This list of Colby College alumni includes graduates, non-graduate former students, current students, and honorary degree recipients of Colby College. Colby, which was founded in 1813, has a total of more than 25,000 living alumni.[ citation needed ]
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Julius Dresser | ex-1860 | Philosopher | |
| Charles Branch Wilson | 1884 | Scientist, marine biologist | [9] |
| Fenwicke Holmes | 1906 | Author, congregational minister, and religious science leader | |
| Harold Calvin Marston Morse | 1914 | Mathematician | |
| Paul Wallace Gates | 1924 | United States land policy historian and author | [10] |
| Doris Kearns Goodwin | 1964 | Presidential scholar and historian; notable works include the Pulitzer Prize-winning No Ordinary Time (1995) and Team of Rivals (2005) | |
| Arthur G. Miller | 1964 | Professor in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park | |
| Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. | 1970 | Maine State Historian | |
| Alan Taylor (historian) | 1977 | Scholar in early Colonial America history and Pulitzer Prize winner | |
| Craig A. Carlson | 1986 | Oceanographer |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Levine | 1946 | Painter | [11] |
| Loring Buzzell | 1948 | Music publisher and record label executive | [12] |
| Gordon W. Bowie | 1965 | Musician | [13] |
| Rocco Landesman | 1969 | Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts | |
| Kathy O'Dell | 1973 | art historian, theorist, curator, arts advocate, author | |
| Tim O'Brien (musician) | ex-1973 | Country and bluegrass musician | |
| Tom Silverman | 1976 | Founder of hip-hop record label Tommy Boy Entertainment | |
| Arthur Levering | 1976 | Composer | |
| Lincoln Peirce | 1985 | Cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Big Nate | |
| Daniel Raymont | 1991 | Hollywood character actor | [14] |
| Billy Bush | 1994 | Host of Access Hollywood , former host of Let's Make a Deal and The Billy Bush Show | [15] |
| Mike Daisey | 1996 | Monologuist, solo performer and author |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Haggerty | 1897 | Head football coach at University of Akron, 1910 to 1914 | |
| Jack Coombs | 1906 | Two-time World Champion Major League Baseball Player; Manager (Philadelphia Phillies and Duke University) | |
| Elbridge Ross | 1935 | Medalist at the 1936 Winter Olympics in hockey | [16] |
| Norm Gigon | 1958 | Major League Baseball player for the Chicago Cubs | [17] |
| Ed Phillips (pitcher) | 1966 | Major League Baseball pitcher for the 1970 Boston Red Sox | |
| Jan Volk | 1968 | General Manager of the Boston Celtics, 1984-1997 | |
| Sebsibe Mamo | 1970 | Ethiopian athlete; competed at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics | [16] |
| Greg Cronin | 1986 | Assistant Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2011–present | |
| Mike McRae (baseball) | 1981 | Head coach of the Canisius Golden Griffins baseball team, 2005–present | [18] |
| Eric DeCosta | 1993 | Executive Vice President and General Manager, Baltimore Ravens | |
| Hilary Gehman | 1993 | Olympic rower, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004; World Rowing Championships medalist | [16] |
| Brian O'Halloran (baseball) | 1993 | General Manager of the Boston Red Sox | |
| Mark Jackson (American football coach) | 1994 | Athletic director for the Villanova University | |
| Meaghan Sittler | 1998 | Hockey player for the Brampton Thunder and the United States women's national ice hockey team | [19] |
| Courtney Kennedy | ex-2001 | Olympic medalist on the United States women's national ice hockey team, 2002 and 2006 | |
| Warner Nickerson | 2005 | Alpine skier | [20] |
| Dan Vassallo | 2007 | Distance runner | [21] |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ivory Quinby | 1836 | Businessman and philanthropist | [22] |
| J. Young Scammon | 1869 | Lawyer, banker, and newspaper publisher | [23] |
| Herbert Elijah Wadsworth | 1892 | Businessman | |
| Albert Stone | 1951 | Owner of Sterilite | [24] |
| Frank R. Wallace | 1954 | Owner of Integrated Management Associates | |
| Lawrence Pugh | 1956 | former CEO of the VF Corporation | |
| Tom Whidden | 1970 | President of North Sails, 1992–present | [25] |
| Robert Diamond | 1973 | Former chief executive officer of Barclays Bank, Plc. | |
| Edson Mitchell | 1975 | Director, Deutsche Bank | [26] |
| Eric S. Rosengren | 1979 | President and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | |
| Dawn Sweeney | 1981 | President and chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association | [27] |
| Michael Federle | 1981 | Chief Executive Officer of the Forbes Media | [27] |
| Chip Smith | 1991 | Co-founder of The Glover Park Group | |
| Jason J. Hogg | 1993 | Founder of Revolution Money | [28] |
| Mira Murati | 2011 | CTO and former interim CEO of OpenAI | |
