List of Pomona College people

Here follows a list of notable people associated with Pomona College in Claremont, California, including notable graduates,^[1] non-graduating attendees, and past and present faculty.

Notable graduates

Selected Pomona College people

Senior executive at The Walt Disney Company, Roy E. Disney, class of 1951

Actor and musician, Kris Kristofferson, class of 1958

Civil rights activist, Myrlie Evers-Williams, class of 1968

Artist James Turrell, class of 1965

Acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, professor at Pomona from 2002 to 2008

NBA Championship head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich coached the Pomona men's basketball team from 1979 to 1987.

Acclaimed novelist, Jonathan Lethem, professor at Pomona from 2011 to present

Arts and letters

Art

• Lewis Baltz, class of 1965 - photographer
• Chris Burden, class of 1969 - artist
• Judy Fiskin, class of 1966 - photographer and video artist
• Mary GrandPre - illustrator, best known for her work on the US editions of the Harry Potter books
• Roger Edward Kuntz, class of 1948 - landscape painter
• Peter Shelton, class of 1973 - sculptor
• Barbara T. Smith, class of 1953 - artist
• James Strombotne, class of 1956 - painter
• James Turrell, class of 1965 - artist
• Miko Lim, class of 2002 - director and photographer

Film and television

• Amanda Blake, (attended) - actress
• Robert Blalack, class of 1970 – Academy Award Visual Effects (Star Wars), and Emmy Visual Effects (The Day After)
• Richard Chamberlain, class of 1956 – actor (Shogun, The Thorn Birds, Wallenberg: A Hero's Story, The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask, Dr. Kildare, and many more stage and screen projects)^[2]
• Rosalind Chao, class of 1978 – actor
• Art Clokey, class of 1943 – animator and creator of Gumby
• Roy E. Disney, class of 1951 – executive at The Walt Disney Company, nephew of Walt Disney
• Ted Field, class of 1979 – media mogul and film producer
• Paul Guay, class of 1979 – screenwriter (Liar Liar, Heartbreakers, The Little Rascals)
• Allison Jones, Emmy Award-winning casting director
• Joel McCrea, class of 1928 – film actor (Sullivan's Travels, Foreign Correspondent)
• Joe Menosky, class of 1979 – television writer (Star Trek franchise)
• Lynda Obst, class of 1972 – film producer
• Scott Paulin, class of 1971 – actor, husband of actor Wendy Phillips
• Viveca Paulin, class of 1991 – actor, wife of comedian Will Ferrell
• Melissa Jo Peltier, class of 1983 – television writer and producer (Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan)
• Kelly Perine, class of 1991 – television actor
• Alison Rosen, class of 1997 - TV and internet personality
• Jim Taylor, class of 1984 – Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Sideways); frequent writing partner of Alexander Payne
• Robert Taylor, class of 1933 – film actor (Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe)
• Robert Towne, class of 1956 – Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Chinatown; nominated for The Last Detail and Shampoo)
• David S. Ward, class of 1967 – film director (Major League) and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (The Sting)
• Frank Wells, class of 1952 – president, The Walt Disney Company
• John Whitney, Sr. – early computer animation filmmaker
• George C. Wolfe, class of 1976 – two-time Tony Award-winning play director, playwright and film director (Nights in Rodanthe)
• Anthony Zerbe, class of 1958 – actor (Will Penny, The Omega Man, Licence to Kill)

Music

• Frank Albinder, class of 1980 - conductor, former director of Chanticleer
• John Cage (attended) - musician and poet
• Chris Cain, class of 1999 - musician, We Are Scientists
• Christine Fan - American-born Taiwanese singer and actress
• Eric Friedl, musician, The Oblivians, owner of Goner Records
• Kris Kristofferson, class of 1958 - writer, singer-songwriter, actor, and musician
• Douglas Leedy, class of 1959 - composer and music scholar
• David Murray, class of 1977 - jazz musician
• Keith Murray, class of 1999 - musician, We Are Scientists
• David Noon - composer
• Robert Shaw, class of 1938 - six-time Grammy-winning conductor
• Lucy Shelton, class of 1965 - soprano
• Vladimir Ussachevsky, class of 1935 - composer
• Frank Zappa (attended) - prolific musician, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Journalism and non-fiction writing

