to receive a graduate degree from Princeton (1877) and namesake of the university's Upton Fellowship *
• Robert E. Peary 1877, Naval officer and leader of the first expedition to reach the North Pole (1909)
• Donald B. MacMillan 1898, member of the Peary expedition and pioneering Arctic explorer *
• Alfred Kinsey 1916, sex researcher, author of the controversial Kinsey Reports (1948, 1953), professor at Indiana University (1920-56), and founder of the Institute for Sex Research (1947) *

Athletics

• Fred Tootell 1923, Olympic gold medalist in the hammer throw (1924)
• Joan Benoit Samuelson 1979, world record holder and winner of the Boston (1979, 1983), Olympic (1984) and Chicago (1985) marathons

Business

• Thomas W. Hyde 1861, founder of Bath Iron Works (1884)
• Charles T. Ireland, Jr. 1942, president of CBS (1971-72)
• Leon Gorman 1956, president (1967-2001) and chairman (2001-present) of L.L. Bean
• Kenneth Chenault 1973, president (1997-2001) and CEO (2001-present) of American Express; the first African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 company
• Stanley Druckenmiller 1975, billionaire financier and philanthropist; former business associate of George Soros
• Reed Hastings 1983, founder (1997) and CEO (1997-present) of Netflix

Academia

• Nathan Lord 1809, president of Dartmouth College (1828-63) *
• Samuel Harris 1833, president of Bowdoin College (1867-71)
• Oliver Otis Howard 1850, Civil War general, commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau (1865-72), and founder and president of Howard University (1869-74)
• Kenneth C.M. Sills 1901, president of Bowdoin College (1918-52)
• Asa Knowles 1930, president of Northeastern University (1959-75), and namesake of the building which houses its law school
• Lawrence Lee Pelletier 1936, president of Allegheny College, and namesake of the school's library
• Roger Howell, Jr. 1958, Rhodes Scholar and president of Bowdoin College (1969-78)
• Barry Mills 1972, president of Bowdoin College (2001-present) *

Honorary Degree Recipients

• Jefferson Davis LL.D. 1859, senator from Mississippi (1847-53, 1857-61), Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce (1853-1857), and president of the Confederate States of America (1861-65); namesake of Bowdoin's award for excellence in government and constitutional law *
• Robert Frost Litt.D. 1926, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and professor at Amherst College (1916-38)
• Harlan Fiske Stone LL.D. 1944, Attorney General under President Calvin Coolidge (1924-25); Associate (1925-41) and Chief (1941-46) Justice of the Supreme Court
• N.C. Wyeth A.M. 1945, American artist and illustrator
• Margaret Chase Smith LL.D. 1952, representative (1940-49) and senator (1949-73) from Maine
• Edmund Muskie LL.D. 1957, Maine governor (1954-58); senator from Maine (1958-1980); Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter (1980-81)
• Edward W. Brooke LL.D. 1969, senator from Massachusetts (1967-79)
• Andrew Wyeth D.F.A. 1970, American artist
• Olympia Snowe LL.D. 1983, representative (1979-94) and senator (1994-present) from Maine
• George H. W. Bush LL.D. 1982, 43rd Vice President (1981-89) and 41st President of the United States (1989-1993)
• Maya Angelou, Litt.D. 1987, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author
• Ken Burns L.H.D. 1991, director of documentaries on the American Civil War (1990), baseball (1994) and jazz (2001)
• Cornel West L.H.D. 1999, celebrity professor at Yale, Harvard and Princeton *
• Paul M. Simon LL.D. 2001, congressman (1975-85) and senator (1985-97) from Illinois