| Alice Mason | Manhattan real estate broker | [29] [30] |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Hutchinson Rowe | c.1900 | Historian and author | [31] |
| Roland Gammon | 1937 | Religious author and ad-man | |
| Thomas Savage (novelist) | 1940 | Novelist | |
| Alvin Schwartz (children's author) | 1949 | Author of the series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark | [32] |
| Robert B. Parker | 1954 | Author of the Spenser detective novels | |
| Joe Perham | 1955 | Humorist | [33] |
| Annie Proulx | ex-1957 | Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain | |
| Don J. Snyder | 1968 | Novelist and screenwriter | [34] |
| Gregory White Smith | 1973 | Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Jackson Pollock: An American Saga | [35] |
| Neil Raymond Ricco | 1970s | Poet and writer | [36] |
| Jeff Gottesfeld | 1977 | novelist, Anne Frank and Me ; screen/TV writer, The Young and the Restless | |
| Alan Taylor (historian) | 1977 | Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize-winning author and historian specializing in early American history | |
| Jane Brox | 1978 | Author and 2007 Guggenheim Fellow | [37] |
| Geoffrey Becker | 1980 | Short story writer | [38] |
| Linda Greenlaw | 1983 | Author of Hungry Ocean (captain of the Hannah Boden, sister ship to the Andrea Gail which went down in The Perfect Storm 1991) | |
| Erika Mailman | 1991 | Author and journalist | [39] |
| Cecily von Ziegesar | 1992 | Novelist, creator of Gossip Girl series | |
| Stephanie Doyon | 1993 | Novelist, best known for The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole | [40] |
| Sarah Langan | 1996 | Bram Stoker Award-winning novelist | [7] |
| Drew Magary | 1998 | Writer for Deadspin and GQ magazine; author of The Postmortal and Someone Could Get Hurt | [41] |
| Rosecrans Baldwin | 1999 | Novelist and essayist, co-founder of The Morning News | |
| David Barr Kirtley | 2000 | Science fiction author and co-founder of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Horace Lorimer | 1898 | Editor-in-chief of The Saturday Evening Post | |
| John Roderick (correspondent) | 1937 | Correspondent for the Associated Press | |
| Dwight E. Sargent | 1939 | Editorial writer for The New York Herald Tribune , 1951 Nieman Fellow | |
| Elliot G. Jaspin | 1969 | 1979 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting | [42] |
| Stuart Rothenberg | 1970 | editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, CNN political analyst, and syndicated columnist | |
| Ben Bradlee Jr. | 1970 | Investigative journalist and bestselling author | [43] |
| Robert S. Capers | 1971 | 1992 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting | [44] |
| Stéphane Cornicard | 1988 | Film actor and director | [45] |
| Andrea Nix Fine | 1991 | Oscar winner, 2013 Best Documentary Short Subject | [46] |
| Amy Walter | 1991 | Political Director of ABC News, former house editor for the Cook Political Report , Editor in Chief of The Hotline | |
| Dan Harris (journalist) | 1993 | ABC News anchor and reporter | |
| Billy Bush | 1994 | TV personality and nephew of President George H. W. Bush | |
| Hannah Beech | 1995 | Journalist for Time magazine | |
| Sarah Lee (reporter) | 1995 | Washington DC news reporter | |
| Matt Apuzzo | 2000 | 2012 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting | [47] |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percival Bonney | 1863 | Maine Superior Court Judge, 1878-1906 | [51] |
| Leslie C. Cornish | 1875 | Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, 1917-1925 | |
| Warren C. Philbrook | 1882 | Mayor of Waterville 1899–1900, Maine Attorney General, 1909–10, Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, 1913-1928 | [52] |
| Hugh Dean McLellan | 1895 | Federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts | |
| Nathaniel Tompkins | 1903 | Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, 1945-1949 | [53] |
| Joseph Jabar | 1968 | Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, 2009–present | [54] |
| Kenneth R. Melvin | 1974 | Circuit Court Judge and member of the Virginia House of Delegates | [55] |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Cony | ex-1829 | 31st Governor of Maine, 1864-1867 | [56] |
| George A. Ramsdell | ex-1857 | 46th Governor of New Hampshire 1897-1899 | [49] |
| Harris M. Plaisted | 1853 | Governor of Maine 1881-1883 | |
| Llewellyn Powers | ex-1861 | Governor of Maine 1901-1908 | [49] |
| Marcellus Stearns | 1863 | Governor of Florida 1874-1877 | [49] |
| Janet T. Mills | ex-1965 | Governor of Maine 2019–present | [49] |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albert G. Jewett | 1823 | United States Chargé d'Affaires to Peru 1845-1847 | |
| Elijah P. Lovejoy | 1826 | Abolitionist | |
| Manly B. Townsend | 1828 | Maine State Senator | [57] |
| Edgar Harkness Gray | 1838 | Baptist clergyman and former Chaplain of the Senate | |
