List of Linfield University people

Alumni and former students

Art and entertainment

• Reid Blackburn, American photographer killed in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington
• Jenna Brister, stand-up comedian and screenwriter who wrote A Perfect Christmas Pairing, The Perfect Wedding Match, and Killer Twin
• Aparna Brielle, actress
• Jessie G, Nashville-based country singer/songwriter signed to Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Records"
• Laura Gibson, musician
• Homer Groening, Canadian-American filmmaker, advertiser, writer, and cartoonist. He was also the father of Matt Groening and inspired the name of Homer Simpson.
• Abigail Heringer, contestant on the 25th season of The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise. Heringer was the first hearing-impaired contestant on the show.
• Shane McRae, American poet who received the Whiting Award in 2011 and is currently poetry editor of Image
• Patrick Nickell, American sculptor and visual artist
• Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter's Daughter, and The Kitchen God's Wife
• Ryan Welch, owner and creative director of AO Films, and creator of documentary Alaskan Nets, which won awards at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival and Bend Film Festival.

Politics

• Joe Medicine Crow, Crow historian, last surviving Plains Indian war chief, and WWII veteran who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Phillip Bond, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology and chief of staff to Commerce Secretary Don Evans
• Jan L. Lee, politician who served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 2001 to 2003
• Grant Sawyer, 21st governor of Nevada

Sports

• Roger Baker, member of the U.S. Olympic handball team in 1972 and 1976
• Scott David Brosius, former Major League Baseball third baseman for the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees ; 1998 World Series MVP
• Jennifer Butcher, member of the U.S. Paralympic Swim Team, winning bronze at the 2000 and 2004 Paralympic Games
• Paul Dombroski, former National Football League defensive back. He was one of the few people of Okinawan descent to play in the NFL.
• Mark Few, basketball coach at Gonzaga University, assistant from 1989 to 1999 and head coach since 1999; attended Linfield before transferring to the University of Oregon, where he eventually earned his degree
• , 11-time USA pickleball national champion and founding member of the International Pickleball Teaching Professional Association who was inducted into the Pickleball Hall of Fame in 2022
• Craig Howard, head football coach of Southern Oregon University. Led SOU to school's first NAIA National Championship. Inducted into the SOU Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.
• Randy Mueller, former general manager for the Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints, with over two decades of NFL front office experience; former sports analyst for ESPN
• Ad Rutschman, head football coach, baseball coach, and athletic director of Linfield College; the only college coach at any level to have won national titles in both football and baseball; currently serves as kick-off return coach for the Linfield football team
• Sharon Shepherd, shot put and discus thrower who served as an alternate for the U.S. Track and Field Team in the 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games
• Fred von Appen, retired football coach known for his head coaching stint with the University of Hawaii at Mānoa from 1996 to 1998 and for serving as an assistant coach on a number of NFL and college coaching staffs

Business and law

• Peter Clem, media executive and vice president at Warner Brothers Discovery
• Jason Hoff, head of worldwide quality and former CEO/President of of Mercedes-Benz
• Augustus C. Kinney, longtime physician in Astoria, Oregon, and noted expert on tuberculosis at the turn of the 20th century
• Michelle Johnston Holthaus, co-CEO for Intel and CEO of Intel Products
• Susie Kuhn, president of Wolverine Worldwide Active Brand Group
• Thomas Allen McBride, 20th chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, serving three times as chief between 1913 and 1927; overall, he served on Oregon's highest court from 1909 till his death in 1930
• William Marion Ramsey, 43rd associate justice of the Oregon Supreme Court in the United States from 1913 to 1915; first dean of Willamette University College of Law; mayor of Salem, Oregon, and McMinnville, Oregon

Medicine and science

• Ruben Ayala, chief of policy and advocacy for Operation Smile
• Jessica (Saling) Gill, leading researcher on traumatic brain injuries and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Elected to the National Academy of Medicine in October 2021.
• Jerilynn Prior, endocrinologist and leader in understanding and treating perimenopause and menopause

Science and technology

• Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds, American ecologist, biologist, and author of Not Just Trees. She studied the Saddleback Mountain research site from 1935 to 1969.
• Donald Firesmith, American software engineer, consultant, and trainer at the Software Engineering Institute
• Landon Curt Noll, an American computer scientist, co-discoverer of the 25th Mersenne prime and discoverer of the 26th.
• Marian Pettibone, curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History invertebrate zoology department from 1963-1978. She has 33 species and 3 genera named after her.
• Raemer Schreiber, experimental physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and helped develop the atom and hydrogen bombs.

