List of Phillips Academy alumni
The following is a list of notable past students of Phillips Academy and of the former Abbot Academy.
A
- Hafsat Abiola, Nigerian political activist; winner of 1999 Women to Watch Award from the Association of Women's Development
- Joseph Carter Abbott, Union Army general; North Carolina congressman and lawyer
- Ernie Adams, Director of Football Research, New England Patriots
- Chris Agee, poet, essayist and editor living in Ireland
- Wallace M. Alexander, heir, corporate director, philanthropist
- Jonathan Alter, senior editor and columnist at Newsweek
- Julia Alvarez, author
- Adelbert Ames Jr., scientist
- Carl Andre, minimalist artist
- James T. Austin, 22nd Massachusetts Attorney General
B
- Thomas J. Baldrige, Pennsylvania Attorney General and Superior Court President Judge
- Sullivan Ballou, Union Soldier
- Alexander Bannwart, businessman
- Charles Barber, author on mental health and psychiatric issues
- John Barres, current Roman Catholic Bishop of Rockville Centre
- Ed Bass, Texas Billionaire Philanthropist
- Robin Batteau, composer, singer-songwriter
- James Phinney Baxter III, former president of Williams College and Pulitzer Prize winner
- Willow Bay, CNN news anchor
- Henry C. Beck III, CEO, The Beck Group
- Bruce Beemer, former Pennsylvania Attorney General and current Pennsylvania Inspector General
- Bill Belichick, coach of New England Patriots
- James Bell, New Hampshire politician and lawyer
- Charles R. Bentley, glaciologist and geophysicist
- Paul R. Berger, engineering professor and IEEE Fellow
- John Berman, CNN senior news anchor and journalist
- Michael Beschloss, historian
- Hiram Bingham III, archaeologist; rediscovered ruins of Machu Picchu
- David B. Birney, Union General in the American Civil War
- Jennifer Bishop, Baltimore-based photojournalist
- H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist
- Les Blank, independent documentary filmmaker
- Humphrey Bogart, actor
- Paul Bremer, diplomat notable for his role as Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq following the 2003 invasion
- Johnny Broaca, professional baseball player
- Richard Brodhead, president of Duke University
- Michael Burlingame, historian
- John Horne Burns, author
- Edgar Rice Burroughs, author
- George H. W. Bush, 41st U.S. President
- George W. Bush, 43rd U.S. President
- Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida
C
- Norman Cahners, publisher and athlete; qualified for 1936 Olympics but boycotted because games were held in Nazi Germany
- Jonathan G. Callahan, former Wisconsin assemblyman
- Johnson N. Camden Jr., former United States Senator from Kentucky
- Steven Cantor, film director and producer; STEP, Dancer, Chasing Tyson, Between Me and My Mind
- Isaac N. Carleton, educator and a president of the American Institute of Instruction
- Lincoln Chafee, former Rhode Island senator
- Levi Chamberlain, missionary
- Otis Chandler, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times
- Chang Hee-jin, South Korean Olympic swimmer
- Thomas Chapin, jazz saxophonist
- Sarah Chayes, expert in religious studies and former Kandahar field director
- Maro Chermayeff, Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker and Founder and Chairman of the MFA program in Social Documentary at SVA NYC /The School of Visual Arts
- Susan Chira, editor, The New York Times
- Shouson Chow, Hong Kong businessman and leader
- George M. Church, professor of genetics, Harvard Medical School; pioneer of human genetics
- Sloane Citron, magazine publisher
- Stephen Carlton Clark, art collector and philanthropist; founder of the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Christian Clemenson, Emmy Award-winning film and television actor
- Harlan Cleveland, U.S. Ambassador to NATO under President Lyndon B. Johnson
- Raymond C. Clevenger, judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Thomas Cochran, banker and philanthropist to Phillips Academy
- Edwin J. Cohn, protein scientist and blood fractionation expert
- Olivia Coffey, won the gold medal in the quad sculls at the 2015 World Rowing Championships as well as competed in 2016 Summer Olympics & The Boat Race 2018
- William Sloane Coffin, reverend and peace activist
