List of Deerfield Academy alumni
Wikimedia list article

The List of Deerfield Academy alumni is a dynamic list of notable Deerfield Academy alumni, sorted chronologically.
Pre-1900
George Grennell Jr. (1786–1877), U.S. congressman from Massachusetts
Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864), president of Amherst College
John Williams (1817–1899), presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church
George Sheldon (1818–1916), politician and historian
Mary Tenney Castle (1819–1907), missionary and philanthropist in Hawaii
Rufus Saxton (1824–1908), Union Army brigadier general awarded Medal of Honor
William Lincoln Higgins (1867–1957), U.S. congressman from Connecticut
Classes of the 1920s
Paul Langdon Ward (1911–2005), president of Sarah Lawrence College
J. B. Jackson (1909–1996), writer, publisher, instructor, and sketch artist in landscape design
Classes of the 1930s
Budd Schulberg (1914–2009), screenwriter and novelist
Hastings Keith (1915–2005), U.S. representative from Massachusetts
Douglas Kennedy (1915–1973), actor
Lyman Kirkpatrick (1916–1995), inspector general and executive director of the Central Intelligence Agency
H. Stuart Hughes (1916–1999), academic and activist
Edwin W. Martin (1917–1991), U.S. ambassador to Burma
John Edward Sawyer (1917–1995), president of Williams College
Robert Morgenthau (1919–2019), Manhattan district attorney
James Colgate Cleveland (1920–1995), U.S. congressman from New Hampshire
Thomas Hedley Reynolds (1920–2009), president of Bates College
William Zinsser (1922–2015), writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher
Gordon MacRae (1921–1986), singer and actor
Ian Barbour (1923–2013), Templeton Prize winner
Charles Merrill Jr. (1920-2017), writer, teacher and philanthropist
John Mecklin (1918–1971), writer and journalist
Classes of the 1940s
Talcott Williams Seelye (1922–2006), U.S. ambassador to Syria and Libya
John Chafee (1922–1999), U.S. senator from and governor of Rhode Island; secretary of the Navy under President Richard Nixon
David S. Dodge (1922–2009), vice-president for administration (1979–83), acting president (1981–82) and president (1996–97) of the American University in Beirut
Thomas Keating (1923–2018), monk
Arthur Nims (1923–2019), chief judge of United States Tax Court
Charles Clapp (1923–2004), judge of United States Tax Court
Dickinson R. Debevoise (1924–2015), district judge on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
John Weinberg (1925–2006), chairman of Goldman Sachs
Ogden R. Reid (1925–2019), U.S. congressman from New York, U.S. ambassador to Israel
Henry W. Kendall (1926–1999), physicist, 1990 Nobel Prize recipient
Daniel C. Searle (1926–2007), heir, CEO of G. D. Searle & Company, conservative philanthropist
John Ashbery (1927–2017), poet
James Wadsworth Symington (born 1927), U.S. congressman from Missouri
Carl Richard Woese (1928–2012), biologist, discovered archeabacteria
Allen Stack (1928–1999), gold medalist, U.S. swimmer at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London
George Quincey Lumsden Jr. (1930–2026), U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates
Gilbert Melville Grosvenor (born 1931), president of the National Geographic Society, 2004 Presidential Medal of Freedom
Malcolm H. Kerr (1931–1984), president of the American University of Beirut
John McPhee (born 1931), nonfiction writer, wrote The Headmaster, regular contributor to The New Yorker
Hoddy Hildreth (1931–2019), member of the Maine House of Representatives and conservationist; son of Governor of Maine Horace Hildreth
Classes of the 1950s
Rodman Rockefeller (1932–2000), philanthropist
Edward Hoagland (1932–2026), writer
Richard Mellon Scaife (1932–2014), billionaire Mellon family heir, and philanthropist
Nelson Doubleday Jr. (1933–2015), former owner of the publishing house Doubleday and the New York Mets
Thomas C. Reed (1934–2024), secretary of the Air Force
Warren Zimmermann (1934–2004), final U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia
Robert Hazard Edwards (1935–2025), president of Carleton College; president of Bowdoin College
James M. Banner Jr. (born 1935), historian
Steven C. Rockefeller (born 1936), philanthropist
Frederick Louis "Fritz" Maytag III (born 1937), former owner of Anchor Brewing Company
Kit Bond (born 1939), U.S. senator from and governor of Missouri
Eric Widmer (1940–2025), headmaster of Deerfield Academy; headmaster of King's Academy
David H. Koch (1940–2019), billionaire, Libertarian vice-presidential candidate in 1984
David Childs (1941–2025), architect
Classes of the 1960s
Don Abbey, real estate businessman
Bruce Faulkner Caputo (born 1943), U.S. congressman from New York
Robert Beavers (born 1949), experimental filmmaker
Pete Varney (born 1949), Major League Baseball player
Stephen G. Smith (born 1949), journalist
Steven Brill (born 1950), journalist and publisher
Edwin S. Grosvenor (born 1951), editor and publisher
Peter Gabel (1947–2022), law academic and associate editor of Tikkun, son of actors Arlene Francis and Martin Gabel
Howie Carr (born 1952), journalist and radio host
Winthrop H. Smith Jr. (born 1949), former executive vice president of Merrill; chairman of Merrill Lynch International, Inc.
Classes of the 1970s
Stephen Hannock (born 1951), painter
Jeffrey Bewkes (born 1953), CEO of Time Warner
Nigel Newton (born 1955), publisher, founder of Bloomsbury Publishing
Kerry Emanuel (born 1955), scholar
Buddy Teevens (1956–2023), head football coach at Dartmouth College
Ken Bentsen Jr. (born 1959), U.S. congressman from Texas
Prince Alexander-Georg von Auersperg (born 1959), son of Sunny von Bulow; member of the aristocratic principality of Auersperg
Haun Saussy (born 1960), scholar
Classes of the 1980s
King Abdullah II al-Hussein of Jordan (born 1962)
Robert M. McDowell (born 1963), commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission 2006–2013
Adam S. Weinberg (born 1965), president of Denison University
Matthew Fox (born 1966), actor
Mark Rockefeller (born 1967), philanthropist
Mike Trombley (born 1967), Major League Baseball player
Nestor Carbonell (born 1967), actor
Craig Janney (born 1967), NHL player
Chris Waddell (born 1968), gold medalist Paralympic skier
Ted Ullyot, former Facebook general counsel, partner at Andreessen Horowitz
Milton Sands III (born c.
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