List of St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) people

The following is a list of notable individuals associated with St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland and/or Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Faculty

• Douglas Allanbrook, tutor, musician and composer
• Wye Jamison Allanbrook, tutor, musicologist
• Eva Brann, tutor, dean; 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal
• James M. Cain, novelist; professor of journalism 1923–24
• Elliott Carter, composer; tutor, 1939–1941
• William Hersey Hopkins academic, first president of Goucher College, former acting president of St. John's College
• Leon Kass, tutor at the college (1972–76); chair of the President's Council on Bioethics (2002–06)
• Jacob Klein, tutor, dean; author of Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra and Commentary on Plato's Meno; leading 20th-century Platonist
• Sara Larkin, artist; creator of Spacescapes
• Leo Strauss (1899–1973), political philosopher; lectured at St. John's and was the Scott Buchanan Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Annapolis campus
• Victor Zuckerkandl, tutor, music theorist

Students and Alumni

This includes graduates of both the Undergraduate and Graduate programs.

Academics

• Rogers Albritton, philosopher; served as the chairman of both Harvard and UCLA's philosophy departments
• Amber E. Boydstun, political scientist and data scientist
• Joseph J. Himmel, Jesuit missionary and president of Georgetown University
• Thomas J.J. Altizer, theologian, author of The Gospel of Christian Atheism
• John Bremer, educator, philosopher, author; after graduating from Oxford University, he came to St. John's College in 1951 on a Fulbright Fellowship
• Graham Harman, philosopher
• Mark D. Jordan, alumnus; Andrew Mellon Professor, Harvard Divinity School; scholar of gender studies, sexual ethics, and theology
• Wilfred M. McClay, intellectual historian
• Ange Mlinko, poet and critic. Guggenheim Fellow 2014–15, Poetry Editor of the Nation, associate professor at the University of Florida
• Tom G. Palmer, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute
• Ben Sasse, president, University of Florida
• Pamela Sklar (1959–2017), psychiatrist and neuroscientist
• Louis Leo Snyder (1907–1993), German scholar and historian

Writers, critics, and journalists

• Michael Anton, writer; former Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications.
• Seth Cropsey, Director of the Center for American Seapower at the Hudson Institute; regular contributor to the National Review
• Robert A. George, journalist and news columnist
• William Kowalski, author, Eddie's Bastard, Somewhere South of Here, The Adventures of Flash Jackson, The Good Neighbor
• Andrew Krivak, author, National Book Award nominee for The Sojourn
• Kenneth Kronberg, printing company owner, former LaRouche movement member
• Tony Lagouranis, activist and author of Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq
• Lydia Polgreen, Editor-in-Chief for The Huffington Post, 2006 winner of the George Polk Award
• James Portnow writer, game designer, co-founder of the Extra Credits YouTube channel.
• Salvatore Scibona, alumnus and author, 2008 National Book Award finalist for his first novel The End; his fiction has appeared in many literary journals; named one of "20 under 40" notable authors by The New Yorker in 2010 and published an essay about his experience at the college in the June 13, 2011 issue
• Lisa Simeone, National Public Radio host
• Charles Van Doren, garnered notoriety for his involvement in the rigged game show Twenty-One
• Cecelia Watson, alumna and author of Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark
• Jennifer Wright, alumnus and author
• John C. Wright, alumnus and author

Military personnel

• Lewis J. Fields (1909–1988), United States Marine Corps Lieutenant general
• William H. Harrison (1896–1955), brigadier general in the Marine Corps during World War II
• Erik S. Kristensen (1972–2005), U.S. Navy Seal, attended Graduate Institute in Annapolis, killed in action in Afghanistan
• James B. Lockwood (1852–1884), American army officer and arctic explorer.
• Robert Houston Noble, U.S. Army brigadier general, honorary Master of Arts, 1894
• Reginald H. Ridgely Jr. (1902–1979), U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general, POW during World War II

Politicians

• Michael Anton, essayist, speechwriter and former private-equity executive who previously a senior national security official
• Joshua J. Cohen, Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland
• Clement Dorsey, Congressman for Maryland's 1st congressional district, 1825–31
• Alexander Contee Hanson, Congressman for Maryland's 3rd District, 1813–1816
• Emerson Harrington, Governor of Maryland
• J. T. C. Hopkins (1843–1922), Maryland state delegate
• Reverdy Johnson, statesman and Jurist, defense attorney of Sandford in the Dred Scott Case
• Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš, Prime Minister of Latvia, 2019-2023
• John Leeds Kerr, U.S. Representative, Maryland's 7th District
• Francis Scott Key, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; lyricist of the United States national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner
• Daniel Martin, Governor of Maryland, 1829–1830, 1831
• Keith Neville, 18th Governor of Nebraska, 1917–1919
• Thomas Parran Jr., sixth Surgeon General of the United States
• William Pinkney (1764–1822), 7th Attorney General of the United States
• Lucy Tamlyn, U.S. Ambassador to Benin
• Francis Thomas, Governor of Maryland, 1842–44; member of House of Representatives, 1861–69
• Dr. Tobias Watkins (1780-1855), 4th Auditor of the United States Treasury, writer, editor, and physician
• Osborne I. Yellott (1871–1922), state delegate and lawyer

Filmmakers and musicians

• Dimitri Devyatkin, Emmy-nominated video artist and filmmaker
• Ahmet Ertegün, founded Atlantic Records in 1947
• Jac Holzman, founded Elektra Records in 1950 while a student at St. John's
• Eilen Jewell, blues and Americana singer/songwriter with five albums (as of 2011)
• Jonathan D. Krane, film producer, Look Who's Talking, Face/Off
• Jeremy Leven, author, screenwriter and director whose works include Don Juan DeMarco
• Lhasa de Sela, singer-songwriter
• Glenn Yarbrough, original lead tenor of The Limeliters
• Lee David Zlotoff, creator of MacGyver; director of The Spitfire Grill (1996), which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival

Businesspeople

• James H. Frame, computer programming pioneer at IBM, and former vice president of software at ITT; founded James Frame Enterprises (JFE), a software development consulting company
• Eugene V. Thaw, American art dealer and collector
• Warren Winiarski, founder of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Chefs

• Daniel Rose (chef) Chef with restaurants in Paris (Spring, La Bourse et la Vie) and New York City (Le Coucou)
• Miyoko Schinner, American chef, cookbook author, animal sanctuary founder and owner of cheese brand Miyoko's Creamery

Scientists

• Cynthia Keppel, physicist
• Aron Wall 2019 Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize for fundamental insights about quantum information, quantum field theory and gravity.

Board Members

• Austin Ligon, co-founder/CEO (retired), CarMax, Inc.
• James T. Woodward, banker and owner of a major Thoroughbred horse dynasty and member of St. John's board of visitors, recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1909; namesake of Woodward Hall

References