- Donald B. Cole, instructor in history and dean of Phillips Exeter Academy
- Frank Converse, actor
- Michael Copley, musician
- Joseph Cornell, sculptor
- Justin Cronin, author
- Sumner McKnight Crosby, art historian
- Bill Cunliffe, Grammy Award-winning composer, arranger, and jazz pianist
- Peter Currie, Netscape executive, investor, and charter trustee of Phillips Academy
D
- William Damon, author, psychologist, and Stanford University educator
- Lucy Danziger, editor-in-chief of Self magazine
- John Darnton, Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times
- Robert Darnton, historian
- Benjamin Darrow, New York district attorney
- Justin Dart Jr., advocate for the rights of disabled people
- Natalie E. Dean, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Florida
- Jonathan Dee, author
- Dana Delany, actress
- Sarah Demers, physicist
- Zak DeOssie, professional football player for the New York Giants; Super Bowl-winning long snapper
- George Horatio Derby, humorist
- Norman Dodd, banker, financial adviser and head Investigator for the Reece Committee
- Tim Draper, venture capital investor and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson
- Warren Fales Draper, publisher, educator, and philanthropist; significant donor to Phillips Academy; namesake of Draper Hall and Draper Cottage
- Bill Drayton, entrepreneur, coined the phrase "social entrepreneur"
- Charles Duits, writer
- Teddy Dunn, actor
E
- Richard Eder, literary critic; winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
- Carol Edgarian, author
- Alonzo Elliot, composer
- Trey Ellis, novelist, screenwriter
- Sam Endicott, singer-songwriter and vocalist for The Bravery
- David B. Ensor, CNN correspondent
- Walker Evans, photographer
F
- Charles Finch, author
- Charles B. Finch, businessman and political activist
- Tom Finkelpearl, NYC commissioner of cultural affairs
- Paul Finnegan, co-founder of Madison Dearborn Partners
- David Fishelson, Broadway producer, playwright, filmmaker
- Charles L. Flint, lawyer, educator, first Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, fourth president of the University of Massachusetts and one of its original founders
- Thomas C. Foley, former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland
- John Murray Forbes, railroad entrepreneur and philanthropist who re-established Milton Academy
- Theodore J. Forstmann, billionaire businessman and philanthropist
- Hollis Frampton, avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, and theoretician
- Peter Franchot, State Comptroller of Maryland
- Andy Frankenberger, poker champion
- Ziwe Fumudoh, comedian
G
- Robert A. Gardner, two-time U.S. Amateur golf champion
- Jeffrey Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management
- Glenn Gass, rock 'n' roll educator
- Isaac Wheeler Geer, railroad executive
- A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale University and seventh Major League Baseball Commissioner
- Nils Gilman, historian and futurist
- Salvador Gómez-Colón, youth activist
- Stephanie Gosk, journalist and correspondent for NBC News
- David Graeber, professor of anthropology; anarchist
- Anthony Grafton, noted scholar
- Richard Theodore Greener, first African-American to graduate from Harvard College
- Horatio Greenough, sculptor known for U.S. government commissions The Rescue, George Washington, and The Discovery of America
- James Greenway, curator, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, renowned ornithologist, Lt. Commander U.S. Navy, Intelligence Officer with the Office of Naval Intelligence
- John Campbell Greenway, General, U.S. Army, Rough Rider, Intelligence officer with the Office of Naval Intelligence, Mining Magnate
- David L. Gunn, former president of Amtrak
- Philip F. Gura, William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
H
- Roderick Stephen Hall, OSS agent murdered by the SS in February 1945
- Peter Halley, artist
- George Hamlin, tenor; Victor recording artist 1905–1916
- Thomas H. Harvey Jr., U.S. Army officer and Distinguished Service Cross recipient
- Garnet Hathaway, ice hockey forward for the NHL’s Washington Capitals
- Julian Hatton, abstract landscape artist
- Brian Henson, president of Jim Henson Productions