Education

• Shawn Chen, Chinese-American businessman and founder of Sias University in Zhengzhou, China
• Raymond Culver, fourth president of Shimer College
• Peter Ellefson, trombonist and professor of music at Indiana University Bloomington
• Lorie A. Fridell, American criminologist known for her research on police and racial profiling and associate professor at the University of South Florida
• Susan Hyde, professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley
• Shanto Iyengar, professor of political science at Stanford University
• Kenneth Scott Latourette, professor emeritus at Yale University and eminent scholar of Christianity and Chinese history
• Daniel O'Leary, organic chemist at Pomona College
• Rob Saxton, educational administrator who served from 2012 to 2015 as Oregon's first executive "Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction," the chief administrator of the Oregon Department of Education
• Muneo Yoshikawa, Japanese professor, author, researcher and consultant known for intercultural communication work, including the double-swing model

Wine

• Jody Bogle, co-owner and vice president of consumer relations of Bogle Vineyards
• Remy Drabkin, winemaker of Remy Wines, creator of the Queer Wine Festival and former mayor of McMinnville, Oregon

Employees (current and former)

Current

• Steve Simmons, American soccer coach, MLS professional match evaluator and MLS grassroots instructor
• Joseph Smith, football coach and former player
• Joe Wilkins, author of Fall Back Down When I Die, The Mountain and the Fathers, and four poetry collections

Former

• John Wesley Johnson, professor at Linfield from 1863 to 1867 and later president of the University of Oregon
• Jane McIlroy, Linfield professor and athletic director for 32 years who was recognized as the first woman in the United States to govern a college athletic program by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in 1982
• Lynwood W. Swanson, professor of chemistry and academic dean 1968–73, co-founder and chairman of FEI Company

Other notable people

• Edith Green, U.S. representative, serving 10 terms from 1955 to 1974 and authored Title IX. Green served on the Linfield College Board of Trustees and received an honorary degree from the college in 1964.
• Albin Walter Norblad Jr., served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly as a representative for one term ; member of the board of trustees of Linfield College
• Fred Rogers, better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host; he received an honorary degree from the college in 1982.

College and university presidents (1857-present)

Presidents of McMinnville College

• 1857-60: George C. Chandler
• 1864-67: John W. Johnson
• 1873: J. D. Robb
• 1873-76: Mark Bailey
• 1876-77: John E. Magers
• 1877-78: Ep Roberts
• 1878-81: J. G. Burchett
• 1881-87: E.C. Anderson
• 1887-96: Truman G. Brownson
• 1896-1903: Harry L. Boardman
• 1903-05: A. M. Brumback
• 1905-06: Emanuel Northup, interim
• 1906-31: Leonard W. Riley

Presidents of Linfield College

• 1931-32: William R. Frerichs, interim
• 1932-38: Elam J. Anderson
• 1938-43: William G. Everson
• 1943-68: Harry L. Dillin
• 1968, 1974: Winthrop W. Dolan, interim
• 1968-74: Gordon C. Bjork
• 1974-75: Cornelius Siemens, interim
• 1975-92: Charles U. Walker
• 1992-2005: Vivian A. Bull
• 2005-06: Marvin Henberg, interim
• 2006–2018: Thomas L. Hellie
• 2018-2020: Miles K. Davis

Presidents of Linfield University

• 2020–2023: Miles K. Davis
• 2024-2025: Rebecca "Becky" Johnson, interim
• 2025-present: Mark Blegen