• H. Arnold Barton, class of 1953 - historian
• Paul Fussell, class of 1945- cultural and literary historian
• Bill Keller, class of 1970 - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and executive editor of The New York Times
• Verlyn Klinkenborg, class of 1974 - non-fiction writer
• Doug McConnell, class of 1967 - television journalist
• Richard Pérez-Peña - reporter for The New York Times
• Mary Schmich, class of 1975 - columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Pulitzer Prize winner in 2012 for Commentary
• Zafar Sobhan - Bangladeshi journalist and editor of the Dhaka Tribune
• Ashlee Vance - Reporter for The New York Times, best-selling author and TV host

Writing

• Richard Armour, class of 1927 - author, humorist, professor
• Vikram Chandra, class of 1984 - Indian writer
• Garrett Hongo, class of 1973 - Japanese-American poet
• Ved Mehta, class of 1956 - writer
• Louis Menand, class of 1973 - writer, The Metaphysical Club
• Douglas Preston, class of 1978 - writer for The New Yorker and Smithsonian, bestselling thriller author
• Richard Preston, class of 1976 - writer for The New Yorker and bestselling author
• William Irwin Thompson, class of 1962 - poet, cultural historian, cultural critic
• Lynn Walford - writer, copywriter and author

Other

• Clara Breed, class of 1927 - librarian
• Don Daglow, class of 1974 - video game designer and producer
• Eddie Dombrower, class of 1980 - video game designer and producer
• Alex Linder, class of 1988 - owner/operator of the Vanguard News Network, an antisemitic, white supremacist website^[3]
• Zelana Montminy - psychologist, health expert, author and TV personality
• David Ossman (attended) - writer and comedian best known as a member of the Firesign Theatre
• Twyla Tharp (attended) - Emmy and Tony award-winning dancer and choreographer
• Marianne Williamson (attended) - author and spiritual teacher

Government and law

U.S. Senators and Congressmen

• Alan Cranston, class of 1936 - Democratic Senator from California (1969–93) (transferred)^[4]
• Brian Schatz, class of 1994 - United States Senator (D-Hawaii) (2012–present)

Federal officials

• William B. Bader, class of 1953 - former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs
• Esther Brimmer, class of 1983 - U.S. foreign policy expert and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
• Leslie A. Wheeler, class of 1921 - former U.S. government official and diplomat

State and city officials

• Ellen Bard, class of 1971 - member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives^[5]
• Richard "Tick" Segerblom, class of 1970 - Nevada Assembleyman, elected to Nevada Senate 2012
• Silsby Spalding (1885-1949) - first mayor of Beverly Hills, California^[6][7]
• Mark Wyland, class of 1968 - California Senator

Judges

• James Marshall Carter, class of 1924 - Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of California, and later United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit^[8]
• Kimberly J. Mueller, class of 1981 - Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
• Stephen Reinhardt, class of 1951 - Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Cruz Reynoso, class of 1953 - former member of the California Supreme Court
• Christina A. Snyder, class of 1972 - Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
• Richard G. Taranto, class of 1977 - Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• George H. Wu, class of 1969 - Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California

Diplomats

• Hugh S. Gibson - U.S. diplomat
• Julian Nava, class of 1951 - first Mexican-American to become the US Ambassador to Mexico

Activists

• Paul F. Eckstein Esq., class of 1962 - Co-Chairman at National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Myrlie Evers, class of 1968 - activist, first full-time chairman of the NAACP^[9]
• John Payton, class of 1973 - civil rights attorney and president of NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Other

• Bernard Chan, class of 1988 - member of the Hong Kong Executive Council and President of Asia Financial Holdings^[10]