- Samuel Prescott Hildreth, pioneer physician, scientist, and chronicler of the early settlement of the Northwest Territory
- Frank Lauren Hitchcock, MIT mathematician
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., author
- Fred A. Howland, Secretary of State of Vermont and President of National Life Insurance Company
- Thomas J. Hudner Jr., U.S. Navy officer and Medal of Honor recipient
- Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook; publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic
- Angela Hur, author
I
- Robert Ingersoll, former United States Deputy Secretary of State under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford
- Eugen Indjic, classical pianist
J
- Thomas H. Jackson, former president of the University of Rochester
- Edward Hopkins Jenkins, director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
- Clay Johnson III, deputy director of the United States Office of Management and Budget
- Osgood Johnson, 5th Principal of Phillips Academy
K
- Peter Kapetan, Broadway actor, singer, and dancer
- Marsha Kazarosian, trial attorney
- R. Crosby Kemper Jr., banker and philanthropist, namesake of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
- Charles West Kendall, U.S. Representative, lawyer, and newspaper editor
- Mel Kendrick, artist
- John F. Kennedy Jr., publisher, son of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy
- Max Kennedy, author
- Patrick J. Kennedy, former U.S. Representative from Rhode Island
- Vanessa Kerry, physician and health care administrator who founded the non-profit, Seed Global Health, daughter of John Kerry
- Prince Rahim Aga Khan, son of the Aga Khan IV
- Victor K. Kiam, businessman and owner of the New England Patriots
- Brian Kibler, game designer and professional Magic: the Gathering player
- Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize winner for Soul of the New Machine
- Richard H. Kimball, venture capitalist
- William King, first Governor of Maine
- Karl Kirchwey, poet
- Jonathan Philip Klein, dog behavior consultant
- John Kluge Jr., philanthropist, investor, son of John Kluge
- William Standish Knowles, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Lawrence Kohlberg, psychologist
- Chris Kreider, player for Boston College hockey team, and then New York Rangers
- Erik S. Kristensen, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy SEALs; killed in action during Operation Red Wings
- James Simon Kunen, author, journalist known for writing ''The Strawberry Statement''
L
- Raymond A. Lamontagne, philanthropist
- John Lardner, sports writer
- Ring Lardner Jr., Academy Award-winning screenwriter
- Frank Lavin, former Undersecretary for International Trade of the U.S. Department of Commerce
- George Ayres Leavitt, early New York publisher
- Gary Lee, journalist, travel writer
- Nate Lee, writer, senior editor of Newcity in Chicago
- Jack Lemmon, actor
- Chentung Liang Cheng, Chinese ambassador to the United States
- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, disbarred lawyer, government official, policy advisor, and novelist
- Caroline Lind, two-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing
- Gordon Lish, editor, author, and teacher
- Seth Lloyd, physicist and researcher in quantum information theory
- David Longstreth, founding member of rock band The Dirty Projectors
- Alfred Lee Loomis, pioneer of ultrasonics
- Phillips Lord, radio program writer, creator, producer and narrator
- Francis Cabot Lowell, businessman, City of Lowell, Massachusetts named after him
M
- Heather Mac Donald, political commentator
- Moses Macdonald, US Congressman
- Torbert MacDonald, lawyer and politician
- Lisa MacFarlane, principal of Phillips Exeter Academy
- April March, musician and animator
- Mozhan Marnò, actress, writer, director
- George Perkins Marsh, diplomat and philologist; credited as one of the first environmentalists
- John Marsh, early pioneer and settler in California; often regarded as the first person to practice medicine in California
- Othniel Charles Marsh, first professor of paleontology at Yale University
- Laurel Massé, founding member of The Manhattan Transfer
- Marcia McCabe, daytime television actor
- Barry R. McCaffrey, U.S. general, drug czar