| Leonard Swett | c. 1840-45 | close friend of President Lincoln and an organizer for the 1860 Chicago Republican National Convention | |
| Josiah Hayden Drummond | 1846 | 16th Attorney General of Maine, 1860-1863 | |
| Isaac Smith Kalloch | 1852 | Baptist minister, founder and first president of Ottawa University, mayor of San Francisco, California | |
| Cyrus Hamlin (general) | 1859 | General in the Union Army | [58] |
| Bartlett Tripp | ex-1861 | Ambassador to Austria 1893-1897 | [49] |
| Henry C. Merriam | ex-1862 | United States Army general awarded Medal of Honor | |
| Edwin Francis Lyford | 1877 | Massachusetts State Senator, 1894 | [59] |
| Herbert Lord | 1884 | Director of the United States Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget), 1922-1929 | |
| Byron Boyd | 1886 | Secretary of State of Maine, 1897 to 1907 | [60] |
| Holman Day | 1887 | Military secretary to the Governor of Maine John Fremont Hill, 1901-1904 | |
| Merton L. Miller | 1890 | Acting Chief of the Ethnological Survey for the Philippine Islands | |
| George Otis Smith | 1893 | Director of United States Geological Survey, 1907–1922, first chairman of the Federal Power Commission | |
| Robert N. Anthony | 1938 | United States Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), 1965-1968 | [61] |
| Rachel Bubar Kelly | 1947 | Prohibition Party candidate for United States Vice President | |
| Robert S. Gelbard | 1964 | United States Ambassador to Bolivia (1988–1991) and United States Ambassador to Indonesia (1999–2001) | |
| Peter D. Hart | 1964 | founder of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, a political polling organization | |
| Pete Rouse | 1968 | Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, former Chief of Staff to Tom Daschle | |
| Patrick Duddy | 1972 | United States Ambassador to Venezuela 2007-2010 | |
| Arthur L. Bell | 1974 | Maine state representative | [62] |
| David Lemoine | 1978 | State Treasurer of Maine 2005-2010 | |
| David Linsky | 1979 | Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
| Peter Forman | 1980 | Minority Leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1991-1995 | [63] |
| Christopher Mellon | 1980 | Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 1989-1999 | |
| Thomas A. Betro | 1981 | Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service 2006 - 2010 | |
| Daniel Shagoury | 1982 | Maine House of Representatives | [64] |
| Dana Hanley | 1984 | Member of the Maine Senate, 1992-1996 | [65] |
| Paul Doyle (politician) | 1985 | Connecticut Senator from the Ninth District | [66] |
| Sean McCormack | 1986 | Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and U.S. State Department Spokesman | |
| Daniel K. Webster | 1987 | Massachusetts State Representatives, 2003-2013 | [67] |
| Michael Marcello | 1990 | Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives 2009–present | [68] |
| J. Patrick O'Neill | 1993 | Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives 2005–present | [69] |
| Andrew Monroe Rice | 1996 | 2008 Democratic nominee, candidate, United States Senate (Oklahoma) (lost to Senator James Inhofe) | |
| Devin Beliveau | 2001 | Maine State Representative from District 151, 2010-2012 | |
| Linwood E. Palmer Jr. | Maine Legislator, Candidate, Maine Governor, 1978 | ||
| Daniel T. Jewett | Republican US Senator (Missouri) 1870–71, Missouri State Representative | ||
| Elizabeth Hanson | 2002 | CIA Officer killed in the Camp Chapman attack, Afghanistan | |
| Lot M. Morrill | U.S. Senator (1861–69), Governor of Maine (1857–1861), Treasury Secretary (1876–77) | ||
| Brendan Crighton | 2005 | Massachusetts State Senator, 2018–Present | [70] |
| Charles L. Phillips | 1878 | U.S. Army brigadier general | [71] [72] |
| Name | Class | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Boardman (missionary) | 1822 | First Graduate of Colby College, Baptist missionary | |
| Horace G. Cates | Los Angeles County, California, coroner | [73] | |
| Mary Caffrey Low | 1875 | Founder, Sigma Kappa sorority | |
| Elizabeth Gorham Hoag | Founder, Sigma Kappa sorority | ||
| Ida Fuller | Founder, Sigma Kappa sorority | ||
| Frances Elliott Mann Hall | Founder, Sigma Kappa sorority | ||
| Louise Helen Coburn | Founder, Sigma Kappa sorority | ||
| Arthur B. Patten | 1890 | United States Congregational Church clergyman | |
| Bern Porter | 1932 | Artist and scientist | [74] |
| Stephen Sternberg | 1941 | Pathologist and author | |
| Myron "Pinky" Thompson | 1950 | Trustee of the Bishop Estate (now known as Kamehameha Schools), President of the Polynesian Voyaging Society | |
| Riki Ott | 1976 | Marine toxicologist oil spill expert | |
| Savas (Zembillas) of Pittsburgh | 1979 | Bishop of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh | |
| Wylie Dufresne | 1992 | Chef and owner of wd~50 restaurant in New York City, featured as a judge on Top Chef | |
| Tara Allain | 2008 | Miss Maine 2007 | |