Business

• Laszlo Bock, class of 1993 - Senior Vice President, People Operations, Google
• Cathy Corison - winemaker
• Lynn Forester de Rothschild - CEO of E.L. Rothschild
• Burnell H. DeVos Jr, class of 1949 - co-chairman of Price Waterhouse
• Roy E. Disney, class of 1951 - executive at The Walt Disney Company; nephew of Walt Disney
• Hashim Djojohadikusumo, class of 1976 - Indonesian entrepreneur and brother of former Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto
• Ranney E. Draper, class of 1960 - chairman of Spring Creek Investors and philanthropist
• Richard Fairbank, class of 1972 - founder and chairman of Capital One (transferred)
• Nick Friedman, class of 2005 - President and Co-Founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk and named in Inc.'s "Top 30 Entrepreneurs in America Under 30"
• James M. Galbraith, class of 1964 - President of Crestmont Investments, author, and corporate finance lawyer
• Alex Garfield, class of 2008 - CEO of Evil Geniuses and featured in Forbes' “30 Under 30: Games and Apps”
• George E. Moss, class of 1952 - President of Roscoe Moss Company
• Charles Scripps, class of 1943 - chairman of the board of the E. W. Scripps Company
• Bryan White, class of 1984 - Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock Alternative Advisors

Science

• Norris Bradbury, class of 1929 - physicist
• Steven Clarke, class of 1970 - biochemist
• Jennifer Anne Doudna, class of 1985 - biochemist
• Edmund Jaeger (attended) - noted naturalist^[11]
• Milton S. Livingston, class of 1926 - physicist
• J. Andrew McCammon, class of 1969 - physical chemist
• Roger Revelle, class of 1929 - scientist and scholar; one of the first to study global warming, and mentor to Al Gore at Harvard

Religion

• Gladwyn M. Childs, class of 1919 - minister
• Charles E. Fuller, class of 1910 - clergyman and radio evangelist
• Fr. Seraphim (Eugene) Rose, class of 1956 - Russian Orthodox hieromonk

Philanthropy

• Libby Armintrout, class of 1986 - philanthropist and sister of Bill Gates
• Donald McKenna, class of 1929 - philanthropist and scholar; his grandfather helped to found Pomona College; the liberal arts school Claremont McKenna College, also bears his name

Academia

College presidents

• John V. Lombardi, class of 1963 - fifth president of the Louisiana State University System
• Dr. David Lewis Outcalt, class of 1956 - Chancellor, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay and Chancellor University of Alaska - Anchorage
• Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran, class of 1968 - current president of Kalamazoo College
• Russell K. Pitzer, class of 1900 - founder of Pitzer College

Professors and academics

• Chen Han-seng, class of 1920 - Chinese social scientist considered a father of Chinese modern social science^[12]
• Matthew K. Franklin, class of 1983 - cryptographer
• David Keirsey, class of 1947 - psychologist
• Ellis Batten Page - professor, scientist and widely acknowledged as the father of automated essay scoring; developed Project Essay Grade (PEG™) software
• Vijay Prashad, class of 1989 - history professor at Trinity College (Connecticut)
• Michael Starbird, class of 1970 - mathematics professor, University of Texas at Austin
• Robyn R. Warhol, class of 1977 - distinguished professor of English at Ohio State University and author
• Tamily Weissman, class of 1992 - neurobiology professor at Lewis and Clark College

Athletics

• Mike Budenholzer, class of 1993 - Head Coach of the Atlanta Hawks
• Penny Lee Dean - long distance swimmer and world record-holder for the fastest swim across the English Channel in 1978
• Darlene Hard, former World Class tennis player, class of 1958
• Will Leer, class of 2007 - professional track and field athlete specializing in the 1500 meters
• Marilyn Ramenofsky, class of 1969 - former competition swimmer, Olympic medalist, and world record-holder
• David G. Freeman, class of 42 - Class President and World Class Badminton player

Notable faculty

• Matthew Bradley - musician
• Susana Chavez-Silverman - writer
• Fannie Charles Dillon - composer
• James Grant – painter, sculptor
• Karl Kohn – composer
• Jonathan Lethem - novelist, author of Fortress of Solitude
• Robert Mezey – poet
• Salvador Plascencia - novelist, author of The People of Paper
• Gregg Popovich - head basketball coach of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs
• David Foster Wallace – novelist, author of Infinite Jest

Presidents of Pomona College

1. Cyrus G. Baldwin, 1890–1897^[13]
2. Franklin La Du Ferguson, 1897–1901
3. George A. Gates, 1901–1910
4. James A. Blaisdell, 1910–1928
5. Charles K. Edmunds, 1928–1941
6. E. Wilson Lyon, 1941–1969
7. David Alexander, 1969–1991
8. Peter W. Stanley, 1991–2003
9. David W. Oxtoby, 2003–present

References