- Vance C. McCormick, politician and businessman; chair of the American delegation at the Treaty of Versailles
- Walsh McDermott, medical researcher and public health doctor
- Joe McGlone, football player
- James P. McLane Jr., three-time Olympic champion
- Scott Mead, investment banker, photographer, and former partner and managing director of Goldman Sachs
- Jonathan Meath, children's TV producer and Santa Claus
- Thomas C. Mendenhall, expert of collegiate rowing and former president of Smith College
- Thomas Mesereau, attorney whose clients include Robert Blake and Michael Jackson
- Charles A. Meyer, former Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs
- Marvin Minsky, expert on artificial intelligence, robotics, and computers
- Paul Monette, author and activist
- John U. Monro, academic administrator and dean of Harvard College
- William Henry Moody, U.S. Supreme Court justice
- Edwin V. Morgan, United States Ambassador to Brazil 1912-1933
- Samuel Morse, inventor of the single-wire telegraph and Morse Code
- Seth Moulton, U.S. Congressman representing Massachusetts's 6th Congressional District
- Lachlan Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch; chairman of News Corporation
- Charles B. G. Murphy, writer and philanthropist; honored with the Charles B.G. Murphy professorship at Yale University
- Gerald Clery Murphy, artist, socialite, CEO of Mark Cross
- Patrick O. Murphy, mayor of Lowell, Massachusetts
N
- Ted Nace, computer publisher, anti-coal activist
- Joseph Hardy Neesima, founder of Doshisha University in Japan
- Sara Nelson, former editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly
- Guy Nordenson, structural engineer
- William D. Nordhaus, co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
- Lisa Anne Novelline, children's book author
O
- Jens David Ohlin, dean of Cornell Law School
- Richard O'Kane, recipient of the Medal of Honor
- Frederick Law Olmsted, architect and designer of Central Park
- Kevin Olusola, cellist and member of a cappella group Pentatonix
P
- Peter Palandjian, CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation
- Steven C. Panagiotakos, senator
- U.S. Army Major General James Parker, awarded the Medal of Honor
- Rufus Parks, Wisconsin politician
- Henry Day Penfield, mayor of Evanston, Illinois
- Jonathan Penner, actor on Survivor: Cook Islands, Survivor: Micronesia, and Survivor: Philippines
- Ross Perlin, linguist and author
- Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, early feminist author
- Gerard Piel, journalist
- Gilbert Pillsbury, forced to leave Andover after founding its first Abolitionist Society, Massachusetts State Senator
- David Pingree, MacArthur Award-winning Brown University writer
- Katie Porter, U.S. Congresswoman representing California's 45th Congressional District
- Jane Pratt, publisher, founder of Jane magazine
Q
- Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston, 1823–1828; president of Harvard College, 1828-1845
R
- Sarah Rafferty, actress
- Herbert H. Ramsay, attorney and president of the United States Golf Association who created many of the standards used in professional golfing
- Henry Riggs Rathbone, congressman and lawyer from Illinois; his parents were with Abraham Lincoln when he was shot at Ford's Theater
- C. Cybele Raver, developmental psychologist
- Paul Reardon, Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- DeForest Richards, fifth Governor of Wyoming
- Pete Robbins, jazz saxophonist
- Robin L. Rosenberg, U.S. District Court Judge
- Charles Ruff, lawyer who defended Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial in 1999
- Richard S. Rust, forced to leave Andover after founding its first Abolitionist Society, founder of Wilberforce University, namesake of Rust College
- Frederic Rzewski, composer and pianist
S
- Charles G. Sawtelle, U.S. Army brigadier general
- Stacy Schiff, journalist, biographer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her biography of Véra Nabokov
- G. David Schine, entrepreneur, businessman, and political activist
- Will Scharf, Assistant to the President and White House Staff Secretary
- Pierce Schenck, business executive from Dayton, Ohio
- Cory Schneider, New Jersey Devils goaltender
