List of Wittenberg University alumni

Following is a list of notable Wittenberg University alumni.

Art and architecture

• George Izenour (BA, 1934; MA 1936), theatre designer, author, and educator
• Jennifer Vanderpool, visual artist
• Helen Bosart Morgan Wagstaff, artist, first president of the Springfield Art Association

Business

• Ben J. Phalen, Salesman at Google responsible for introducing 'Buffalo' to the company
• Ronald Fook Shiu Li, founder of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ^[1]
• William C. Martin, founder, Bank of Ann Arbor; founder, First Martin Corp.; former president of the United States Olympic Committee, University of Michigan athletic director
• Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation
• Adam Willis Wagnalls, Funk & Wagnalls Company co-founder

Clergy

• Lloyd C. Douglas, minister and author
• Robert J. Marshall, president of the Lutheran Church of America ^[2]
• ZeBarney Thorne Phillips, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, 1927–1942

Education

• Mark A. Boyer, Ph.D. 1988, Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut ^[3]
• Barry Burden, Ph.D. 1998, professor of political science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jonathan Howes (bachelor's degree 1959), Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina ^[4]
• George Philip Krapp, professor of English at Columbia University
• John Warwick Montgomery, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University, lawyer, theologian (M.Div., 1958) ^[5]
• Robert Bruce Raup, philosopher, writer, professor in the Philosophy of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
• Karl Weick, organizational theorist at the University of Michigan
• Amanda Knerr,Ph.D. (bachelor's degree), student affairs expert and co-author of The Curricular Approach to Student Affairs: A revolutionary shift for learning beyond the classroom

Entertainment

• John Chowning, American musician, inventor, and professor
• Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, television writer
• Thomas Hyland, professional blackjack player, Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee
• Pierre Lhomme, French cinematographer ^[6]
• James Rebhorn, actor
• Barbara Shearer, pianist
• Brendan Wentworth, Actor.

Government and civil service

• Fritz W. Ermarth, Director of National Security Programs at the Nixon Center
• Robert C. Henry, first African-American mayor in Ohio
• Douglas E. Lumpkin, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
• John E. McLaughlin, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, senior fellow at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and Brookings Institution

Law

• Gregory L. Frost, United States federal judge
• Peter S. Grosscup, Judge U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, 1899–1911
• James G. Johnson, justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio
• Mary Miller Johnston, judge, Superior Court of Delaware, 2003-2024
• A. John Pelander, justice of the Arizona Supreme Court
• Augustus N. Summers, Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, 1904–1911
• Shelice Tolbert, attorney in Indiana
• Charles B. Zimmerman, Associate Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, 1933 and 1934–1949

Military

• James M. Bell, (1837–1919), U.S. Army brigadier general ^{[7] [8]}
• Benjamin Thurman Hacker (1935–2003), U.S. Navy Officer, first Naval Flight Officer to achieve flag rank
• Edward Vollrath (attended 1879–1881), U.S. Army brigadier general ^[9]

Nonprofits

• Sandra Postel, founder and director of the Global Water Policy Project, environmentalist and author. ^[10]
• Jere Ratcliffe, Chief Scout Executive of Boy Scouts of America, from 1993 to 2000.

Politics

• Jennette Bradley, former Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and Ohio State Treasurer
• Albert Bryan, Governor of the United States Virgin Islands
• Jonathan Howes (bachelor's degree 1959), mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ^[4]
• Thomas D. Shepard, Los Angeles City Council member, 1961–67
• Sheila Simon, Lieutenant Governor of Illinois
• Walter L. Weaver, U.S. Representative from Ohio
• Marietje Schaake, former Member of the European Parliament and international policy director at Stanford University ^[11]

Sports

• Brian Agler, basketball coach, formerly the head coach of WNBA's Seattle Storm and Los Angeles Sparks. He now serves as Wittenberg's Athletic Director
• Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders NFL franchise, attended Wittenberg University but graduated from Syracuse University 1950
• Sandy Dukat, athlete
• Mark Henninger, football coach
• Taver Johnson, football coach
• Ron Lancaster, 4-time Grey Cup-winning CFL quarterback and coach, member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
• William C. Martin, University of Michigan athletic director, 2000–2009; founder, Bank of Ann Arbor; founder, First Martin Corp.; former president of the United States Olympic Committee
• Eldon Miller – former men's college basketball coach at Wittenberg University, Western Michigan University, Ohio State University, and the University of Northern Iowa

Science and medicine

• Paul Dressel (B.A. 1931), American educational psychologist ^[12]
• David W. Hertzog, scientist
• Elwood V. Jensen, scientist
• David Ward King, inventor of the King Road Drag
• James Marcia, psychologist of identity development
• Waldo Nelson, pediatrician and author of the Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics
• Hugh M. Raup, botanist and ecologist

Writing and journalism

• Sherwood Anderson, writer
• Isaac Kaufmann Funk, editor, lexicographer, publisher; founder of Funk & Wagnalls Company publishing firm
• Minnie Willis Baines Miller (A.M.), author
• Brandy Schillace, writer ^[13]

References

1. "Disgraced Hong Kong Stock Exchange Pioneer Ronald Li Dies Of Cancer". Forbes .
2. "Topic Galleries". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 28, 2008. Retrieved January 1, 2009.
3. "Mark A. Boyer". September 15, 2020.
4. Albers, Sarah M. (June 1, 2015). "Former Chapel Hill Mayor Jonathan Howes dies at 78". The News & Observer . Retrieved June 14, 2015.
5. "JWM's WEB SITE" . Retrieved September 10, 2012.
6. McGinn, Andrew (January 6, 2011). "The year foreign films came to Springfield". Springfield News-Sun . Retrieved January 7, 2011.
7. Leonard, John W., ed. (1908). Who's Who In Pennsylvania (Second ed.). New York, NY: L. R. Hammersly. p. 54 – via Internet Archive.
8. Twenty-Ninth Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Wittenberg College. Springfield, OH: Republic Printing Company. 1876. p. 13 – via Google Books.
9. Neff, William B. (1921). Bench and Bar of Northern Ohio. Cleveland, OH: Historical Publishing Company. p. 701 – via HathiTrust.
10. "Bio | Sandra Postel". Globalwaterpolicy.org. Retrieved March 29, 2014.
11. "FSI - Marietje Schaake to Join Stanford Cyber Policy Center and Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence in Dual Policy Roles". web.archive.org. October 2, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
12. "Paul Dressel and Family Collection". Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections. Michigan State University. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
13. Segall, Grant (March 17, 2016). "Brandy Schillace of Dittrick Medical History Center highlights birth, death and things in between: My Cleveland (photos and video)". Cleveland.com . Retrieved January 8, 2025.

External links

• Official website