- Peter Sellars, theater director
- Tanya Selvaratnam, author, actor, producer, and activist
- Robert B. Semple Jr., associate editor for the New York Times; Pulitzer Prize winner for environmental editorial writing
- James Shannon, former U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and former Massachusetts Attorney General
- Duncan Sheik, musician
- Charles Sheldon, leader of the Social Gospel movement
- George Pearson Smith, co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Peter Plympton Smith, assistant director-general for education at UNESCO and first president of California State University, Monterey Bay
- Andong Song, first China-born hockey player to be drafted in the National Hockey League
- James Spader, actor
- Lyman Spitzer, physicist
- Benjamin Spock, pediatrician
- Brandon Stafford, Tufts University lecturer
- Alfred E. Stearns, educator and 9th Headmaster of Phillips Academy
- Robert B. Stearns, founder of Bear Stearns
- Joshua Steiner, financier
- Frank Stella, painter
- Alexander Stille, journalist
- Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of State under President Hoover, Secretary of War under Presidents Taft, F. Roosevelt and Truman
- John Frank Stimson, Antropologist & Linguist in French Polynesia
- William H. Sumner, son of Governor Increase Sumner; graduated from Harvard College in 1799; practiced law; general in the Massachusetts militia; wrote The History of East Boston
- Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army general during World War II
- William Irvin Swoope, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania
T
- Oscar Tang, Chinese-American investment banker and philanthropist; chairman of Board of Trustees of Phillips Academy and largest donor in Phillips Academy history
- William Davis Taylor, publisher and chair of the Boston Globe
- Thomas D. Thacher, one-time Solicitor General of the United States
- Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor of Newsweek
- Nicholas Thompson, Editor in Chief of Wired
- William R. Timken, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany under George W. Bush
- Rufus Tobey, founder of Tufts Childrens Hospital
- William Tong, Connecticut state representative
- Alexander Trowbridge, U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Lyndon Johnson; former president, National Association of Manufacturers
- Augustus Trowbridge, physicist and Princeton University professor
- Ming Tsai, chef and restaurateur
U
- Robert Uihlein Jr., businessman and polo player
- James Ramsey Ullman, writer and mountaineer
V
- Caroline Van Zile, third solicitor general of Washington, D.C.
- Bill Veeck, former owner of the Chicago White Sox
- Willard Lamb Velie, grandson of John Deere; developed advanced engines for automobiles and airplanes
- William Vickrey, awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1996
- James von Klemperer, architect
W
- Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of Bhutan
- Daniel S. Weld, professor of Computer Science at the University of Washington
- Theodore Dwight Weld, abolitionist
- George Whipple, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1933 for cure for pernicious anemia
- George M. Whitesides, professor of chemistry at Harvard University
- Reed Whittemore, poet and twice Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
- Olivia Wilde, actress
- Andrew Wilson, American national team swimmer, world championship gold medalist
- Dick Wolf, Emmy Award-winning television producer of Miami Vice and Law & Order
- Dudley Wolfe, yachtsman, skier and mountaineer
- Michael M. Wood, former United States Ambassador to Sweden
- Francesca Woodman, photographer
- Leonard Woods, fourth president of Bowdoin College
- Christopher A. Wray, Director of the FBI
- Philip K. Wrigley, manufacturer of Wrigley's Chewing Gum
- Timothy Wynter, competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics
Y
- Tachi Yamada, president of the Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Jesse Colin Young, musician
- Carissa Yip, 4-time and current U.S. Women's Chess Champion
Z
- Dan Zanes, member of The Del Fuegos and children's music writer
- Eric Zinterhoffer, husband to Aerin Lauder and venture capitalist